our modern quilting tools
 

I thought this was kinda funny. Last night my parents came up and i was showing mom how my cracked 16 inch ruler is now 3 different rulers. i showed her the eight and 1/2 square one and said it would be perfect for my rag quilts. she laughed and said remembered when i made your nephews their jean rag quilts? (oldest nephew is 29) i used one of their golden books - remember those? I thought about and how we always seems to find something that can be used around the house for quilting and we make do with what we have sometimes.

Sandpaper!!! The best thing for making applique templates and in fact may take the place of the square rulers for HST! (At least I will try that....) The nice thing is that sandpaper doesn't slide when you are tracing your template onto the fabric.

Also the old standby - freezer paper. I buy tons of that.

I do remember my mom sitting at the kitchen table with a pad of paper, scissors, ruler and sketching out her next quilt, making the templates and cutting it all by hand! She made a lot of bed size quilts without the first gadget. Love my mom!

I had to empty out part of my attic and found a box of old quilt magazines and looking through an old one - was a page of "new" gadgets, etc. - on it was a rotary cutter and mat - I am not sure of the year - but it was in the 80's.

Quilting has come a long way in a few years. Thank goodness! I guess I look at quilting and it's tools alot like other things in my house. 45 years ago my Dad's wood shop was VERY different from today's wood shop. He could still work the old tools as well as the new ones and I too pride myself in being able to quilt the "old" ways and the new ways. I find myself, like my Dad did, combining the two "eras" and selecting what works best for me.

However I have to share that my Hubby has snitched 2 of my quilting rulers to use for his projects - not to mention I've snitched lets see, aluminum washers (curtain weights), various zip ties (works great for turning tubes) etc.

And I remember when Rotary stuff hit the market. I was skeptical - but took a class and fell in love with them. I used them for home decor before quilting.

Has anybody considered using bicycle clips for free-motion quilting? Would hold the rolled up quilt really well.
http://www.amazon.com/SunLite-91715m...d_sim_sbs_sg_2

I have Quilters Newletter magazines from the 1970's which are printed on newsprint. Quilting has come a long way since then.

I had clips and decided that I didn't like them. They kept catching on things.

Sandpaper also will quickly sharpen your scissors; just cut a few strips of sandpaper with them and it sharpens them. I normally just cut about a dozen small slits across the sandpaper and keep on cutting.

I don't know how the sandpaper can replace the rulers for HST but if you lay your blocks on the sandpaper before marking the lines down the center it keeps the fabric still. You still need the ruler to square it up after you've made the HST.

I love the little plastic containers with the locking lids. I put my magnetic pin holder in it and take it to my classes and the pins all stay inside of the container. I get to my class and can just open the lid or take the magnetic holder out and use it that way. Works great and keeps the pins where they belong.

I originally used bicycle clamps for FMQ but then discovered the resulting roll made it much more difficult to maneuver on my regular sewing machine. I now use the "fluff and stuff" method and it's much easier. Just finished a queen size on my regular machine.

I used old X-ray film to make my templates. They had to be soaked in bleach first. One I had was an x-ray of a small child with an open safety pin lodged in the throat. I often wonder how that came out. ;)

I used them as well -- that sausage is too cumbersome to move around.

I am of the old school, still use old fashioned quilting tools. My "rulers" are wooden yardsticks - I have a 1 ft, 2 ft, 3 ft. and 4 ft.

I think some of the new tools are kind of silly, that you see in catalogs. Do I really need to spend $16. for a little container to hold my snipped off thread ends? I thought that's what the floor was for. ;-)

Been there, done that! Just not with a Golden Book!

What is fluff & stuff?

All i have to say is thank god for technology, my first quilt was done by hand. if there weren't all these modern tools I would not be a quilter, still working on finishing my first by tying it almost 20 years later

I don't live in an old fashioned world and don't want to. I love new quilting tools. Have you seen the new seam ripper? It's called the Seam Fix seam ripper. It's getting rave reviews from quilters.

some the stuff (and the prices) crack me sideways.

the last time i stood transfixed before the wall of notions at my lqs, i was mystified by the $12 squares designed to help you pull the needle through the sandwich.

i use a square of an old rubber kitchen glove.

stuff like that isn't about progress or modernity or ease. it's about fools being parted with their money. soon-ish-ly.

aileen

I always have a pair of needle nose pliers on hand.... My favorite part of quilting is when the big name stores have sales and using my extra % off coupons to buy all the fun sometimes unnecessary notions!

LOL you have got that right :thumbup:

Thats a good one thats where I thought the thread ends where put also .lol..

I remember seeing an article in some quilting magazine several years ago that had an antique quilt that was sort of "bricks". It turns out the lady had used a postcard for her pattern. Actually, not a bad idea! The quilt was actually really neat (but then again, I like antique quilts, so...).

I remember my mom using our school papers we brought home for paper piecing string quilts

I always end up using coasters and jar lids when I'm making circles for quilts or yoyo's and Plates and saucers to 'round' the corners! But then again I use a mason jar lid to cut out biscuits...and mason jars to hold popcorn, buttons and beads! I just LOVE old jars, I love recycling and I actually LOVE the primitive look! It's all about making do with what you have. It reminds me of that saying, "Happiness is not about having everything you want but being happy (content) with what you have." As my mother used to say..."make do with what you have."

