Progress and Process

This is how far I've got with item 2 on my to do list (see right).  I have twenty sampler blocks so I'm creating five rows of four blocks, adding sashing, layering and tacking them and then I'm going to quilt each row before joining the whole thing together.  I hope this will mean I have manageable pieces of work to quilt.  I've got three rows done and I've run out of basting pins.  Oh dear, I'm going to have to make a trip to the LQS.  Do you think I will simply buy a couple of packs of pins and walk away?
I haven't used the "quilt as you go" method before, which I understand is usually block by block, making it very portable.
I've looked at Leah Day's great FMQ ideas and her suggestions for quilting a sampler quilt, making it a sampler of quilting as well as a sampler of piecing techniques.  You can see Leah's ideas here:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4
It's very inspiring but I think I'll do something rather more straightforward...

I've had a little discovery today which pleased me considerably.  For this quilt I'm using a wadding made from recycled plastic.  It's very easy to work with and sort of "sticks" to the fabric, making it easy to smooth the layers together.  I'm doing a happy dance.
Here's the science bit, taken from Asding's website:

 Quilters Dream Green Poly, Mid Loft (Select) - Green - 122" wide £10.95 per metre.

Select (mid loft) - Dream Green is a soft, cozy wadding made 100% from recycled plastic bottles! Dream Green meets Quilters Dream's highest standards of quality, function and performance. Your needles will glide through this unique eco-friendly batting. Finished quilt may be machine washed and dried with little to no shrinkage. Dream Green is wrinkle resistant.

Each pound of Dream Green wadding keeps 10 plastic bottles out of our landfills. Plastic bottles are cut into chips, washed, melted and extruded into fine polyester fibres. These recycled fibres are indistinguishable from “virgin” polyester fibres yet are made without depleting our precious natural resources. To avoid additional processing Quilters Dream have kept the soft “natural” green bottle colour – but you can rest assured that Dream Green is colour-fast and compatible to all your finest quilts and projects.

Dream Green has been carded, cross-lapped and needlepunched for uniformity, strength, and resiliency. There is no scrim or resins yet you can stitch up to 12” apart! Utilizing eco-efficient recycling, Quilters Dream has developed a wonderful quilt wadding that truly accomplishes the meaning of “green.”

GREEN FACTS (supplied by Quilters Dream): Studies show that the energy saved by recycling a single plastic bottle – as compared to producing a new one from scratch – is enough to power a single 60-watt bulb for six hours. The amount of petroleum saved annually by using post-consumer bottles instead of virgin materials in the manufacturing process is enough to supply power to a city the size of Atlanta for an entire year! It is reported the process of recycling plastic bottles results in a 66% reduction of energy consumption, nearly 90% reduction of water usage and reduction of carbon dioxide by 2.5 times.