i love my freezerpaper, magnet gudget that you put on the right side of the foot on the sewing machine so you have great 1/4", school glue for stubborn meeting points, inklingo things, sharon schamber things, och....so much, my quilt magazines,....and i wish i had know quilting 20 years ago!

http://www.angelfire.com/art3/elainesquiltyshop/Iron.html


Here is a link to directions for making an ironing board. If I can make it so can you.
Lady Rags

Diane, that's a great idea! I have one of those tack guns. I think I'll use that on my next OBW!

Thanks,
Chelley

Chelley and Diane,
I hope you have better luck with your tack gun that I did! (Although this was about 10 years ago, so take it from that distance). I didn't like mine. The little tacks were so long that they let the sandwich shift and move every which way but loose! -- I had to take all of them out and hand baste the darn thing. Maybe now the tack thingy's are shorter or something. Hope it works for you, however.

Eileen - what kind of chair is it? My DH has been talking about getting a new one for my sewing room, and I would be interested in what you found and like!

Thanks, Mary Kay

PS - How are things with the grandbaby???

My 2 favorite tools are the extended table for my Babylock and my new sewing chair that my daughter gave me for Christmas. They make it so comfortable to sew now. No more hunched shoulders and holding the fabric with white knuckles.
eileenkny

About 2 months ago, I bought a Sewline fabric pencil (with eraser) and this thing is AWESOME! The chalk (or whatever the substance is) comes in a number of colors in addition to the traditional black, white, pink, etc). The line it drawers is fine, it's erasable, and I am sooooo happy with it, that I stopped using all the other fabrics pencils, pens, chalk, etc and plan to donate them so they don't go to waste! Any way, if you see them in your LQS, give them a try - I Love this product! MK

QuilterLynn wrote:
My Mom is a retired nurse and when I was a kid, she used to put her damp caps in the fridge and then iron them stiff. I loved the smell of the starch.

eileenkny

Love my mechanical chalk pencil! I use Sewline one - it looks and feels just like a standard mechanical pencil with the skinny leads - and all sorts of colors!

My Cotton Picker has come in handy trying to get all the pieces of lint and thread out of my cutting board.

My Precision Seam Ripper is awesome! Makes unsewing so much faster - but I have to be really careful not to cut my fabric.

And last but not least, I have these little scissors with no brand name on them. They are used sort of like tweezers when I cut, but its made so the blades are flat against the fabric when I cut. Is great for clipping hanging threads really, really close to the fabric.

I also have the Fons and Porter mechanical pencils--two of them--one in white and one in graphite. I just love them! I always use mechanical pencils--don't like pencil sharpeners! Betty D in cold Delaware OH

Fonz and Porter has a white chalk mechanical pencil that I tried at a retreat last weekend. It works SO WELL!! It makes a very fine line. No sharpening required. Comes with lots of refills and I think you might be able to purchase other colors.

I've been so frustrated lately with trying to use other chalk pencils that require sharpening and this is a great relief! I wish I'd known about this sooner. It's worth the $12 many times over!!

Nancy in western NY

Well.... I don't know that it is technically legal but what I do is go to the library and borrow books on CD. I take them home and then use Windows Media Player to "rip" the cds, which puts them on my hard drive in a digital format that I can then sync to my mp3 player. I only keep the books long enough to listen to them though, and then I delete the whole thing from my hard drive. I do not keep a perminant copy, although I could if I wanted. This way I can return the CDs to the library quickly though and I reduce the chance of overdue fees, losing discs, damaging discs, etc. The way I see it I am just putting them in a more convienient format for listening.

I love my ergonomic rotary cutter. I would have had alot less pain in my hand if I'd gotten it earlier. I also love my 45mm cutter for when I'm doing paper piecing or other small stuff. Adore that little Clover iron (looks like a curling iron ) too.

I love my case with wheels for taking my machine on outings. I foolishly thought I could carry my machine around the Padukah show in 2004 and remember how sore my arm got!

I adore my cutting table. It's called The Ultimate Quilting Center and was featured at JoAnn's at Christmas time. It was fun for me and my hubby to assemble and is just the right height for laying stuff out, cutting and planning. Plenty big enough for all the rulers and a basket of other supplies at the one end and folds up if I want it to take up less room. 3 nice drawers and a door with 2 shelves inside. All this for under $150.

The thing I COULD NOT DO WITHOUT is my OTT LIGHT. I suffer from seasonal depression and this has saved me several winters now. I use it as my regular lamp next to my chair in the living room for reading or hand sewing. I also have one at each sewing machine (don't ask how many!).

Very rainy but still warm in western NY today! Nancy

Mandy, where do you down;oad ur books in MP3 format?

Carla

My thing is not actually a quilting tool at all, lol. I just recently bought an MP3 player after I found them on sale at Elder Beerman. It is a 4G one, just an off brand not an IPod or anything, but it had been marked down from $200 to only $45 on a special clearance sale. It took just a bit to figure out how to use it, but once I did I have been loading it with all kinds of stuff to listen to while I quilt - at one point I had 6 hours worth of Alex's pod casts on it I currently have two different books on tape loaded in (Douglas Preston's Blasphemy and Lincolin Child's Deep Storm as well as about 30 music cd's ranging from country, to rock, to musicals and soundtracks. My current favorites for listening have been Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Les Miserables, guess I am on a Broadway kick We have even gone back and bought a second one (last one in stock at that price, wahoo!) for my dh so he doesn't have to haul his cd's back and forth to work anymore. Anyway, I just love this for listening when I am quilting though, since it is so small it fits in my pocket and it stays out of the way.