Where do you start your Binding? (Straight no angles)?

YES get one. I use a long quilting pin if I can't find mine when I'm sewing

I use a corsage pin. Cheap and effective! :)

I use an orange stick that you find in the personal care section of a store. They are used for manicures and have a sharp tip on one end and an angled tip on the other. They are made of wood. Inexpensive and works great.

Bonnie Hunter's site has instructions for making a beaded stiletto out of the needle you use to close a turkey you're roasting (does anyone do that anymore?!?) http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/...stilettos.html

I use a sitello all the time. Best tool I ever bought.

Love the idea of the porcupine quills. They are super pretty. Just ordered some from etsy. Yeah.

I have an old metal cuticle pusher (has flat end and pointed end) and I use my seam rippers. Pencils (eraser end). Depends on the fabric.

I use my stiletto esp. joining the end of pieces with points such as trianges.

Another trick that I was taught is to use a trailing pin. You put the pin in point first at the pointy end where you will end sewing. The pin should be to one side of the where you sewing machine needle with go thru the fabric. As the feed dogs pull the fabric away from you, just hold the top of the pin and slowly let it slide out of the fabric as the fabric moves.

You will finish with a perfect 1/4 inch seam rather than one that veers crooked. Works like a charm. Just be sure your sewing machine needle doesn't hit the pin. I hold the pin start helping it extract before the machine needle reaches it. Stitch slowly at this point.

This is what I use... I cut them in half, put cut one into pencil sharpener to get the point on it too and then have plenty of them. With these it is a bit safer ifi it gets under the needle

Like Aurora, I also use the screwdriver. It is always at the machine, since with my vintage machine I need it to change the feet.

I use an orange stick, and have since I was in grade school. That was NOT last weeek. A quilt guild was handing out flat at both end sticks at a show last spring and other than being long, I believe I like them better.

Ok, was totally thinking shoes...LOL

I use a pick from an old nut cracker set I have. One end pointed and the other end I use to cradle pins (for closing) when I pin baste a quilt sandwich.

dab of Elmer's, maybe? many of QBrs swear by the stuff...I'm dying to try it....I have a quilt in mind to start and I want to try it. BTW, I do use a stilettol even when reg.sewing.

I haven't but I will have to pull one (or something similar) out of my craft toys and try it

Mine sits right in front of the machine along with my nippers and use it all the time. Great for easing in a little fullness without a pucker. I have a nice study metal one my kids gave me for mother's day one year. Maybe its the memories of my kids that make it special, I don't know, but I know I wouldn't be without one.

I use a Purple Thang and wooden skewers that you can get in a pkg of 50 or so for very little. I have the skewers everywhere and if you lose one you've always got a ready supply.

I always ask for extra chopsticks at our local Asian restaurant. Put one end in the pencil sharpener ~ Voila! Free Stiletto and I have extras everywhere so I'm not always searching for one.

I use mine all the time also. Can't be without it for accurate piecing

I use to cut my fabric into triangles before sewing but stopped doing that after I watched Eleanor Burns. It is so much easier to draw a line on a square and sew a 1/4 of an inch on each side the cut them in half. But if I have to make a multiple number of hst I will place 2 fabrics right sides together, figure my measurements, example: for 4 1/2 in hst, to get 16 hst, cut fabric at 10 x 20 inches, mark fabric 5 inches all the way across the 20 inch side, then down the center of the 10 inch side. Then draw a line diagonally every other square set, the repeat going the other direction. Start sewing 1/4 inch on each side of all diagonally lines. Then cut apart on all drawn lines. Very easy. I hope this makes sense to you, if not here is Eleanors site for how she does this method making a bear paw block.

http://vimeo.com/album/1321436/video/15469320

I use bent tweezers, a bamboo skewer, a knitting needle or a used sewing machine needle that I stuck through a cork. They all work and I use whichever is closer when I need it.

I love this idea. I will be trying that. Every once in a while there is a triangle that you have to sew separately and can't make them from a square first. This would keep the points straight until they go under the needle.