Your sewing foot will probably go over the pins holding your fabric together. That wouldn't be your problem.

You need to be super careful about sewing over pins because if your needle hits a pin while going down, it could break your needle. If you break your needle pieces could go a variety of places and make more of a problem.

It's best to sew up close to the pin, stop, take the pin out and keep sewing. That's a good habit to get into.

Hope this helps. And keep practicing!!

I don't sew over pins. If you do and don't wear glasses, wear some kind of eye protection in case the needle breaks. Just keep looking at the manual and then one day, you'll say 'Eureka!' Good luck!

Sharon

Well! I know I will always remove the pins as I come to them! I do wear glasses but have rather expensive lens and don't want to ruin them!
I will keep practicing and hope that "Eureka" day comes really soon. LOL
Speaking of breaking needles, do you ever break a needle while hand quilting? I have broken several lately and the pieces thankfully fly across the quilt and not onto the floor. I try to remember to get a new needle after using one for a while. It is always such a shock for my needle to just snap in two!

Deb

Hi there, I'm so happy I didn't realize gardenweb had quilting forums! Yay!

I know a lot of quilters do sew over their pins, and just like anything it's your personal preference, I believe there are no right or wrongs in quilting. That being said, however, I don't like to sew over pins for the reasons mentioned above, you could break your needle, which is usually a very easy, inexpensive fix (unless you have a very rare or old machine), it might fly into your eye which has happened to me before! But also, I have accidently run over pins and had part of the pin jam down into the feed...there are a lot of problems that can arise from this happening, fortunately I haven't damaged my machine but I have heard of ladies who have, and they were not small inexpensive repairs. So my personal suggestion, being that you're new to your machine and it has sentimental value to you, I would not sew over pins. Lol* But as I said, there are many quilters who may disagree with me, but that's my two cents! :)

By the way - about the skipping over the pins part...unless you have some new amazing computerized machine I haven't discovered yet, there is no sensor or anything to cause your machine to miss the pins or skip over them...it's purely luck! LOL* It's a machine, so that needle goes down wherever it is supposed to go down, pin or no pin. Lol* Usually your pins are spaced enough that you'll likely miss, and experienced quilters know how to judge that spacing. I'm sure not experienced enough to avoid hitting them because I have manytimes, unintentionally! When they come out with that fancy machine that has a pin sensor, it'll be for sure on my wish list! Lol* :) Good luck to you! :)

Regarding the needles snapping during hand quilting...what kind and how long are they? I haven't had one snap while quilting, but I also haven't done loads of it either. That's a new thing to watch out for! Lol* :)

Alex Anderson wrote an article on pinning for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine a couple of years ago, after doing major damage to her sewing machine after hitting a pin with the needle. She recommends pinning far enough away from the seam that you are in no danger of hitting the pins. Another good thing to remember is to take the smallest "bite" into the fabric that you can which will still hold your pieces together and with just the tip of the pin, if possible. When piecing blocks, I take a bite that's only about 1/16" with just the tip of the pin. This makes it easy to pull pins as a I go, which I still do even though they aren't in the way of the needle--force of habit, I guess! I use a magnetic pin keeper which is nice because I only have to toss the pins at the dish and it grabs them.

I try to remove the pins just before I sew over them. I have accidentally gone over some and broken needles and messed up the timing on the machine. I use very thin piecing pins so they will pass under the presser foot with no problem, but they are so thin they may get bent.

beverly

Gosh, I am glad I came here and asked before I went and did something stupid!!! I would hate to tear up this sewing machine. I don't know how old it is, can't find a year for it but it was my precious MIL's and she loved to sew. I didn't know I had the embroidary thingys for it! But David found the little box that holds them and also the box of foots that go with it. I love to handquilt so I will continue to do all that by hand but I want to make a log cabin quilt and figure a sewing machine will help me "whip" that baby out! All the woman in my family can sew beautifully using a sewing machine...but not me. My Grandmother was head seamstress for the Belk Hudson's here in town. One of my Aunts made all those fancy dresses the teens wear in our local Azalea Trail event each spring...I hope to discover I have inherited at least a smidgeon of their talent sewing! Sewing by hand I can do, I have made many quilts that are beautiful, but I'd love to be able to sew something using the machine...LOL

So....no sewing over pins for me!!! Thanks ladies!

deb

I agree that the best plan is to pin from the inside of the seam far enough away to avoid contact of the pins with the needle. However, I've sewn over pins enough to break needles (doesn't happen often) and bend pins (more likely to happen). I have never hurt the machine (tho there is scary noise when they make contact) or needed any repair as a result. Fifty years of sewing talking here.

