I have been quilting a twin-sized quilt at my sewing machine.  It’s a pretty easy process, thanks to having  flattened the quilt sandwich beforehand.  I laid out the backing, face down, on the table in my studio and made sure there were no wrinkles or bubbles in the fabric.  Then, I laid the batting over the backing and repeated the process.  Finally, I set the top, face up, over the other layers and secured all three to my table.  Then I used  safety pins to pin through all three layers.  I’m using cotton batting, so I need to pin fairly close together.

I have three types of pins: one-inch straight sided safety pins, one and three-eights inch straight-sided safety pins, and bent one-inch safety pins.  I know, that was tough to read.  Just look at the picture, and you’ll, well, get the picture:

I have no idea how many pins I used on the 60 x 75 inch quilt, but I can tell you that  the one-inch straight-sided pins are killers.  They are so hard to close that they drilled a dent into my index finger nail.  If I keep these pins, and that’s a BIG IF, I’ll have to get one of those spoons you can use to help close the pin.  My fingers hurt all weekend.

I shifted the longer pins, which I thought I would like the most.  They are much easier to use, but it seems that the point can dull, and I don’t like to leave huge holes in my quilts.

The last pins I used turned out the be the best.  The bent one-inch pins are easiest to open and close, and leave a smaller hole than the bigger pins.  I need to put these on my wish list.  If I’m going to continue to do quilts larger than 45″ x 60″ I’ll need more.  Anything, to save my fingers!