Susan's brilliant idea
 

My friend Susan, a master quilter just sent me this message: "I took the cork from a bottle of wine, cut it into 3/16" slices (approximately), then cut the slices into 4 pieces. I no longer have to use safety pins to baste a quilt, I use these straight pins and push the cork pieces into the ends of them. These stay put and at times you can quilt right over them, but if you can't, you pull the head of the pin and they pop right off. The fake corks work best, although the natural corks also work. You can baste a quilt saving 1/3 of the time it would usually take, and certainly much easier to remove while quilting. This is a GREAT invention. Cheap too. Susan" I think it's brilliant!

Sounds like it would also require indulging in a large quantity of wine to do a king sized quilt. Lol. Thanks for the idea.

thanks for sharing the tip

I guess drinking the wine helps a bit too! Good idea and much cheaper than Pinmoors. I just might give it a try.

thats a good idea - I saw someone the other day use an eraser cut into pieces and use in the same way

Have you tried Pinmoors? They are made for this purpose. Before Pinmoors I tried anything that would stick on a pin.

I have pinmoors and hate them. They make a lap size quilt SO heavy and they catch on everything. I can't even imagine it on a bigger one.

That is a fantastic idea - thanks for sharing!!

When sandwiching a quilt, I just use Large safety pins. I once left a straight pin in a quilt for DGS. Not a good idea. I now make sure they are all out. I was able to quilt around it, it had to be cut out.

I have purchased the pinmoors, but haven't used them yet. For those of us who don't imbibe, you can buy sheets of cork at hobby stores (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, JoAnn's). The sheets can be cut with a rotary cutter.

A weighed a Pinmoor with pin in it and a safety pin on my digital kitchen scale. The safety pin weight more.

Thats a great idea. I usually quilt everything with my mid-arm on the frame, but next time I quilt a memory quilt for a customer, I will try this out! Thanks!!

I found one tye of wine at Olive Garden that I would have no problem in accquiring a large amount of corks from. Unfotuneately (sp?) the vinyard switched to a screw on top so now I can't collect the corks. Just saying...

Ask a restaurant for their corks from wine bottles. You will get a great selection of cork to use.
Or purchase some cork placemat from Ikea. They are the perfect width.

I use the medium size safety pins. I have them, know how to use them and won't replace them til they wear out!

Thanks for the great tip! I wanted to try cork, but wine gives me migraines. I have asked friends to save their corks for me as well.

Ditto feelings about Pinmoors. Hate them. Bought them and it was a waste of money. Used them once. Anybody have an idea for an alternate use for these? Otherwise, they're going in the garbage. I hate wasting money.

I decided to try this just now. It must depend on the safety pins because my scale, which will weigh as little as 1 gram, showed 1 gram for the pin and pinmoor and I had to put 3 safety pins on it to make it go to 1 gram. So with the safety pins I use, the pinmoor and pin together are 3 times heavier.

I like the cork bits on the ends of the pins, saves getting picked by the pin.

that is a great idea :)

That is a great idea. There are many places you can buy these corks, without drinking.

Off to buy wine - thanks for the idea!

This is a cool idea. I have used ear plugs. That have worked well but I think I will try this as well. My daughter keeps taking the ear plugs! lol

Wow what a great idea, but I don't drink wine. I will ask my friend to keep theure corks lol

I read all the posts, which was interesting, but I absolutely love your quilt! Great fabric choices!

Really cool. Wine makes me sick, though. lol I'm pretty sure you can get cork at AC Moore

Buy a cheap pair of flip-flops and cut them up into little cubes or any other shape your heart desires. Of course you won't enjoy the contents of the wine bottles.

Great idea! Old Navy has flip flop $1 sales!

I have also found that the squishy earplugs work like the cork idea- the ones I use for when my husband snores- so I have a lot!

I found a whole bag of corks in my garage last week and was trying to figure out what to do with them....I have the answer now!

i use large safety pins also. makes it a lot easier to sew. and the fabric stays put as you sew.

When I first started "trying" to machine quilt, I pinned with straight pins. Stuck myself too many times to count, but I got 2 wallhanging size done, and still love those 2 today.

I was going to buy the pinmoors but was hit with extreme sticker shock 18.00 for a bag of plastic bits !!!
I think I'll look for the sheeet at Hobby Lobby...great idea for smaller projects...I think I will still hand baste my big sandwiches.

Great tip! Thank you for the picture you included. It made it much easier for me to figure out what you were saying.

Hey! I need to finish a quilt tomorrow, so I'll have my friend over to help polish off that bottle of wine. LOL! Great idea.

Small sheets of foam board works also.

Great idea but..........
Sorry to burst your bubble with the wine corks, but the 1/4 craft foam is colorful and can be cut into great 1/4 x 1/2 inch pieces for your quilting pins. Easy to find when they are on quilt or floor. Been doing this for about a year.
Pat

That sounds like a novel idea. Since I don't drink wine, maybe my kids could save their wine corks for me. I'm willing to give it a try.

Wow, thanks for sharing! I had been coveting pinmores but this will work. I'm pretty sure I might have a cork or two, but if not I can happily come up with more!

I like the pinmoor idea too, but not the price. So I have used ear plugs....they are really light weight, & free from work. I also bought a bunch from Harbor Freight after I retired ....but now, except for really large projects, I mostly just spray baste. Don't want to leave pins behind either....

I would like to try this.