Thursday, July 7, 2011

A Whole Lot of Pins

There's a lot of pins around my living room for last couple of days.  Perhaps the most labor intensive part of quilting - BASTING.  First you get out hundreds of safety pins, get on your hands and knees and proceed to use all those safety pins - one at a time until your entire quilt sandwich is security in place...and if you're like me (*read paranoid*) you will probably use A LOT of pins to make sure nothing could shift even an centimeter ;).

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On the left is the Zig Zag quilt (#2) ready for it's pinning.  On the right is the Circle My Way quilt - first experience having to pin down raw edge circles on a quilt top.  So far so good :).  Just 2 more quilts to go...

I've tried the sewing technique and even the spray bast technique but I I think I'll stick with the safety pins.  Despite having to use band-aids to avoid the inevitable pokes and being on hands and knees all day, I actually don't mind it :).  I love how I get to see every detail of the quilt top up close ;)...and the results is definitely worth the work.

9 comments:

Tanya said...

I'm such a terrible quilt baster...takes me forever and I always have a wrinkle. Bah!

CraftyClare said...

hope it is wrinkle free at the end of all that pinning. I never forget that heart sink moment on my first quilt when I realised the back was completely wrinkled! Thanks for the review of basting spray - I've been wondering whether to try it out or not xx

Ruth said...

I mut admit to being a fan of the spray, but perhaps you do get better results with the pins. I'm probably too impatient! I love the colours and patterns in the fabrics in both those quilts - especially the zig zag!

Marsha Cooper said...

I don't even know what you mean by basting a quilt! I have so much to learn, but hopping along with freshlypieced I am getting lessons each week!

Melinda said...

I wish I had something at the quilting stage! I'm still floating with finishing several quilts and all I can think of is adding more!

Lynette said...

You *are* pinning a lot! I'll be pinning with you - Ready to quilt a 50x50. I probably over-pin, too, but that's far better than finishing a quilt and seeing skewing when you hold it up. I really hate that, so I pin and pin and pin like a crazed woman. ;D

Sandy said...

Pins, knees, basting...you've just reminded me of why I went back to my yarn. lol. Knees can't take the crawling around like that anymore; though I still do too much of it when I lay out an afghan.

Jenniffier said...

Very pretty. I like the colors in the left hand quilt. Sorry so much time pining.

Lee said...

Oooh, basting. Definitely my least favorite part of quilting! That's good that you don't mind it, you probably don't put off quilting your tops like I do. : ) Thanks for linking up to WIP Wednesday. Don't forget to link back to my blog either in your post or in your sidebar!

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