I place my pins in the fabric with the pin horizonal on the left side of the seam and just far enough away from the seam line that I don't have to remove the pins as I sew. I am self taught and didn't know anything about pinning joins/match points until I got on this board. Let me tell you it is very hard trying to undo 40 years of doing everything wrong. But I don't think I will ever change how I pin. Thanks for posting this. I will be watching everyone's answers.