A New Nifty Trick
 

As most of you know I recently got a Grace machine quilting frame, and I LOVE it ! The one thing I DON’T love, is pinning everything to the leaders. Pins HURT, and I ALWAYS poke myself , ALWAYS ! So the other day I was looking at my Dritz basting gun, that I used at times to baste my quilts before I had the frame, and I had an idea ! I wonder ….

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I used the needle just like I would use a pin, I went through both layers ( fabric and leader ) and then brought it back through, like I would have done with a regular basting needle !
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Now I had a nice even hold …
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I spaced them evenly ….

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and whalla ! No poked fingers and a great hold !

Now I know you might be saying to yourself , those little barb thingys get expensive to use them that much like that, and they do, if you buy them in packs of 500 from say joann Fabrics or something like that , BUT, You can purchase them by the box on ebay or most office supply stores. Wherever you get them from you just want to make sure that you get 1/4 ” barbs.


Another alternative is to buy longer barbs, but you would need to purchase a gun with a longer needle to accommodate them. I am looking into this myself , and when my dritz gun bites it I am sure I will, but for now, this works wonderful and NO MORE POKING MYSELF !


And removing them just takes a pair of dollar store kiddy scissors to snip the plastic !

Great use of one of those things that we bought and didn't really work out.

Colleen

Good idea!!! I use the red snappers now, so no more pokies, I used to have blood on every quilt I did!!!!

You might want to try the QuilTak gun and plastics. The hole made is much smaller. It is what they use for fine clothing.

Red Snappers are great....been using them about 2 months...well worth the price and no more pokes with a pin...and so much faster...loading a quilt...

is that Dritz thingy the same as an apparel tagging gun? You know, the thing they use to put price tags on clothes.

Clip and Seal Mondo Clips are less expensive than red snappers and work awesomely. Also, I needed some more, so getting the idea from another board, I bought some tubing at Lowe's and some u track from Home Depot and they work also. I

Cheryl222 - could you please post pics of what you purchased at Lowe's and HD or post a url for the other board where you read this idea? I am interested in the concept but need visuals. Thanks, AK

Yes, please. Cheryl, I would love to see a picture or some more information about this idea too.

thanks for sharing your idea

Thank ou for sharing you idea.

I have been checking to see if I can't find cheaper and will be checking the different office supply stores. Thanks!

I have found another use for my basting gun. When the socks go into the laundry hamper, I tag them together and so far, I haven't lost a sock doing the laundry !! YIPPEE!!

Can also use staples to attach to leaders. I still use pins, just learned to keep my fingertips clear of points.

I agree - I love the red snappers. BUT please note if you are using a Mid-Arm or a long arm other than APQS or Innova, you have to watch where that rod hits when you roll your machine. If you are using a machine where you have to raise/lower the bar you can run into issues. You can easily adjust for this, just have to be aware. You may have to raise your bar to accomodate, and on the next row if the rod isn't in the same place you may have to lower it again.

I posted them but post was moved to pictures. The link is here.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ml#post6390354
Cheryl

I have these as well and I love them! It takes about a third of the time to load a quilt and after you are done;just pull them off ! :) Definitely well worth the investment.(and you arnt buying more "barbs") Just a thought ;)

Love, Love, Love my Red Snappers......

Just got the red snappers for my mid-arm and absolutely LOVE them. This is my second quilt using them.

OMG, I forgot I even owned one of those guns. I will have to search the rear of the drawer looking for it. Thanks for the great idea….mj

Considering the red snappers... How do you like them, are they as easy it looks

Very good idea.

It's funny, I have one of those Dritz basting guns in the back of a drawer too. Did we all buy them and then give up on them? I don't remember why I stopped using it.

good ideas!...last time i pinned a quilt on my frame for hand quilting, i was smoothing it out and ran a pin into the soft part of my forearm!...ooohhhh that hurt!

Sounds like a great solution - you know what they say - Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

This is a great alternative to pins. My leaders are zippered. I just baste the edges of the quilt to the zipper and zip, I'm done.
peace

Thanks for sharing!

You can also use a stapler.

Not sure I understand this and always looking for quicker ways to load my Gammill--are you saying that the Red Snappers get hung up on the take up roller? I guess part of my confusion is I don't understand how the Snappers actually work in the first place.