Moving On

You can never have too many pincushions!

There should be a pincushion everywhere you go with your sewing.

• Your cutting area
• At the sewing machin
• the ironing board
• by your recliner for when you do handwork
• by the washing machine

Need I say more?

I bet you can thing of other places as well. And while I am on the topic of pincushions, you need some for needles as well. See the fishie pincushion in the pic below? I use the fins and lips for needles. The green pincushion could have a felt leaf or two under the button to hold needles, but the ball pincushion pattern would not have a place for them. Just something to think about.

This is a simple tip, one that many of you all will probably already use. But I find it bears repeating.

A little back story first. Recently I was gifted with some boxes of scraps and what-not from a friend who got it from another friend who got it from a deceased relative. Each person had already gone through the scraps and taken what they wanted. So by the time I got them they were pretty picked over.

Part of what I found were blocks half done and others cut out and projects that were all ready to go. But, there was no way to figure out what was in the mind of the quilter as nothing was labeled or in any particular order.

This severed as a lesson to me. There are times when I come back to a project that I have to spend an hour or more figuring out what I had in mind when I started the project. Shoot, I don’t even have to be away from the project but a night and it takes time to work it out.

So my tip today is to keep note pads handy in your sewing area and to USE THEM for labels. Mark down dimensions, make a project note with name of pattern and fabrics being used and for what parts of the project. Make your life easy by keeping track of your projects.

Another tip for you all.I wish someone had clued me in to this little tidbit. I had to resort to reading directions and working it all out myself. It’s about using fusible fleece and the second tip will apply to some other fusibles.

The biggest thing to remember is the fact that it takes a lot of patience for fusing your fusible fleece. You need to hold the iron on the fabric for at least 10 seconds. Count it out, one thousand one, one thousand two, and so on. Ten seconds for each portion of the item being fused. You can’t rush this and must be sure to get every portion of your item fused. After the first part is fused check to make sure it is sticking. You might even have to hold the iron on for longer.

The next thing to remember is to fuse the fleece to the fabric by holding the iron on the fabric side and not on the fleece side. Think on it, fleece is used as an insulator and inhibits the flow of heat or cold through it. So it would not let your iron work at its best if you tried to fuse the fleece to the fabric by ironing on the fleece side and not on the fabric side.

Another thing you might want to think about is using a telfon ironing sheet or applique sheet to help keep your iron clean. The glue on the fusible fleece can build up on your iron and then transfer to your work at the most inconvenient time – like when you are ironing something white. So cover any exposed glue side of the fusible with the teflon sheet. The glue will not stick to the sheet and will keep your iron clean.

As I was sewing tonight, it came to me that I could share some of my “wisdom” gained the hard way. So as I gain this wisdom, I am going to write little one or two paragraph tips. Hopefully, I will keep up with this and after I get I few going, I will create  a page with a list and links.

Today’s tip has to do with a special product I found through a friend. We were at a retreat and of course we had our tool boxes and supplies with us. Well, when it came time to rip the stabilizer away from our embroidery work, Sandy had these neat tweezers.

They really are goo for more than pulling out those little pieces of stabilizer. They also are great for picking up all those little thread when you have had to rip out stitches. They fit into your hand without being bulky and come in a little tube to keep them from getting lost in your tool box.

Click on the pic to be taken to Amazon where you can purchase these.

PS: I am not being paid to advertise or anything like that