Scraplady

Fortunately I haven't made any really pricey boo-boos. I've never been to a quilt show so have yet to fall prey to the old "they made it look so easy" schtick. One thing I bought was a specialty foot to sew circles and flowers. I used it once. It's now in its box pushed to the back of a drawer where there is a knothole in the wood. It works very nicely to keep other things from falling out of the drawer. It cost less than $20, so no huge loss. I do spend money on books that I never actually make quilts from, but I always buy them cheap and if they even inspire me, then they have served their purpose. Nowadays I do tend to buy more books that actually teach techniques than those that are just collections of patterns. One other thing that turned out to be not so hot was some kind of ergonomic rotary cutter my DH bought for me. It was made by True Cut and was supposed to be designed for folks with carpal tunnel. But the way my hand fits over the cutter makes it almost impossible to see what I'm cutting and the angle was awkward so I would up having to press down a lot harder to get it to cut, which just made my wrists hurt in other places. It's hanging on a hook in my sewing room gathering dust.

I am curious which kind of rotary blade sharpeners have gotten the most complaints. I bought one years ago that is a hassle to use because you have to take the blade out of the cutter, sharpen it, then reassemble the cutter before you can test to see if its sharpened enough. If you have to do this several times before you get it sharp enough, it's a royal pain. And it only works on 45mm blades, the one I use most is a 65mm. Again it was not terribly expensive so no great loss. Then a few months ago I bought a linear sharpener from the Grace Company that works on any size blade and virtually any brand of cutter. I absolutely love it. You leave the blade in the cutter to sharpen it. It now sits on my table right next to my cutting mat and I use it all the time when my blade starts to get a little dull. It won't make a blade last forever, but it sure extends their useful life!