Yes indeed, couldn't live without em!

We made a yoyo quilt for our guild President and used an old scratched CD and rotary cutter to
cut the circles....then they were the same size. I cut at least 4-6 at a time; great tool.

And now they have the Clover Yo-Yo Maker which I have and love. I would never make a yo-yo the old fashioned way unless it was just one or two for a flower to be appliqued.

Instead of rolling the quilt sandwich into a sausage (which gets really unwielding) the quilt is "fluffed and stuffed" into the machine throat. Then the part to be quiltet is patted down so you only have to deal with the small space directly under and around the needle. It makes the quilt easier to handle. Of course, the larger the quilt the more fluffing and stuffing you have to do.

We now use hair clips to hold the binding down. They may be called quilt clips but by golly, they sure look like hair clips to me. Small bottle brushes or other kitchen brushes are used to clean the machine.

my first & only learning how to quilt class was fr shop owner friend who had taken a rotary cutting class fr judy hopkins, was hooked & started giving classes, using the judy hopkins book "its ok you can sit on my quilt" book. great book, class, & that rotary cutter & rulers were soon at work measuring and cutting wall paper, made a perfect "square" measure to check the height of a son taller than me by the time he was 12, & in current home the rotary rulers for laying out lines to paint accent strip on ceiling. rotary cutters and accessories best inventions ever!

Curious, so I looked it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXyot_s7Bhc
Couldn't find many places to buy one, but saw on eBay, approx. $10 with shipping. I think I'll use my fingers to remove threads for now.

Why are so many so negative about anyone buying new quilting tools? I buy new quilting tools. It may seem foolish, silly or wasteful to others that I spend $ on an item that is in their opinion unnecessary or say it's over priced for what it is. Many quilters have spendable income to spend and don't have to justify the cost vs. need. I use to give new product demos for my guild. I quit because of the negativity from many of the older members who never tried it but deemed the product silly or expensive. They sucked the simple joy out of every demo for me and others.

Nothing outstanding about the seam ripper itself, right? The thread remover looks like the end of a tension rod for curtains, don't you think?

hm. it's like the wedding industry i guess. if you brand something for weddings, you can charge a lot more for it than you could otherwise. i think this happens with quilting too. call it a tool for quilting and you have a market that will spend more money for something than it would otherwise.

our national fabric store, fabricland, has started to carry a lot more stuff for quilting. they had the fons and porter mechanical marking pen. is there something really different about this mechanical pencil that would justify it costing $18? the local office supply store had a range of mechanical pencils from $2-$12. so i could buy the f&p leads for $8 and still come out a few dollars ahead. i use #2 leads so i skipped the whole thing, but the point remains.

there are lots and lots of notions that are very useful and no one is to say how another should spend their own money. quilting changes all the time, and some of the quilts we see just wouldn't be possible without some of the new technologies. that's not where my sense of derision came from.

but i do feel that there is a certain amount of advantage being taken, and that maybe if we did stop and think for a minute about what we need and what we want and leave aside whether or not we can afford it (and saying i can afford it as a reason to buy it you know?) we'd probably buy a whole lot less generally.

but this is probably more political than warranted here at qb, so i say hey man, if you want to spend $12 on precut little rubber squares made for quilters, the peoples republic of china thanks you for supporting their manufacturing sector.

aileen

I thought it looked kind of like an eraser, I'm guessing it is made of something that grabs the threads. I would love to have it because my fingernails are like cellophane so I use a tweezer to grab the threads. I couldn't find the place that actually sells it but there are many on YouTube who love it!

I really enjoy buying any tool that makes quilting more fun. Last Friday I found a mini iron at Target for $9.99 (plus my 5% discount). It is made by Sunbeam, and the steam lasted a surprisingly long time! The similar irons I saw on Amazon and eBay were $25. I've been using it and it works great. The thread was about that Clover mini-iron where I heard about them. I got that for Christmas but didn't like burning myself so I returned it.

My hubby encourages me to buy tools. He is an auto mechanic and always "has" to have a new tool, I'll never catch up to him, lol!

I haven't had much luck with bicycle clips. Unless your quilt is absolutely huge, they keep falling off. No matter how much I smush them, they just won't fit for me.

I haven't had any luck with clips. I have very little throat space so I find it easier just shoving the bulk of the quilt through. I do not think I'll make a full size quilt again unless I can send it out after piecing.

Take a look at the method of dividing your big quilts into 3 sections - you cut your batting into thirds, then insert the middle batt panel nto the quilt and quilt as desired. Then add the second panel on the side and quilt again, then add the third. There is a tute on it somewhere. Its a great method for handling big quilts without bulk and works well on machines with small harps.

Carries how do you you use zip ties for tube turning? i do a lot of applique and could use an easier method than a saftey pin!!!!

All the talk about all the "official" quilting tools, and the "re-assigned" tools, made me think of this thread. You might get some ideas ... and perhaps you have some more to add!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...g-t152963.html

About the binding clips vs. hair clips .... same ones yes, and much cheaper if you just buy them at the $ $tore. And you can find some pretty fun colours too, instead of the boring dull silver ones sold in quilters supplies.

Fluff & Stuff works for me. As you say it's much easier.