Back in the '80s when my daughter was a teen, she had an assortment of "Kaboodles" (plastic storage cases with lots of little compartments) for her makeup, jewelry, etc. When the fad passed, I snagged them for the sewing room. Each one is big enough to hold everything for a small project so I can just grab it and go.

I found what I believe to be a cosmetic case at Goodwill that has fold out shelves like a tackle box has. I use it to put sewing stuff in to take to work days for my club, Much better than the cloth bag I used to carry.

What a great idea ... I can never squint my eyes right to look thru those ruby beholders and make sense.

Where, pray tell, does one buy such quilt-fashionista eyeglasses? :)

Which brings to mind that the Pampered Chef Mini Pastry Roller would do the job too!

Ok sorry had to laugh at the picture of you sitting and sewing in the wee hours of the night w/ you miners hat on...great idea just got me chuckling. I love my magnetic dish from Harbor Freight.

'made a portable design wall using old fiberglass tent poles with shock cords. Added a little pocket in each corner of the GW flannel blanket, and a small tie in the middle. Can be free standing or hang from cup hooks.
Other items:
• door peephole to get an idea of how a fabric will look from a distance.
• the red glasses to determine values
• small photo albums to carry fabric swatches of my stash when shopping
• a pair of mirrors taped together to determine how a fabric will appear as a OBW
• spring clamps to hold fabric securely to a table - makes ripping easier
• Styrofoam stuffed into an old pen caddie where I can safely store craft knives
• old memo spindle to stack LA bobbins
• Hemostats and curved Kellys for reaching and grabbing
• mosquitostats which are helpful in conjunction with a tiny crochet hook for picking stitches
• sand paper board to keep fabric stable while marking
• a spoon for quick finger presses, (my fingers don't work as good as the spoon)

many of the previously mentioned items

Wow, since I went to bed last night, yall have really gotten with it. This is some good reading.

I toolk the silverware rack out of my old dishwasher before calling the haul away people. Sometimes they sell those at thrift stores. It sits right behind my sewing machine and all my tools are very handy

I have about 4 of the older metal covered cake pans. Keep near the cutting table and add the cut pieces as I cut; quickly can move to the sewing machine.Could not bear to get rid of as we don't bake near as often.
Canning jars- for buttons, lovely scraps,little knick knacks [like old wooden spools, bobbins, small rag balls,ect].
A smaller heavy wide mouth bowl set near the sewing machine to collect threads as I sew and trim my blocks. It never tips over.

An old mouse pad to stabalize the foot pedal

A grapefruit spoon to close the safety pins when sandwiching
Parchment paper and freezer paper for applique

I wear a thumb ring and stick a toothpick under it when I am appliqueing..it helps to arrange the fabric when doing needle turn.

I converted a wooden papertowel holder for large spools of thread. I drilled small holes in the base and put in two more dowels and put some eyelet lag screws in the top for thread guides. It can hold 3 large thread cones.

Wooden kebab to push material under needle.
Rubber fingers from office supply store to pull needle through when hand quilting.
Large plastic salad containers to hold fat quarters and scraps of material for paper piecing.(these are similar to shoe boxes)
Medicine bottles to hold quilting and applique needles.

A magnatic bowl that macanics? use for tools. I put straight pins and whatever else I can that will stick to it.

Baskets - all different sizes for storing fabric, notions, stabilizer rolls, etc.
Wooden crates for storing books
Gopher Grab it tool for picking up stuff that has fallen on the floor and isn't magnetic.

I also use the hanging closet sweater organizers to keep quilt kits together and plastic shoe boxes to hold projects that I have in process.

I stole my dh's 48" t-square - does a wonderful job cutting long borders
I've made a sandpaper board with 220 grit and cardboard to sign blocks or to draw my diagonals with.
styrofoam insulation board as a design wall
4x8 plywood table for a sewing/cutting/layout table
small plastic storage bins w/lids for projects
plastic drawer units for storing stuff in
baskets for scraps and holding quilting items that are used all the time.

Dang, I know there's more, I just can't think of it. As soon as I post, I'll go'll dang! LOL

Where do you get a "mole skin foot pad" to mark the 1/4" line on your plate? Sounds like a nifty idea!

Then come on back .... and post again!! ... and again ... and again ... and ..................
:lol:

Ours came form JoAnn's, on sale, near the end of Valentines Day stock.

I use an empty paper towel roll to roll my binding on and I slip it over a metal clothes hanger that i have cut the bottom part of and slip the paper towel roll over it and hang it on the wall behind my sewing machine to unroll my binding as I sew. You can buy such things but mine was FREE.

