I don't have a bobbin winder, but was told that the battery operated ones don't work. I was told to buy the electric one which is more expensive, but works. Just wondering if the quilters that are saying it doesn't work have the battery one or the electric one?

Tammi, try dry board erasers. Here is the thread I posted about them. http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...p-t216340.html

Ditto about vintage sewing machines.

I think mine is the battery operated one. But it came with an adapter that plugs into the wall. It works great! Much cheaper than getting the bobbin winder on my machine fixed. Plus you don't have to unthread the machine to use it, when you run out of bobbin thread in the middle of sewing.

Good one -- I agree. I have found another type ... I think they are Clover ... that do work well. They have a notch at the top that you pop the thread into. You have to be careful with fragile threads, tho (like Sulky). You can get them at Leah Day's web site: http://www.daystyledesigns.com/cheaterneedles.htm

Actually I first saw the tutorial on Quilting Board and repinned to Pinterest. Look for pressing bar. I modified the instructions a bit. I don' t think Insulbrite or any type of batting is necessary. I first used Elmer's all purpose glue and wrapped the stick (I'm using 12" length) with flannel then with some duck fabric I had left over from another project. Pressed under the ends of the duck ( not the flannel because that is not necessary) 1/4" and sewed on the machine. Then pressed one long side under 1/4" and wrapped and glued this on with Elmer's as well. My husband put 5 staples along the edge for me because I'm a little wimpy with hand strength. The cut size of the flannel is 3&1/8" by11&3/4". The duck is 3&3/4" (this is the edge that gets turned and sewn) by 12&3/4". The one I bought and paid big bucks for had what appears to be a very thin batting and just muslin for the out cover. My friends said they liked the duck better than the muslin but whatever you have will work. I also had some decorator weight cotton left from another project and covered some with that. I am calling them "designer" pressing sticks! I'd send you one if I knew who and where. But I'm sure you could make one yourself and I guarantee it will become a favorite quilting gadget!

Here is a link to the strip stick (pressing bar):
http://thestripstick.com/buy_products

I bought them and really like them. As far as I can tell, they are half-round trim (lots of hardware stores have quarter-round trim; it can be harder to find half-round) covered with muslin that is serged on one long end and the two short ends. (I think it would be hard to do this on my home serger; the serging is very close to the wood and very precise.) I don't think there is any batting underneath the muslin, but maybe an extra layer of muslin or flannel as the muslin is not see-through. Someone posted that they didn't even bother to cover their half-round stick with cloth and it still worked great. The only thing is that wood contains acid, so covering the wood with cloth would be more protective of your strips.

Accuquilt Go is the best thing for my piecing ever! Accurate and fast. I love it for strips - no more waste, and I can cut the entire border in a couple minutes! Ditto for binding. No more excuses to not finish quilts. And HSTs are sooooo easy with the dog ears already cut off. I cut them with RST, lift them off the die and place right on the sewing machine. I set up the GO right next to the sewing machine when I'm doing HSTs - no wasted motion.

Thank you! :)

I did a double quilt with mine and ended with blisters that prevented me from sewing for more than a week. I use it for things like place mats now, but I don't use it for anything larger.
[QUOTE=MimiBug123;5979791]

I bought the True Sharp electric rotary blade sharpener. If that is the one you purchased, let me know. I have not been successful in sharpening them. Sometimes I get a blade sharp but it has a place or two that do not cut.

I love the Fons & Porter gloves, but then I cut the fingertips out so I can change needles or whatever without issue.

Yep, I love my side winder also. Use it ALL the time. I use my HFT's all the time. What about the binding tool? I don't needed, I consider that to be useless gadget, but that is me.

Little Foot
 

Do you know if this company still exists? Bought a pattern that uses this style of paper piecing and would know more.

I don't use my binding tool either. Last week I bought a green Dritz needle threader where you drop the needle in the hole, push a button and the needle comes out threaded but mine will not thread a needle. I should have bought a Clover, but our Hancocks doesn't carry it. The Fons and Porter easy thread needle eyes didn't work too well for my hand quilting as the head was too large to pull through the fabric without plyers and left a hole. And I've bought many of the same useless gadgets many of you have. I would love to find a rotary blade sharpener that really worked. I've enjoyed reading everyone of your comments as they are very helpful. Thanks to the OP for starting the thread.

