Bon-bon

I boutht one of those too, doesn't work, save your $$ buy new blades.

KS quilter

You know I bought one of those rotary blade sharpeners a few years ago. I couldn't get it to do
a thing. BUT...my husband can use it and they come out like new. Please don't ask me what he
does that I didn't do...I just don't know. I do know they will not take out nicks...like where you
run over the corner of a ruler, etc...but it does sharpen the blade. I finally threw out 2 or 3 that
had been sharpened so many times I just felt like I had more than my money's worth. I really
don't know how many times they can be re-sharpened, but for sure some of mine were done at
least 3 or 4 times. I wish I could help you. I got so frustrated when I was unsuccessful in doing
them that I could scream.

gramma nancy

Great thread! Thanks to everyone who catalogued their woes here. It's been a real education.

SewOK

People just do not understand that the sewing machines sold by Walmart are machines made in Korea, etc., using the Brother, Singer, etc., name that they buy from the respective machine companies. They all are made with very cheap plastic gears and are not made to last. It sounds more expensive when you say machines should only be bought from a reputable dealer, however, when you have the service, etc., available from a dealer versus either trashing or going to the expense and trouble of sending one of those cheap machines back to the manufacturer, you really do come out ahead and have a machine that will last for many years. A good machine dealer does not even want to or have to honor the warranty on the machines bought at Hancock Fabrics or Joann's. They can tell you you have to either take them back to Hancok's or Joann's or send them back to the company.

purplefiend

I can use the bobbin winder with most of my bobbins, however not with my Viking bobbins, the thingy that the bobbin goes on is too big for the Viking bobbins. So that was a waste of money for me. It doesn't really wind bobbins evenly for any of my various bobbins, my machines aren't happy with poorly wound bobbins.

maryb119

The fabric calculator...I don't like it. I can figure it out myself.

It'sJustMe

[QUOTE=MaryLane;4843420]Double ditto. Light gives me a eye-head-brain ache so never bought one.
But what I did buy was a double pack of LED stick-on-your-machine tiny-but-mighty lights and hate that cool blue light more than Ott. Waste of $20.

catlinye_maker

I may be able to help you with the LED lights; we use them in our RV for nightlights if we need a bit of light after one of us is asleep. I have the LED puck lights that you press to turn on; I took them apart and used plastic paint to coat the inside of the lens 3x, let it dry thoroughly then reassembled them. The light is dim but good enough for brushing teeth, getting pills, stuff like that.

Plastic paint (I used stuff labeled for faux stained glass) is cheap, and a single coat shouldn't dim the lights much; if your LED lights have covers why not try coating them with a color that won't make you crazy? Worst case you'll have lights you hate, which is where you are now.

Gladys

Thank you everyone, I have learned so much here.

Maggieloe

I bought this roll of gold colored paper - slightly heavier than tissue paper. Can't remember the name but it is supposed to be used to transfer designs. Draw the design, pin to quilt, stitch through the paper and quilt, remove the paper. It is a little awkward to sew through but then impossible to remove. It takes far longer to remove the paper (tweezers are necessary) than to do the quilting. I have found that coffee filters, ironed, work well both as a tear away stabilizer and to transfer quilting designs. Tears away much more easily.