My Favorite Stuff ....Part 1

Here are a few of my favorite quilting/sewing things that I want to share with you.  Hopefully that will spur you all on to share some of your favorites with me.  Some of these I have probably already shared with you in past blog posts but since they are things I use all the time and really love I will repeat them.

The first one I am going to show you is a magnetic pin cushion.  I purchased mine when they first came out many years ago and it is shaped sort of like a rounded square but is large like the Grabbit ones you can buy now.  I like that I don't have to take time to stick the pins in a cushion as I am sewing.  When stitching on the sewing machine I take the pins out before I get to them and kind of toss them towards the pin cushion.  Calling it a cushion is really stretching it since it is not a cushion at all but old habits die hard.  The pins all line up the same way so you can pick one up without sticking yourself with another one.

When we had a house cat I had to lay a paper or fabric over the magnetic pin cushion or Toby would get on my sewing table and grab a mouthful of pins and take off down to the basement.  She never poked herself since the pins all laid all the same way but scared me a couple of times.  She liked all shiny things and one time took my wedding ring off of my dresser in the bedroom.  I later found it in the living room under a quilt rack where she liked to lay.  Boy was I relieved when I saw the diamond sparkling as I walked by it as I had searched everywhere for it!  Our girls soon learned to keep their necklaces and earrings put away too as a few of them got either carried off or batted off the dresser tops as well.

Speaking of pins, my favorite kind are silk pins.  They are really sharp and so fine and easy to pin fabrics together for piecing and don't leave large holes.  The brand I buy is pictured below.

I have two different needle threaders that I love and both are made by Clover. The one is a Desk Needle Threader and works so slick.  You put the needle eye into a hole, lay the thread across a groove and press the lever down and presto it pushes a loop of thread through the eye.  The older my eyes get the more I depend on it to thread my hand needles.

The second one is more like the traditional needle threader.  What makes it special is it has two sizes of wire so the fine one will pull thread through those really tiny eyed needles.  I have these needle threaders with every ongoing project I have and some to spare.  I can hardly thread the size 11 sharps without a needle threader.

The last "favorite" I am going to show you now is this folding seam ripper.  It has a sharp point and cuts well but the best part is that it folds into the lid so you never have to look for a lid when you want to take it with you to a class or workshop.  The point doesn't get bent or dull from banging around in your sewing box either.

Will share more of my favorites in future posts so come back - also post a comment on what your favorites are too.  The best way to find out what your favorites are is to look beside your machine or where you were working last and I would guess there are a few things you would not like to be without.


Happy Quilting,
Lynn