Marking with Pins Tutorial

Hello!  And welcome to my Pinning Tutorial!

The colors in this quilt look like spring and Easter with lovely shades of pink and aqua.  Perfect to focus on today. The fabric is Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda. I purchased a Jelly Roll of Sew Stitchy from Missouri Star Quilt Company and I really never know what to do with a Jelly Roll.  They are so cute and colorful, but what do I do with it? I just thought the fabric was cute enough to make something fun.  

Jenny at Missouri Star Quilt Co. has the most wonderful and inspiring tutorials. You can spend lots of time watching tutorials and shopping for unique templates and handy notions.  I came across this tutorial called the Amazing Jelly Roll Quilt Pattern and it completely captured my interest.  Its origination is from the 3 Dudes Quilt Shop in Phoenix, Arizona.  I always like a good story behind a quilt.  It was a perfect application to use this jelly roll that I had been holding back for the perfect quilt inspiration. I followed the tutorial and made the blocks according to Jenny's wonderful video.   I laid them out and this is what I did next.....

I am going to tell you how I "mark" the blocks when I lay them out to get ready to sew them into rows without getting off track.  Let me see if I can explain how I do this with PINS.

I laid all my block segments on my big work surface...My bed.

This quilt has four rows of four block segments.  Each block segment has four squares to form the "pinwheel."   

Row 1.  I usually work left to right.  I pinned the FIRST block in Row 1 with ONE PIN to show this is the First Row.  Then I pin each block in the first row with one pin all the way across just so they stay together as row one.  This is a temporary pinning to keep the row of blocks together.  As I sew each block in each row, I do align and match seams. 

In the photo above, Can you see pin number one at the top left?  I use long quilters pins with a yellow head.  I do have some of the yellow flower head pins too.  You will see them in some of the other photos as well. 

Row 2.  See TWO PINS.  This is Row Two.

Row 3.  See Three Pins.  This is row three.

Row 4  Do you see four pins?  This is Row Four.

All lined up and ready to sew.  Some quilters use sticky note paper, blue water safe pens, painters tape, photos or sticky dots.  I am sure there are lots of methods to accomplish this.  This is so simple, This one is free. I have the supplies on hand. If there are eight rows, I use eight pins.  Just be consistent.

   

Do you pin this way?  How do you line up your blocks and rows for sewing?  Please share your method.

Happy Easter to everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!