A new to me notion - fork pins

I had a very productive day at the meeting of the Nimble Thimbles guild in Gilbert Plains.  This guild meets twice a month for a day of quilting and visiting.  I attend when I can, and I have been taking my "Yellowstone inspired" quilt to work on.  I am happy to report that I have all 99 blocks pieced!I also got a chance to start putting rows together.

One of the great things about being part of a guild are the things you learn from other quilters.  A month or so ago, a couple of the ladies were watching me work on these blocks and asked if I had ever used fork pins to assist in the matching of all the points.  I had no idea what they were, and no one had any along that day so the discussion kind of stopped there .  The next time we met, Gail gave me this sweet needle book when I walked through the door.

Inside were some fork pins for me to try.

 Eleanor had been out of town to a quilt store and picked up an extra box with me in mind.

So here are two blocks ready to be pieced together an there are two point of the light blue that I want to make sure line up just right.

I always start by placing a pin in the seam right through the two spots that I want to exactly match.

Normally I would have taken a couple more pins and pinned on either side of the seam.  But enter the fork pin.... One prong on each side of the seam all in one step.  Very secure too I might add.  I would then remove my first pin.

I repeated this for the other point, again removing the first pin before I took it to the sewing machine.

And a great final result.

Nothing shifted at the sewing machine resulting in a match that I am willing to show you this close up!  Thanks Gail and Eleanor for introducing me to a new notion that I had no idea even existed.

On a note so positive note, we are dealing with an infestation of Forest Tent Caterpillars in our area.  They are EVERYWHERE!  

This is one tiny leaf.  Sometimes the whole tree is covered in this density. And they hang down off building and tree limbs.  My daughters have not been enjoying their walk to school as trying to avoid them is almost impossible.

This is a view of the trees in our Cul-de-sac.  It is so sad to see them defoliated.  The leaves should come back in a month, or so.  I just can't wait for these critters to move on!