Holy cow I was typo girl last night! Thanks Caroline, I saw the post about the dry erase erasers, but believe it or not, I can't find them here. There are crappy wipes, and really skinny erasers, but none of the office supply places I wandered into had them, or Wal-Mart. That makes a perfect trifecta of items. Shout Color catchers are no longer sold in Canada (and I can't find the Dr Beckmans, or the Oxi-clean version), I will have to make my own, and I can't find the Teflon Oven liners anywhere either. *sigh* ;)

I did use part of one of those foam anti-fatigue mats and cut them to the shape of the "Grip and Stitch" grips, but I kept running into the needle clamp and getting hit by it. I went back to my gloves, but I'd sure like an alternative. Gloves make me a little crazy (er)

If your threader is anything like the one I have here (it was my grandma's, and she bought it when I was a pre-teen), sometimes the needle doesn't "fall" in the right direction, so you're trying to thread it through the side, rather than the eye. It might be worth just turning the needle a little by hand and trying again. You may have to repeat that a couple of times. There's probably a limitation on the size of the eye it can thread through too. I don't have the instructions anymore, but I remember threading a lot of needles for grandma, with and without the "gizmo".

If it's the one I think it is, you drop the needle in, eye downward, lay the thread in place, and there's a little flat "blade" that pushes the thread through the eye of a hand needle, correct?

You are quite welcome Jean....I am always eager to find out ways for us to share our triumphs & mistakes...

How true Grannie's words were. We never listen until we shell out money & then realize, "why in the world didn't we listen?"....

I have always wondered about the spinning cutting mat, My answer to that one is put a smaller cutting mat over top of the large one, when I need to turn it, I rotate the smaller mat. I wondered if I would use it. It is pricey. Thanks.

While at a quilt show a few years ago, there was a booth set up. The fellow was showing how to make the seams, as in a windmill block where all of the seams meet up at the centre, resulting lots of bulk, less bulky. He was selling a hammer, that he used to whack the centre of the block. I could not see spending money on one, when I went home I did some looking through the hammers around here, found one. Now, when I have a bulky seam, I give a whack to the centre bulk, iron it and it is flatter. The tool with a case was over 20.00 at the time, not sure if they are still out there, have not been to a quilt show lately. I should mention I do this on my carpet floor in the basement, if I have a good number to do, I go get my cutting board, but always do it on the floor. It does help with bulk.

I was watching Fons & Porter years ago (back when it was good- with Liz Porter:)) and I actually saw Liz Porter do this with a hammer!!! Been my remedy ever since!

We bought molding strips in the flooring section at Home Depot. They are flat on bottom but angle up to the top which is rounded. We found them in maple and red oak...long strips like about 90"' I believe the oak was a little cheaper than the maple. Wanted to find half round molding trim strips as I believe the "store bought" ones were made of but couldn't find them anywhere. Anyway the ones I am making look and work great. Good luck if you try to make this very useful gadget!

If you have a nick in the blade, it will not fix that. You will still have places that will not cut.

You have to have the eye of the needle turned the right way. If you don't, the threader can't find the eye.

I've taught a lot of quilting classes, I'm surprised your instructor would go forward with a class and pattern that had so many mistakes ... not to mention costing $24 ! That just doesn't make for a good experience for students. Sounds like she worked to fix all the booboos and save the class ... Kudos to her !
But the designer ? Shame on HER for not responding ... and likely NOT the first time she's ever heard of her pattern mistakes either !

Ditto: I thought I just had to have it and it is still in a box in the corner of my sewing room. I am a little more cautious now.

I am so glad to read this. A guild member made some cute ones and gave them out at retreat. I had no idea that I am suppose to hang it around my neck! Neat!

I would love more info on this, please. Thanks!

Thanks to all of you who tried to help me with the green dritz needle threader. I tried it again after reading your replies, but I just can't get it to work. I can thread several needles in the time it takes me to fiddle with it. The thread does come out through the hole, but the eye is not threaded. I'm sure the needle needs to be turned exactly right, but there in no way to tell which way to turn it. The instructions just say to drop the needle in the hole eye facing down. anyway just one more gadget I can't get to work.