Surgical clamps for grabbing a stubborn hand quilting needle. Good also for tying too-short threads.
I use an old letter-holder for my rulers.
I purchased 5-power loupes from a gem shop that fit on the head for really close-up work.
A Rubbermaid storage container for my travelling sewing kit.
A rolling file caddy from Office Max for hauling my sewing machine to my weekly quilt group.
I snagged one of several of DH's zippered bags he got when renewing his golf mag subscription to carry my iron and small projects to quilt groups.
A beautiful antique wooden knitting needle to push out points.
Fuzzy pipe cleaners to remove the lint from my machine's bobbin area.
In my new sewing room that I'll have soon, I will have a beautiful 30" deep L-shaped computer desk for my sewing table.
An 18-pound purr-baby to hold down those pesky flyaway blocks!
Hair clips for holding binding.
A cut-and-reshaped wire clothes hanger for my hand quilting pattern stencils.
A three-panel screen-room divider that will be covered in flannel for my design wall.
Two six-foot-tall steel racks that hold my stash in plastic bins, 4 to a shelf.
A large fishing tackle box for quilting items.

Well, guess I won't be getting them, being that I'm not in the USA, at JoAnn's ... though I'll be watching to see if any show up in the stores here.

I did the same thing.

Some eyeglass companies do have red lens sunglasses. However, the school solution would be any old pair of glass frames, glue the red cellophane onto the frame. Before I got the glamour glasses, I just kept the cellophane in my swatch book.

!OH DANG!! I had to toss my wooden papertowel holder when I moved in with my daughter...would be a whole lot better than that $20 wooden thread holder I had to buy and it only holds one large spool of thread. Genius!!

I also use a spoon to close safety pins but never thought of using it to finger press ! Thanks for that tip!

From the Bass Pro Shop some kind of notebook zipper bag that they call a WORM BAG. Its has plastic bags that I put my sewing project that I'm working on. It has room for the fabrics that I'm using, finished blocks that I've already done, and all my thread and tools. Great for when you go to retreat and keeping your project all together. Only thing its not big enough to carry a pattern book, but you can put your individual single pattern in it.

I would like more info on the foam in the foot peddal for speed cotrol ? Please sounds intersesting.

I cant spell either... LOL, I just open another explorer tab & google dictionary the word.

Check with your optician (the people who make glasses). Some people are prescribed different colors to help their vision.

This is a GREAT tips & tricks thread!!!

ROFLWTIME !!!!! :lol: :lol:

I use cardboard from cereal boxes to make patterns for applique

Try here. http://www.halloweencostumes.com/red...unglasses.html

Thanks ... will keep my peepers open during this next month as all the ghosts and goblins stuff shows up in the stores.

-grapefruit spoon to close quilting pins or plastic knife in a pinch
-cardboard cubby display box being thrown out at store, for FQs
-appetizers skewers for stilletto
-all types of containers that food came in for storage
-shoe and delivery boxes for fabric scraps, cut up shirts, etc.
-file holder for rulers
-bed risers to raise cutting table
-adjustable small table to left side of machine
-bought mini tools at Christmas time when they were cheap
-cardboard for template making
-glass jars for buttons taken off recyled shirts
-cup holder w/koozie taken off broken beach chair screwed to side of cutting table to hold scissors and pens out of the way
-DH made a lap quilt hoop from an embrodiery hoop my mom left me.
-when I need something I check around the house/cellar first before buying "made for quilting" items. Got this talent from my dad. He was a great improvisor.

My sewing area is also the computer room and where my DH drops everything on earth, so the room has to be multitasking....
- a (very) purple four drawer lateral file cabinet, found at a thrift store, top drawer holds family files, other three hold fabric
- assorted glass jars of various sizes for pencils to buttons
- lacquered chop stick for poking out corners
- unlacquered chop stick for moving fabric, stylus style
- old, again thrift store find, dining table, the kind with utensil drawers, for a sewing table
- wire shelved bakers rack at the wall end of the "sewing table" is great for the shelves, but, you can hang many things from it with "S" hooks, also can use chip clips to hang up blocks or notes or patterns
- several different sizes of tackle style boxes to hold notions and machine accessories. Have an old plastic one given to me by my Mom when I was in junior high, 100 years ago, which lost its little trays, and it is a perfect holder for patterns
- shoe boxes for storage
- I use a show box lid next to my sewing machine to lay down sizzors, extra bobbin, seam ripper, stitch savers, etc

Would large-lens cheap non-prescription glasses from Rite-Aid work if you wet the lens and stick on some red plastic wrap cut to fit?

Probably, though you may experience some halo effect from the water. Squeegee well to avoid bubbles.

Elmer's school glue for holding binding in place = no pins needed after ironing, paper first aid tape for holding tracing paper in place while tracing a pattern from a book or pattern, margarine tubs to hold different sizes of safety pins, compass and protractor for making patterns.

All wonderful creative ideas ladies {sorry if i missed a Gents reply}, I too swiped the lg T square from hubby's workshop right along w/ a very nice Stanley 3 tiered nuts & bolt container to hold all the different feet for all my machines, it originally intrigued me because it matched the sewing rm colors..lol and he let it sit empty for way to long.
I hang a small paint brush from my desk lamp for cleaning the bobbin area & couldn't live w/o long tweezers.

Digital Camera - Take photos of everything you create and keep in photo album for posterity.

Thanks for this tip, my arthritis is getting bad.

My husbands pliers, 4' level, his "real" tape measure.