So How Many Basting Pins Do I Have?

 I have finished all the quilts I had basted, so for the first time in years, I actually got to see all of my basting pins together.

There was no way I was counting this many pins, and the plastic grip covers take up a lot of space, so I decided the best way to estimate was by weight. I decided to weigh 50 pins and figure it out from there, but I realized that each pin with a pin cover weighed almost exactly 1 gram, so I just dumped all of the pins into a bowl and weighed that. (Yes I accounted for the weight of the bowl) So approximately how many pins do I have? You can guess, and I'll tell you at the end of this post.

I'm adding a disclaimer here. No one NEEDS this many pins. I bought these pins over several years, so it's not like I went out and went crazy buying pins. I do toss dull pins, but I reuse the plastic grips on the newer pins. Without the plastic grips, basting would be very difficult for me, my fingers don't always work as well as I'd like, and the grips make the process MUCH easier. Now, most importantly, yes, I do USE this many pins. I like to have a huge basting spree, where all I do for a week or so is baste quilts. I baste until I am out of pins, then I have a big stack ready to quilt. That works for me. It might sound crazy to some of you, and that's OK. All of us have to find the way we work best. Because I like to baste a bunch of quilts at once, and I don't like the idea of spraying my quilt with chemicals, I am unlikely to ever switch to basting spray, so lots of pins is the way to go for me. 

I've had three finishes this week, from a basting spree from long ago. Every time I baste a deadline quilt, I baste a couple UFO's too. My pile of quilts ready to baste goes up and down all the time. At the same time I feel a sense of accomplishment at seeing the area I store basted quilts empty, I'm also feeling the need to fill up that space again with basted quilts, so I'm hoping to get at least a couple quilts basted next week.

These two quilts were from a floral busting attempt a few years ago. I had a whole bolt of the background fabric, and I believe I ended up with four quilts from my floral busting efforts. The other two quilts were finished and gifted quite a while ago. 

This is the back of that second quilt. DH's grandmother's stash had a bunch of salmon-y peach in it and I knew I'd be unlikely to use it anytime soon. Using it for a backing worked well for me, and as long as I piece the backing as leaders/enders while I'm making the top, I don't mind piecing a backing like this. 

This quilt was made from leftovers of a quilt I made for DD#2. While quilting this, I decided it was time to make another quilt from this pattern, so I've been cutting one out from autumn colors and cream strips. 

That makes 13 finishes so far in 2021, not bad for mid-May.

This weekend DH is having a four day scooter event, so I've got lots of sewing time that isn't usually available. My weekend priorities are finishing one weighted blanket, and doing lots of cutting. Besides the weighted blanket, I don't really plan on doing much sewing. I have a wedding quilt to cut out, and I have some cutting to do to move a couple other quilts forward. I need to do quite a bit of fussy cutting for the wedding quilt, and that always takes longer than I expect, so I'm trying not to make my goals unattainable. 

OK, do you have your guess for the number of pins I have? The scale said 2,546 grams, so I'm estimating that number of pins. Was your guess too high or too low?