My table isn't liking my new hobby much. When I lay out my fabrics to pin together, I do it right on the table. I have noticed that there are a number of pin scratches on my table now. I tried putting down my cutting mat to protect my table, but the pins kept sticking into the mat. On some of the smaller things, I can pin it while holding it. (Probably a big no-no.)

Where do you pin and what is your pinnning surface like? Do you protect it? Or do you even need to?

Michelle

Hi Michelle,

I do all my pinning on the floor. Of course the cat and the kids like to try to *help,* but other than that I prefer the floor.

I probably should have said that I am talking about pinning the pieces and/or squares together when your making the top of the quilt and not the layers together. Although, I would be interested to hear if anyone pinned their layers together on something besides the floor. When I made Jeremy's quilt, we didn't have enough floor space. I took it to DH's work place and used this huge table they have to put it all together. It still wasn't big enough, but it worked. I have pictures of it somewhere around here. BTW, he took his quilt for show and tell one day. The kids thought I was the coolest. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Michelle

Whenever I am sewing the column of blocks together I use my floor - since I don't quilt my own quilts and only make the tops. That table sounds like a great idea (off the floor, away from kids and pets). Too bad you don't have the room in your home to have a table like that. I would prefer pinning on a table.

I usually don't pin much, but I did a lot of pinning on the last bunch of foundation blocks I made and saw that it was ruining my table. OOPS. So I got out an old cutting board and use that to pin on top of.

When I pin pieces of blocks, I usually just pin them while holding right before I sew them. I also use a mat that my mom gave to me that has a cutting surface on one side and a pad on the other for ironing. They come in different sizes and work pretty well. I like being able to flip it over for ironing. It is made by June Tailor, I think.

Tammy

I used a table too. Now I use that spray-on adhesive when I sandwich my layers together it is the best stuff. No more pins, no more bunching, and no more bandaids when I stick myself. WOrks pretty good. Try it you might like it. Takes some getting used to. I spray it on the batting put the backing on first then spray the batting and put the top on, you can pick the fabric off and re-attach to make sure it is centered etc. Holds pretty good for machine or hand stitching. At least I think so. Have a good one.