Your favorite trick?

I agree with you about messing with people's minds, Polly. ;) And I really did suspect you knew you'd been right the first time -- but so many people use the wrong word for this, and I can't help but grit my teeth. LOL!

er....ummm..well. Yes. I saw that too. Leslie, I believe it was Val who wondered if someone didn't have time to do something right the first time, where would the time come from to re-do again and again. I think it's time to get out the green beer and let's Party. Polly

"Val" < wrote >

You just enjoy living dangerously, I guess Leslie! I crashed into a pin just the other day - one of my very fine silk ones, so the needle was all right, but the pin was a write-off! I must have been thinking of something else, a lapse of concentration >g< When I am pinning intersections, I approach slowly and make sure the needle goes down into the first piece of seam allowance before I remove the first pin, then a couple more stitches and out comes the second one, when the needle is down into the next seam allowance. Also, removing the pin - I put a small bit of pressure, with the index finger of my left hand (I am right-handed) on the fabric opposite to the pin, on the other side of the presser foot, so that the pin does not move the fabric out of line as it is removed!!

But, your work looks great and if you manage with sewing over pins, I won't tell anyone! . In message , Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. writes

hahahahahahaha......you are most assuredly forgiven. I got a good chuckle out of that. I figured you were multi tasking. BUT, for the first time in about fortyeleven months I was able to post something pertinent to quilting that I actually KNEW about and Sunny steals my thunder and she isn't even HERE!! LMAO

I don't do a lot of pinning. And I don't sew over pins. I used to, and occasionally one slips by, but there are several reasons not to. Since I quilt using "silk pins" I don't usually lose the pins in the item. That has been known to happen when I was sewing square dance outfits. I would find the pin that got left in the gathers very painfully. But, when I was doing basic sewing machine repairs, I discovered that sewing over pins causes some tension problems. That are not the fault of the machine!!! The thread tension is set so that the two threads pull snug to the fabric. When a pin is there they pull snug to the fabric plus the pin, then when you pull the pin out that stitch has more thread and "gaps" a tiny bit. The more pins you sew over, the looser your seam gets. I have hit a pin "hard" enough to cause a problem with the timing. Didn't like that at all. :(

When I do have to pin a "difficult" match point I tend to find the match, pin vertically through the two layers. Then when I am putting in the pins that lay against the fabric, I put them in diagonally. I make sure the head of the pin is towards me, and the point of the pin is pointing toward the needle, but is far enough from the edge of the fabric that I can actually sew up to the intersection, then pull the pin out as I go. I sew right up to the pin then remove it before sewing over it. Works well, and I don't have to go back and "find" all the pins. When I have finished the seam, it is done.

I will also pin parallel to the seam line, either in the seam allowance or on the other side of the seam allowance and sew until the head of the pin is caught by the foot and that takes it out of the fabric.

There are lots of ways to pin, and lots of ways work. Find what works for you, and go with it.

Pati, > If Polly says they all match up, then it's good enough for me! LOL

How about when they say "Walla!". That is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.....

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Me too!!!! "Walla" is half of a town in Washington. ;)

Leslie...I think "Walla!" has become part of the English language...that and "Dis" ! I was hoping that last word would DISappear but then I heard katy couric use it not that long ago ( a US evening news "commentator")...and as you say, fingernails on the chalkboard moment to me.... and then heard a couple of tv journalists use it in a discussion the other day. They really don't have to keep it alive for me. One word that I haven't heard for ages on TV is short-lived pronounced with a long i. I'm not sure when that all started but I'm not fond of it at all..kind of grating to my ear as well. Mary

Well, it doesn't bother me too much when people SAY it a bit off, because after all Voila IS a French word, so we cannot all have the Academy Accent. Besides, my hearing is no great shakes, so I often miss the errors. (G) BUT .... when people WRITE 'Walla' .... well, that makes me grit my teeth. C'est la vie! ;) PAT in VA/USA

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:49:01 -0500, Roberta Zollner wrote (in article ):

I've tried that several times. I think it does help some on the accuracy. Especially if the match points are tricky.

Maureen

I freely admit to quilting heresy, but really do like my method of piecing that gets great accuracy, medium speed overall, and portability -- basically, it's a method of using the machine to put together the single pieces of fabric, but sew by hand when there are seams to cross. For an example, if I'm doing a 4-patch, I will use the SM to stitch the 2 pairs of single patches. When I want to sew the 2 pairs together for the 4-patch, I do that by hand, and get terrific spot-on accuracy. If I want to toss things into a tote bag with my little plastic box of tools/goodies for a trip, I do a lot of the 1-to-1 stuff on the SM at home, and then take the ready-to-finish- by-hand stuff in the tote bag. At the moment I'm working on piecing a rather large quilt for a guest room, and there are 81 blocks at 12" each, with 72 pieces of fabric in each 12" block.

As a hybrid of my current method, I occasionally proceed as above, but with the hand-sewing I only stitch at the joins, and then flip the block over to double-check that everything meets exactly as I want. Naturally, there are lots of areas where there should be a complete seam but isn't. Once I'm sure that everything is right, I take the block to the SM and finish all those seams. It's kind of goofy, but works for me!

It actually sounds like a very good idea - and probably wouldn't take any more time than careful pinning, then ... not quite ... and re-doing! . In message , Mary writes

In getting the borders on the Noel quilt, I performed one more trick. Some you may enjoy this one.

I needed to know the measure of my 8 ft sheet of paneling on the cutting table. I had 3 cutting mats lined up but needed to know if the quilt top measured exact what? I knew it was in the general direction of 84" + 2 x 7 = something minus seam allowances. So. I masking-taped a tape measure firmly from one end of the paneling to the other. Tape measures cut real easy with a new rotary blade. If you ever need a short, short tape measure, I'm The Man. Polly

Polly, dear, you can buy a sticky backed measuring tape- that's what I have on the edge of my cutting table. ;-)

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO>

Do you have to press down real hard to cut it? =) Polly

"Leslie & The Furbabies in MO." < Polly, dear, you can buy a sticky backed measuring tape- that's what I have

ROFLOL! That would be something I'd do, too, Polly! LOL!

I'm with you, Lia. Probably one reason why my quilts will never end up in shows or museums. But the recipients and I are happy with the results.