I can so understand...one more gadget I can't get to work. So true. I have learned along the way and generally do not have to buy gadgets, have a few that I ask myself...why? It always looks so easy, though.

I've read a few pages of this thread and don't think we should be pointing fingers or laying blame on anything. First, go look in the mirror and point a finger at that person. I've done it plenty of times. I'm kind of a gadget girl and I'm guilty of "being sure" that I'll use that new cool ruler or "thingy" that the video showed was so darn easy and neat to use .... ha! I know good and well not to buy it until I've used half of what I already have. And sometimes I do it anyway. :-)

I say - you buy cheap, you usually get what you pay for. Do a little research - we have computers and the capability to do that or we wouldn't be on this thread. Let's look at ourselves first before we lay blame. Besides, if we didn't have the money, we wouldn't have purchased that "worthless piece of something we don't like or use". Maybe it was the attack stratagy that didn't sit well - how about a thread with information on items you've purchased, what it was supposed to do and your experience with it. Now for the pins - there are 100's of pins and prices. I paid nearly $9.00 for a box of the fork pins because a professional quilter and LA'er t I know and totally love her work, loves them. She showed us how to use them - I hate them. But that doens't make them bad - they just don't work for me. I spent $9.00 on some Clover Patchwork pins - they are .4mm shaft and slide like butter. I also paid $5.98 for some Dritz pins .4mm (for 150 vs. 100 Clover) that also slide like butter. Be extra careful when looking for the Clover pins - they have some that aren't the Patchwork .4mm shaft but still have the yellow and light blue glass heads. I bought them the same day. The Dritz are #172 Ultra Fine Glass Head Pins with navy blue glass heads that won't melt. I'd been using .5mm shaft pins and they were pretty nice until I read and tried the .4mm size. I'll use both - it just depends whether I'm piecing a quilt or hemming denim pants.

Let's try to be a little more positive and informative than the total blame game - JMHO. Lynne

P.S. - when you buy, keep the receipt and return it if it doesn't work.

Hello Kaye ~ I'm not sure if you are asking how to make it yourself or the pressing stick itself. Here is the link to the actual pressing stick http://thestripstick.com/buy_products and she has a video that explains the pressing stick in detail, both sizes.

I read how much BellaBoo liked the strip stick and several others commented that they liked it too, in a thread a few months ago. So I purchased the longer one 45" and love it!!!! I guess I could have made it myself but would I ever get around to making it? Probably not... :0)

So if your question is about making it yourself, I'll be of no help. But I can tell you that for right at $20 with shipping the strip stick for pressing seams was well worth my money.

I too see these comments as honest reviews of gadgets that haven't worked as expected. When I commented on one that had not worked for me, several members gave me suggestions of ways I might could make it work. If it had worked after I tried their suggestions, I would have been so happy. But it didn't. Also those of us who named a gadget that didn't work, we explained what we had expected it to do and all the steps we took to make it work for us. As Onalee said, when several people have had the same experience, good or bad, we can better judge whether we want to take a chance on it or not.

We are all different for sure, some can do something and make it look so easy, until someone else tries it. And it does not really matter the product. I have picked up items to use in the kitchen and wish I had left them. At the same time someone else raves about the item. Sewing and quilting is the same thing. That is the way the world works.

Maybe I'm weird, but I did not find this thread to be a blame game.

I love gadgets I've brought good ones and bad ones. The thing is the same ones I think are good someone else would call a bad one and visa-versa. They keep making em and I keep buying em!

Me either. I find this kind of thread enlightening and a helpful response to the media blitz and hard sell ads that we are presented with everywhere we turn around.

it is nice to hear (read) others' honest evaluation of things that worked for them, but in the case of this thread, things that didn't work for them. Too often we are told we "have to have" this item if we are going to do this and this and then buy it and it didn't work like it was supposed to.

I think anyone reading this thread understands that it will be "whatever works for you" and "we are all different". I appreciate the honesty in this thread.

Wow, you hit me where it hurts on the sashiko machine. I thought that was a terrific machine that many quilters would love until I heard the price. Babylock dropped the ball on that one, big time, so i thought. Then to hear it has a bad stitch OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!

A question was asked and we answered. No blame there!