I use glue sticks and regular school glue. I use the glue stick a lot when paper piecing the first fabric and for lining up any seam lines. I bought the purple glue that dries clear when Walmart had their school sales. Two tubes for 25 cents! I don't have kids so didn't need the bigger package.

Not sure if she means the same fork pins I use, but I love mine too! They are made by Clover and come in a small package of 35 for about $9.50. I bought mine on sale at Connecting Threads much cheaper. They are great for lining up seams and holding them in place. They are U shaped so you pin once and can get both sides of a seam. I've been using the same ones for years, so even though they sound expensive, they are worth it.

They look a little like the old fashioned hairpins, two straight wires about 1/4 inch apart.

Most of you have already said my favs but I'm getting new ideas so thank you all!!
Carrie, just think of all the things your kids have stolen from you and you're off the hook ha ha ha
I'll add one thing here- those dots you put on the underside of the rulers- I love them!!

My favorites are: door stops at the back of my machine, my fork pins, a UHU glue stick, silk pins. Love my OmniGrip rulers, and big cutting mat.
Thanks to all for sharing! Fun to see what everyone likes! :)

That Purple Thang!

One of my most favorite tools is my hemostat. That's the clamp that surgeons use to clamp off blood vessels before they tie them off during surgery. Kept mine from my nurse's days. You can probably find them in a hospital or uniform suplly store. They work great for pulling up the bobbin thread, for pulling the loop through the needle for self-threading machines, for holding the machine needle when changing it, and for a lot of other things where it's just too small to get our fingers in.

I use wash away stabilizer and cut my peices out glue my fabric to the stabilizer press with dry iron then glue to my background fabric and then sew it down with a button stitch.

My favorites are Best Press, glue stick or appli-glue, rotating mat and lint roller.

My most essential things are my tiny pair of scissors and my seam ripper! The scissors are really tiny enough to use for seam ripping, but I'm afraid of cutting the fabric. I always make sure they both are close at hand. I also keep a lintroller nearby to grab little pieces of thread. Lol. These things probably didn't cost 10 dollars all together!

SittingPretty--I have a pair of hemostats always! If y'all know anyone who works in a hospital or clinic--I'm sure you can get a free pair! If a surgical kit is opened here, whatever isn't used is tossed, so they are easy to come by. I'm always losing a drawstring into the waistband and they are great for retrieval! I need to pick up another set to keep by my machine for pulling up the loop of thread.