In Praise Of Pinless Sewing

Being laid up post-op and unable to sew I decided to show one of the ways to avoid the nuisance of pinning when joining blocks.
To date I think that I have made around 15 Bonnie Hunter quilts and a few others that require piecing together many tiny pieces of fabric so any technique that saves time is a winner with me.
Placing pins and removing them slows down the process so any time I can avoid it I do and honestly I rarely pin!
As I was working on the latest BH quilt Grand Illusion a couple of weeks ago and flying through the piecing of four patches I though about this and decided to take a few pics to show how accurate it can be when the blocks are properly prepared.
I press and trim at every step, it makes for much more accuracy, ease of stitching and a nicer finished product. For this to work you need to pay attention to which way the seams are pressed and most times the designer will indicate which direction to press to make nicely nested seams.

Here are a couple of views of how it looks when the blocks are well aligned.

You can see how the bottom fold is bang up against the stitching line on the top piece

It matters which direction the seams are turned, the top piece should have the seam allowance pointing towards the needle then as you sew the pressure from the foot will force the top seam allowance snug up against the bottom piece and and see how perfectly it has lined up.

 Another view………...

 notice that I keep my finger firmly on the fabrics right up to the foot to be sure that they do not shift.

and again a perfect result.

So if you have been meticulously pinning try this next time and see if it doesn't work for you, just a simple thing and a great time saver. Unfortunately it is not always possible to use this technique on everything but it is an advantage when you can.