Ready for Quilting

I tested my flower pin and foam basting creation on three 8 x 8" quilts and they worked well. I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was to pin the layers together.

So now I pin basted a small and medium sized piece and will quilt them to see if the pins actually stay pinned for the duration of quilting. That seems like an important feature, don't you think?

Here's the first piece that I'll quilt. It's around 16 x 20".

If the smaller piece goes well, this one will follow. It's around 35 x 40".

I have about 200 of the foam pieces cut, but only had 95 pins in my stash. If the pins hold well through the next test, I'll have to buy more pins. Even though the pile looks large, they are extremely lightweight, lighter than the safety pins I use now.

Pinmoor Knock-off for LESS

Have you seen the little rubber foam eraser shapes that are used with straight pins for pin basting? The product is called Pinmoor. I was intrigued because it looked really easy to remove the pins while you're quilting, but I wasn't prepared for the price. The average price (including tax and shipping) is $.43 per Pinmoor and they estimate that you need 100 Pinmoors to baste a baby quilt. Now that's pricey . . . and it doesn't include the flat flower pins either.

I started rummaging around through my stuff looking for different foamy products that could be used as a backing for the pins. I tried some foam insulation and ear plugs but they were too squishy and Styrofoam deteriorated a little each time I poked a hole in it. Then I came across some foam that is used to make rubber stamps and I was pretty sure that it work, but I needed a thick piece.  Unfortunately, all the pre-cut shapes at Michaels were thin, but then I found a 9 x 12" sheet that is 1/4" thick. I purchased one sheet for $.99 and headed home to experiment.

It's really easy to cut through the foam with your rotary cutter.  I cut a strip that was 1/2" wide, then cut 1/2" pieces from the strip. After cutting several of these. I found my flower head pins and stuck pins into the foam. Yay . . . it works great, but if you look really close to the picture above. The pin is almost inserted the full length of the 1/2" foam piece. I decided it would be a good idea to cut a few different sizes and try them out to see what I liked best.

You can see two of the pins and foam above. The piece on the left is a  1" square piece of foam. I only did a couple  this size and quickly decided that it blocks my view and I wouldn't like these all over my quilt.

Here is a close-up showing you how I bent the flat flower pin to make it easier to get through your quilt layers. I haven't actually quilted with the pins yet (I just finished inventing this 10 minutes ago), but it looks like it's going to work just fine. So far, the size that I like the best is 1/2 x 5/8" because there's a little extra wiggle room in the length. I'll get at least 100 foam pieces from one 9 x 12 sheet. Not bad! 

Let me know if you use this pin basting system and like it!