product review

What are your thoughts on basting? Do you pin baste? Are you a spray baster? Are you lucky enough to have a long arm and no longer have to baste quilts?

I go back and forth on the topic of basting. Spray basting I use mostly for competition quilts and quilts that may not lay perfectly flat without a little extra help.  Pin basting is for everything else. One thing I don’t like about spray basting is that EVERYTHING gets sticky.  Me, my floors, the quilt, everything. Also, good heavens, the smell.  I like spray basting in the summer though, when I can do it outdoors and don’t have to care at all about what gets sticky and the smell isn’t an issue.

I gave up on curved safety pins about two years ago for pin basting and I exclusively use Pinmoors now. Straight pins that I have bent in the middle go into these little rubber pin caps and just stay put. So much easier on my arthritic hands. I also try to pin baste on my table as much as possible to save my knees.

Here are the two mini quilts that I am pin basting today. I figured if I was doing one, I might as well do the other one too. I am using the same backing fabric for both. As these are mini quilts, I figure the backing will be on a wall so there is no point using my favorite fabric on it. The fabric isn’t hideous at all, it just isn’t one I am emotionally attached too.

Do you see the white dots? Those are the Pinmoors. I highly recommend looking into them if you don’t like safety pins. They are seriously fantastic for those of us that struggle with arthritis. Oh and did I mention that they are made in the United States. Always nice to support a company manufacturing at home.

So what do you like? Pins or spray? Some day I hope to be one of you lucky long arm quilters and move past my basting days!

****not a sponsored post, just simply sharing my experiences with a product I love.***

 

(Preface: I was provided with a product sample for this review, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post belong solely to me. I was not given any other compensation for this post.)

 

The USA Sharpeners company approached me back in November and asked if I would be interested in doing a product review of their Orbital Rotary Cutter Blade Sharpener. Given the number of blades that I go through in a year and the cost ($35.00 per five pack), I agreed to do the review. As with any company, I informed them that I could only endorse a product I fully believed in and I have to say I do believe in this product.

Things I Noticed:

• This product comes with two different blade size options, 45mm and 60mm. Both are common sizes used by quilters. I personally own multiple 45mm rotary cutters.
• Comes with detailed instructions on the packaging, and the company kindly sent me a troubleshooting guide as well – I ended up needing the troubleshooting guide (more on that later).
• This product comes with oil, it is essential to use when sharpening your blades, you do not damage them.
• Outstanding customer service – I struggled with this product at first and was able to talk at length with them on the phone as well as exchanging multiple emails. Between their assistance and my dad’s I was able to troubleshoot my issue (more on that later).
• Made in the USA! How often are products made locally? This company is out of Vancouver, WA and I do love supporting local companies and products.

Recommendations:

• It is absolutely vital that you put something under the sharpener while you are working in your sewing area. If you spill the oil it will not be easy to clean off your cutting mat.  Protect your work surface!
• Make sure you have some fabric you don’t care about on hand to test your blade to make sure it is sharp and ready to go after running it through the sharpener.
• Finding the right pressure is the key to getting this product to work. My issue was that the directions said don’t put too much pressure on the blade because that could dull the blade, so instead of putting too much, I didn’t put enough. Sort of had the same results – dulling the blade.  Once my dad was able to figure out what the heck I was doing wrong, I was able to properly use it!
• Make sure you take the time to read through the Troubleshooting Guide if you are having problems. I was super skeptical at first but wanted to really give this product a fair try and figuring out it was complete user error made me very happy.
• When in doubt, call them! Their customer service is outstanding and they will walk you through using the product properly and give you additional tips and tricks.

There are no improvements I would offer on this product, only a recommendation on their packaging to protect the work surface from the oil. We don’t want oil spots on our precious fabrics!

Have you ever used a blade sharpener before? This is the second product I have used and I am fairly happy with it now that I am past the learning curve, and who doesn’t love a locally made product?

Have a happy Monday!

I’m a pin baster. Especially in the winter, seeing as I only spray baste outside and it is decidedly wet in the Pacific Northwest during the winter.  With my terrible hands though, pin basting is not a fun job. I still like it better than binding but it isn’t much higher on my list…until now.

I broke down yesterday and headed to my local quilt shop, Ruby Street Quiltworks in Tumwater, WA (if you are local to this area, I highly recommend them!), and bought myself a present, the Kwik Klip by Paula Jean Creations.

The quilt I basted yesterday was only 49×49 but it is probably the fastest I have ever pin basted anything! I am so excited about this tool. My fingers did not hurt at all and I was even able to baste some hexies later in the evening while watching Project Runway.

No pictures of the quilt yet, you will have to wait until next week!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be cleaning and hopefully sewing some bee blocks.

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today I have a product review for you, the Omnigrid Ruler Grip Double Suction Cup.  I bought this for myself last week on Amazon. I didn’t plan on buying it but I placed an order for a new hepa filter for my vacuum cleaner and some special cleanser for my laminate floors and if you can believe it, I was $0.82 shy of free shipping!!! It was like Amazon was challenging me to find something that I just couldn’t live without!  So I bought myself a new quilting tool.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that I bought this. As many of you know I have an autoimmune disease which causes me a great deal of pain in my hands and fingers. Recently it has also moved into my feet.  Well I have to say this was a God send this weekend. I was able to cut for an hour straight with little to no pain. First time in 2 years!

Here’s how it looks coming out of the box (it does come wrapped in plastic but that didn’t photograph very well).

I placed it on my 12.5″ x 12.5″ ruler and got right to cutting. My 12.5″ ruler is the smallest ruler I could get it to fit on (and yes that is small, I have a 15″ x 15″ ruler and two rulers that are 6.5″ by 24″ – and this grip also fits on those).

As you can see in the top left picture the black levers are up, you need to press down on the handle to engage the suction cups and then push the levers into the down position (see upper right photo). Then you are ready to cut!  What I like is that I don’t have to exert nearly as much pressure as I did without the grip. In fact I like it so much that I plan on buying the Single Suction Cup Grip for my smaller rulers (yes I have A LOT of rulers!).

I have to say that any quilting tool that is going to make quilting more pleasurable and less painful for me is a must have, and this product is a must have for me.  I can’t remember the last time that I was able to do so much cutting in one sitting without regretting it the next day.

This is not a sponsored post, I decided to share my thoughts because I know I’m not the only one who struggles with the cutting aspects of quilting. As I find products that are helpful for my hands I will continue to share them with you.