Thread: do you use anything "unusual" around the house in your quilting?

My one quilt group is meeting in a couple of weeks and the topic of the meeting is "shortcuts"! I haven't been able to do much sewing the last couple of months due to BOTH my parents either in the hospital or in a nursing home. Right now Mom is in a nursing home for rehabilitation and Dad is in another nursing home due to Alzheimers. so enough about why I haven't been sewing! I thought instead of showing a shortcut it would be kinda fun to see some things you can use around the house for quilting/sewing that you might not think could be used. Any one have something they use? Thanks!

I use masking/painters tape to keep bias edges from stretching.

When I'm working with small pieces of fabric and small templates, I sometimes use scotch tape to tape the fabric to the cutting board and then tape the small template on top. Really stops fabric/template from moving.

The most unusual thing I use I got from my gynecologist. When they do a pap smear they use a long wand with bristles on one end - like a very, very long eyelash applicator (about 6 inches). It is flexible and can get into every little nook and cranny when I need to clean the bobbin area of lint. I just asked my OBGYN for a few - after explaining why - and she gave me about a dozen. Turns out she and her sister sew/quilt and she now uses them on her machine also.

I use a small plastic paintbrush to clean down inside my machine. Works better than the brush it came with.
I have two rails with from Ikea that are supposed to be for hanging kitchen implements mounted above my cutting table - top row is for scissors and rotary cutters, bottom row is for small rulers.

I use a long pipe cleaner to remove any dust or fluff from my machine. Much more pliable than a brush and can get right down into the machine. My mechanic has said on several occasions that my machines are the cleanest he's ever seen. He has told me I need only have them serviced every 2 years instead of every 12 months.