QuiltE

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

puck116

-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.

lynnegreen

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

Baloonatic

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?

olebat

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

fireworkslover

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.

craftiladi

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.

QuiltMom1980

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

grandma Janice

Thanks for this tip, my arthritis is getting bad.

Conniequilts

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