About Me

South Louisiana
I have been married for 20 years to a great husband and we have 8 children ranging in age from 1 to 18 years. I am a homeschooling mom, which can be very challenging. I love sewing, knitting, reading, gardening and have recently started oil painting. I love to create. I really want to have a blog to show off some of the stuff I create, but I also want to share about my life and family. email me at ctrich8@bellsouth.net

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Pin Basting



I finally did the pin basting for my quilt. I was very nervous about this step. I mean, if I don't get everything straight, my quilt is gonna look wonky. I should have researched a little more about how to do this the right way. I am not sure if I got the back straight or not. Oh well, it is my first effort, and it will still be functional lol

I had gone to Joanns Saturday to get everything I needed for the quilt. I bought my cotton batting ( which was 50% off, YAY! ) Size 1 basting pins (thank you Vanessa for recommending the smaller pins : D ) cotton quilting thread and machine quilting needles. I was all set when I started yesterday afternoon. I had an hour and a half to get this done before I had to leave and bring Sydney and Isabella to ballet class. Plenty of time to finish since I was doing this in the middle of the living room and definitely didn't want to leave my quilt there for very long where my family and animals would just walk on it. I had Oprah on the tv, a glass of water (this involved a lot of bending and stretching, you get thristy when you work this hard ; ) LOL) Everything was going right on schedule when about halfway through pinning, I ran out of pins!!!!! I had bought a pack of a hundred, I thought for sure that would be plenty, I was wrong lol This meant that I had to leave my precious quilt on the floor while I left to bring the girls to class. I left with a strict warning that if anyone walked on my quilt, there would be serious consequences. I needed a few things from the grocery store, so figured I could stop by Walmart on my way home, get my groceries, my quilting pins and gas ($2.53 a gallon!!!!!) and be home within an hour. I really hate Walmart, for many reasons, but it is close to my house and I have always gone there for basic sewing notions when needed since Joanns and Hancocks are a good 20 minute drive from my house. Well, don't you know that Walmart was out of basting pins, as a matter of fact, their whole wall of sewing notions was pretty much empty! I guess they are phasing out their sewing section : ( Just another reason for me to hate that stupid store.



All that to say that I had to drive to Joanns, I mean I couldn't leave the quilt on the floor all night, no telling what the cats would have done to it. And I know if I would have tried to pick it up and put it back down the next day, I would have messed it all up. So, when I got back home (at 8 o'clock!) I finished basting. The kids were pretty good, it was still on the floor and taped down and there were no foot prints on it when I got home. And thank God none of the cats peed on it! They have a tendency to do that if something is left on the floor. I may have killed a cat if that had happened lol I wasn't in the best mood after all of this. Sydney took the pictures in the afternoon before I realized I didn't have enough pins. BTW, I bought a pack of 300 pins, I won't be making that mistake again : )

Here I am getting my stretching in for the day ; )


I used a knitting needle to close the pins, I need to get one of those kwik sew tools for this, but am waiting until Joanns has a 50% off sale on quilting notions. I hate paying full price for my sewing tools. It was bad enough I had to pay full price for my pins. I couldn't find my 40% off mail flyer for the life of me.


Oh and another part of my exciting day, Ava looks like she got in a boxing match. My poor baby, her big sister Sydney thought it would be fun to drag her around in a blanket across the floor really fast. Well, she lost control and sent Ava flying into the pantry door! Ava wanted us to take pictures of it, after she finished screaming for half an hour! LOL She even showed the camera where it was : ) I tell ya, it is hard being the baby in a family with 7 kids! This isn't the first time and I am sure it won't be the last time something like this happens. Oy!


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor little Ava! Your quilt top is GORGEOUS!!!

Anonymous said...

Poor little thing - that's a big knot on her eye!
Your quilt looks great - too bad for us poor souls in Hawaii - we only have Walmart (but they aren't phasing out the sewing section like they are on the mainland).
The pinning looks great - can't wait to see your quilting :-)

Tine said...

Pinning is just a pain! But it looks like you did a great job :-) That quilt is going to be so beautiful...quilting is so much fun isn't it?
Poor little sweetie! That eye is really swollen. Ouch! Give her a hug from me :-)

beki said...

I think you got the pinning down - everything looks so straight and even. Quilting should be a breeze :-) Your quilt is going to be gorgeous when you're done.

muralimanohar said...

Aw, poor baby! That's quite a shiner there! :p

Good job on surviving the quilt top on the floor for that many hours! I can't even trace a pattern while on the floor around here without SOMEONE messing something up! :p

Anonymous said...

Ouch!

On a less painful note, your quilt is beautiful!!!

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

Poor Ava!! Hope it heals up soon :)

Your quilt is looking great.

Anonymous said...

Poor little girl! She manages to still look adorable even though she looks like boxer! ;)

I am a fellow Walmart hater! I really can't stand that store, but I have to go there because that is all we have here in town. Joannes is 1 hour away from me. Boo-hoo. I am thankful that our Wallyworld is not phasing out their craft section, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do! I can't drive an hour just for thread!

Happy quilting!

Michelle said...

I'm sure the quilt will look great!! owie, that poor little eye! She is so darn cute!! about my twins, I only had them for 3 days, they went back to their birth mom. Hope isn't a foster child, she is my sister in laws friends little girl who needed some help, so we are just keeping her until she can get on her feet, but it's not through the system! I could just gobble her up, she is just so yummy!! We do have a 3 day old little boy that arrived today.. yea.. I'm busy! LOL!

Vanessa said...

I am still lovin' that quilt top! You will not regret all the extra time and work you did to get more pins in the quilt. It will be beautifully quilted I am sure--even though this is your first attempt. You are very talented. Oh, and that baby is beautiful...booboo and all!
Hugs!
Vanessa

Sandra Lundy said...

I am seriously enjoying all your quilty posts! I'm about to begin a throw-sized quilt as a gift (hopefully) for Christmas. I hope to start it this afternoon or tomorrow....Your quilt is going to be really beautiful...the pattern is great! Thanks for the heads-up on the basting pins...who knew it would take so many!

Nancy said...

I don't know how this quilt turned out after you quilted it -- it was several years ago that you wrote this post -- but I just wanted to say that I think the quilt is beautiful. Beautiful! I love the colors and layout, borders, everything!