Hello friends! What is on your sewing table this week? I’m excited to share the Charming Barn Mini Quilt that I made this month.
I live in Tennessee where you see a lot of wooden barn quilts and they are so beautiful. One of these days I am going to make one for our barn. But for now, I decided to make a mini quilt using the Charming Barn Quilt pattern that you can find here. This was such a fun pattern that is available in two sizes: a 36 inch square or a 15 inch square. I chose the larger size so that I can use it for a table runner for my porch table! The fabric I used is called Barnyard Blooms by Alison Harris.
It didn’t take long to get this mini quilt top pieced. The pattern calls for Charm Squares so there is very little prep work to do and you’re off and sewing.
Once I finished piecing the top, I used Clover Wonder Pins for basting the quilt top to the batting and backing. Honestly, I love these Wonder Pins more every time I use them!
Now that I’ve used the Wonder Pins for numerous projects I feel like I know them pretty well! I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you about some of my favorite things about them!
- The very best feature is that you literally only need one hand to open and close the pins. That may not seem like that big of a deal until you are basting through three layers of a quilt and can’t get one hand underneath to guide the safety pin through. To be honest with you, I quit basting quilts with safety pins a long time ago because they were so frustrating to me. That is not the case with the Wonder Pins at all!
- I love the ease in which you can remove the pins when machine quilting. I did some experimenting with removing a pin with my right hand as my machine was sewing… I never had to stop the machine like I would’ve in order to remove a safety pin! The more I did it, the easier I got it until I could simply use two fingers to open the pin and remove it, all without stopping the machine!
- I was recently preparing to pin a shirt pattern to fabric and suddenly realized that the Wonder Pins would be perfect for that and they were! It was such a great way to pin my pattern pieces. The tips are sharp and small so they will not damage your fabric in any way.
- It might be really silly but I absolutely adore their yellow and pink color and also their size. I find that it does make a difference when you’re removing them from a quilt as you are sewing. They are easy to see, easy to get ahold of, and they don’t accidentally end up in the garbage can.
- Last but not least is how amazing they are in making alterations to a garment. I was taking up a seam in a dress for my grand-daughter and it was so amazing to pin the seam where it needed to be sewn and not have to worry about pins poking her when removing the dress over her head, or coming loose in the sewing.
- These pins are sturdy and so easy to use. Definitely a tool that all Makers need to have in their sewing supplies.
Have you had a chance to use them yet? If not, you need to get some! I think it is one of those things that I will always want more of! I don’t think you could ever have too many!
I machine quilted this little mini quilt by sewing some simple straight line quilting. I absolutely love the look of straight line quilting. And using the Clover Ultimate Quilt ‘n Stitch Presser Foot makes quilting straight lines so easy!!!
One more thing I’d like to add about the Wonder Pins is that they stick up higher than a regular safety pin; however, they lay over so nicely when the measuring guide of the Ultimate Quilt ‘n Stitch Presser Foot goes over the Wonder Pin. Literally they never hang up and there is no hiccup in the sewing!
I love how this sweet mini quilt came out. It is very much a Barn Quilt feel and I love that about it! And don’t you love that crinkly look that a fresh washed quilt has?
I especially love how it looks on my porch with my antique stainless water pitcher that was a gift from a very dear friend.
And the straight line quilting… sigh. It’s my favorite thing!
Now for some really exciting news! You can enter to win a package of twenty of these amazing Wonder Pins!! All you have to do is go to my Instagram account here and follow the instructions on my giveaway post! The giveaway will end on Monday, August 17 when a winner will be randomly chosen. This giveaway will be open to all Canadian and United States citizens.
I hope you are still enjoying your summer. If I could, I would invite you over to sit down at my porch table and have a piece of pie and a glass of iced tea!
~ Dori ~
P.S. Don’t forget to head over and enter the Wonder Pin giveaway!!!
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