I found these ‘Magic Pins’ in a quilt shop here in my new hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado.  I am very hopeful that they will help prevent the hurts my right hand, middle finger gets when pushing in regular pins to a cardboard base to block my tatting.  Last time I blocked about a dozen pieces and my finger hurt for over a week. My husband forbade me showing off my owwie to everyone (it was my middle finger!). Sometimes I wear a thimble when pushing in pins to block my tatting. But it seems that the thimble impedes my progress a bit, especially when using a large number of pins.

Then I went to the Quilt Show here in Grand Junction, CO and found these ‘Pretty Pins’. I think that these later pins might be kinder to my finger than the ‘Magic Pins’. But the heads may get in the way of one another if the piece I’m blocking needs a whole bunch of pins close together.