What quilting/sewing notion are you most Thankful to have been invented?
11-24-2020, 02:51 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,726
What quilting/sewing notion are you most Thankful to have been invented?
There are so many gadgets to help make our quilting life simpler. What's your favorite?For me, I like the rotating cutting mat. It simplifies squaring up blocks.
11-24-2020, 03:03 AM
#2
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,237
Depends on how old you are! I was 23 when I learned to quilt, and I'm 72 now. For me, the rotary cutter and mat were godsends! Tracing around cardboard templates cut from cereal boxes and cutting with scissors made the whole process tedious. It took 14 years for me to finish my first quilt!
11-24-2020, 04:24 AM
#7
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 8,151
The one I'm most grateful was invented is the sewing machine - I'm always amazed to think of some of the clothing that royalty wore at a time that all sewing was done by hand. For more "modern" times, it's the rotary cutter and cutting mat. Without that I might not even make quilts.
On an interesting note, the story is that the first person that came up with a sewing machine did not patent the idea because family convinced him it was a bad idea as it would put so many people doing hand sewing out of work.
The assumption was that consumers would not change their clothing buying habits, but when clothing became much less labor intensive and more affordable, people started buying more clothing ( a lot more clothing!) . So the sewing machine actually created jobs instead of taking them away.
On an interesting note, the story is that the first person that came up with a sewing machine did not patent the idea because family convinced him it was a bad idea as it would put so many people doing hand sewing out of work.
The assumption was that consumers would not change their clothing buying habits, but when clothing became much less labor intensive and more affordable, people started buying more clothing ( a lot more clothing!) . So the sewing machine actually created jobs instead of taking them away.
11-24-2020, 06:00 AM
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2020
Posts: 706
Depends on how old you are! I was 23 when I learned to quilt, and I'm 72 now. For me, the rotary cutter and mat were godsends! Tracing around cardboard templates cut from cereal boxes and cutting with scissors made the whole process tedious. It took 14 years for me to finish my first quilt!
Not a gadget, but my quilting is also very dependent on the mindset and books from Eleanor Burns (can I really make a “Quilt in a Day”?) and Mary Ellen Hopkins (Are you sure “Its Okay if you sit on my quilt?”).