When a needle breaks, it snaps in ONE place and the thread is still through the eye which means the loose piece is still tethered to the work and not at all likely to fly up in your eye. I have never had a pin break in two. Not saying that anyone should not wear protective glasses, pin carefully, pull the pins out before they reach the needle or take any other preemptive cautionary measures. Just inserting some practical reality.

Sewing a little slowly over pins gives the fabric and the descending needle additional time adjust to allow the needle to deflect appropriately. And it's worth considering that an older machine may have less ability to scoot to one or the other side of a pin and probably is harder to locate repair resources so factor that in.

Still, there are those points that you want to be precise and sometimes pinning and sewing over it is the way to go. I'd hate for anyone to be unduly frightened or apprehensive when they do that.

Actually, the older machines handle pins better than new machines and are less likely to suffer serious timing damage than a new one. The newest machine I sew on dates to the early 1950s, and I usually piece on a machine from the 1920s. (I collect and use antique treadle and handcrank sewing machines.) The timing is so simple on the old machines that it's quite hard to throw it off and they have no trouble whatsoever deflecting around pins. However, I have had the broken end of a needle put such a big scratch in the bobbin race, that I had to replace it. I can do my own repairs on my old machines, so this wasn't a big deal, but it was a nuisance that was completely avoidable.

Good to know!

I only once sewed on a really old machine. My m-i-l had an old Singer treadle machine that I never saw her use. One day after she died I had to sew something at her house and used it. It took me a while to get the hang of keeping it going at a steady speed, but once I did I had the most amazing experience. It was so smooth and quiet!

My b-i-l the artist -- and her son -- took the machine. That was more than 30 years ago. A couple years ago he offered it to me. ...only he and the machine are in NYC and I'm in LA. One day.

I do all my sewing on treadles. I'm FM quilting a queen-size quilt on one right now.

What does FM mean? :o))

The Boston Commons quilt I am quilting now is a queen size. Mama used shades of blue with a calico brown and soft solid brown as the pattern called for. It has the white muslin panels with fancy feather stitching in them. The colors go so good together and the feather stitch pattern just sets it all together. I am doing all the quilting by hand...sore fingers! Today I put bandaides on 4 fingers and that helped!

Deb

I usually try to avoid sewing over needles ... but like imrainey, have sewn over pins enough to break needles and bend pins (more likely to happen). I have never hurt the machine (tho there is scary noise when they make contact) or needed any repair as a result. Good luck with your stitching!
Sue/polardream

I have often sewed over needles and have had some break, but if I go slowly over them, they usually don't break. None of my machines have ever been damaged by needles breaking.

Just once a needle broke in threes. That scared me because I had a hard time finding the small middle part that flew off onto the floor.

That said, like some of you here, I try to have just the tip of the pin in a "dangerous place" and often manage to remove it just before the needle reaches it. When I can, when not having to match up points, etc., I pin parallel to the seam with the heads of the pins toward me, and then it is easy to slip them out as the needle reaches their points.

I am not too good at matching seams using pins, anyway. When the seams just refuse to stay aligned, I have resorted to gluing the pieces together with some sort of stick glue. Then I have to open out the seams and scrub at them with a wrung-out washcloth to get the glue out before I can iron the seam. Messy. But it does the job.

Deb--FM stands for "free motion", the method of machine quilting by moving the quilt around independently of the feed dogs.

I sew over pins all the time..the key word here is sew OVER pins,not ON pins! LOL!!! I sew right till my needle is to the pin,then sew very slowly over the pin,watching to see that my needle will come down without hitting it.

I never sew over pins, at least not on purpose, just pull them out as I go along.