I Basted My Quilt With Sticky Plasters...

...and other random/ridiculous thoughts by a new quilter.

It takes 45 35 minutes to open 600 597 safety pins and if one is OCD you spend another 10 looking for the 3 pins you dropped into the box before opening them. I ended up buying another box of 300.

OMG I own 900 safety pins.

The person that invented this Kwik Klip tool is my hero.

One obviously needs a few different projects on the go, in different phases...it's impossible to close *that many* safety pins while bent over, even if you are pinning your quilt on a table. My back is killing me! My fingers are sore! I'm having a blast!

Here my quilt is about half-pinned. I clamped it to a big table in the basement instead of taping it to the floor. My knees were very happy about that. Note: that table is 8 foot long by 3 foot wide! Quite a bit of the sides is tucked up under the clamps.

I know you are thinking, "She said she used sticky plasters to baste her quilt...those are just quilting pins, liar!" 

No, seriously, they truly helped me finish pin basting this sucker. My finger got so sore in the spot I use to push the pins with I could not pin for days. But I was anxious to finish basting. I tried using a rubber thimble but it made it too clumsy. Ha! A sticky plaster to the rescue! Those little dot bandages worked like a charm. I could still feel the pins but I had a little cushion to help with the initial push.

Now, I am American. In real life I call these band-aids, like everyone else here. But Brits call them sticky plasters. I thought that was so much fun I had to buy a box when I was in London.

Now my quilt is basted. I can start quilting it! I've adjusted Fern's tension, put on her walking foot and loaded up a few bobbins. Then I had to run to Walmart to buy a card table to put behind Fern to support that ginormous wad of fabric & batting. 

I have discovered quilters "see" quilt patterns. Walking through the hallway of our hotel I explained to Dash the carpet was a rail fence...

Irons that shut off automatically are a pain.

Speaking of irons, Molly spent a week flatly refusing to enter my craft room after I set up the ironing board. She didn't even want to go down the hallway it made her so nervous. Border Collie theology prevailed, "If you can't beat 'em - herd 'em!" Now, I have to lock her out of the room when I iron as she tries to "herd" the spray starch.

Nothing is so frightening as being charged by a snarling sheepdog while holding a flaming hot iron. One of us will get hurt! Idiot dog also wants to herd the salad dressing bottle. Have I ever told you how bored Border Collies invent stupid games? Oh, just did.

There are stray threads everywhere. On the floor, glued to the ironing board cover with spray starch, in pockets, in the dryer, the shower and I've even found one in my dinner. Stitching ORTs are much more containable.

If I would quit blathering more stitching could be done!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!!!

xox