Sunday, December 29, 2019

Glue vs. Pins

I'm pattern testing for Andrea @ 3rd Story Workshop, and there are a lot of HRTs to make.  I often use glue when piecing small pieces or pieces cut on the bias.  But I've always wondered how much more time it takes to glue pieces rather than pinning them.

So I decided to time myself today.  I made four HRTs using glue and another four HRTs using pins.  I timed how long it took to glue the pieces together and then sew the seams.  It took 2 minutes 32.36 seconds.


And then I timed pinning and then sewing (removing the pins as I went).  It took 2 minutes 54.42 seconds.


I was surprised as I thought it would have taken longer to glue the pieces.  But you actually save time during the sewing process as you don't take time to remove the pins.  The pieces below on the left were glued, and the ones on the right were pinned.


The only downfall to using glue is that you can't press your seams open.  This is only an issue if you want to press your seams open to reduce bulk if your quilt top has a lot of seams.


I'm hoping to finish making all the HRTs today, so I can start piecing this week.

I've been  participating in the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge.  But I have not succeeded.  I like the idea of the challenge, but December is not a great month because it's so busy for the holidays.  As well, my nieces were here twice this month, and I drop everything to spend as much time with them during their short visits.



6 comments:

  1. I'm surprised too! I would have thought that gluing took much more time. I have a question- do you dry your seams after gluing with an iron, or let them air dry? I find that assembling all the pieces to glue, then gluing them, pressing them to dry then letting them cool was time consuming, or it seemed to be. Perhaps because it was new to me? vmccagg@gmail.com

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  2. I love using glue versus pins, and hardly ever use a pin anymore. I never timed myself but thanks to you I now now I save myself time by gluing.

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  3. I’ve never wanted to use glue because I’m such a klutz with it, but your pieces look so neat. What do you use for gluing—a stick or liquid?

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  4. Interesting little test. I think the challenge is a bit much in December myself and didn't read a lot of blogs as it was just "air" space.

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  5. That's really interesting! I pieced HRTs for the first time a few weeks ago and I found it a little challenging - yours look awesome!

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  6. Hi Anja! Just catching up on this post... the other reason for pins is cost. You will always have pins but will continually need to buy glue. Just a thought, because money is tight at the moment.

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