I'm new to quilting but I was delighted to pass on a bit o' wisdom I learned to another newbie last night at the quilt shop and saved her $10.00. :thumbup:

Last year when I started quilting, I bought a cone thread holder with a long arm since I needed to use cones and not spools. It was worthless because all it was just a disc with a shallow indention and a long plastic arm to send the thread to my machine. The arm kept falling off and the cone would walk off time and again. I have a wonderful elderly quilting neighbor that I visit with often and I told her of my thread woes. She laughed and told me to use a small glass jar and to take that thing back. "You'd never have made it through the depression spending moeny like that." LOL She was so right about the jars! Now I save all my small jars and bottles for cone thread holders--they're free, storage is easy, thread doesn't unravel and they work. :-D

What good idea have you had that would benifit others? How about passing them on just in time for weekend quilting? :-D

Sashing-Sarah709

I have use the black office binder clips for holding together the layers of an interfaced tote bag that were way too thick to pin together. That worked very good!

Love this idea! :thumbup:

I keep a small hand thrown ceramic put (approx. 3" wide by 3" tall or maybe a little bigger) by my machine to throw scrap threads into....it saves on cleanup!

Vanessa in Oklahoma

Another tip! I bought a makeup kit that came with very nice, very thick and expensive brushes for everything. I took one of the shorter handled, thick powder brushes to use for cleaning lint from my machine! It works so much better than the cheap plastic brushes sold for this purpose.

Vanessa in Oklahoma

Speaking of cleaning out the lint.... I use pipe cleaners for that. They are long enough to reach way down in the bottom corners and thin enough to pass between the plate and the bobbin thingy.

I'd have to say . . . change that dull rotary cutting blade when it needs it. Makes all the difference!

Take a class to learn about your machine. How to clean it - how far to take her apart - how to adjust the tension, etc. I used to be intimidated by my machine until I took a class. It makes a big difference in performance.

The best tip I've learned is to cut scraps AS I GO, anticipating a flying geese queen. I cut 3x5 bricks. The "sky" squares are pre-cut also. Before I start a seam on the current project, I stitch about 10 geese seams. Keeps me from being bored and the goose quilt should be half-done by the time I finish the current project, BTW, does anybody want scraps that are smaller than 3 x 5? Many good strings. Free; just pay shipping.

What a great idea using jars for the thread! :thumbup: I've been trying to figure out something for mine, I'll give it a try.