Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Pins, Pins, Pins

When my friend Julie visited me last June, we spent time in the sewing studio finishing up the flimsy that later became the MHT2MEM (Manchester to Memphis) quilt. Some of the blocks needed to be a bit bigger, and Julie helped me get them done. She'd lay fabrics out, and I'd sew the pieces together.

But first, I'd pin them. "I use pins." I told her, when I noticed her watching me closely.

"You use a lot of pins," she observed.

Oh.

Last night I cut all the remaining paired strips into blocks, and then pinned them together into rows.


I got four blocks worth of rows sewn.

Here's the yellow block I finished on Sunday.

If I'm lucky I can get these blocks done before Christmas.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I use pins too. Before quilting I made all my clothes and pinning was essential in that area of sewing. I am use to pins.

Megan said...

I also use pins, Lynne. I like my seam lines to align and points not to be cut off in the seam. It gives me pleasure to achieve that kind of accuracy. For some quiltmakers, it doesn't matter - and that's fine. But those who say that pinning takes too long - geeez: we're talking a few extra seconds in a process of making a quilt that could take dozens, if not hundreds, of hours. What's a few extra seconds?

I once heard a high-profile Australian quiltmaker tell me that she set the stitch length on her sewing machine to 4: longer stitches meant fewer of them required in any seam, which meant that sewing patches together was faster. I think THAT little tip might have saved fractions of seconds and, to my mind, increased the likelihood of seams unravelling.

Oh well - it takes all types. I'm sticking with what works for me.

Megan
Sydney, Australia