Favorite Tip or Helpful Hint
08-09-2010, 08:23 PM
#91
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Ferndale, WA
Posts: 371
Originally Posted by SweetRosie
Something that should be in everybody's sewing room is a MAGNET to pick up pins when they get spilled. Very helpful.
Love this Quilting Board. Just like sitting around talking with a group of friends.
Love this Quilting Board. Just like sitting around talking with a group of friends.
08-09-2010, 09:52 PM
#92
Google Goddess
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Central Indiana (USA)
Posts: 30,181
we will will storing fabric in freezers from now on, this is so funny, a good hiding spot from hubby
LOLOLOL OMG all I can picture is all of us having NOTHING in our freezers but fabric!!!!
Originally Posted by Happy Tails
Originally Posted by Twilliebee
Hi, seems there are lots of tips and tricks to be found online. Just wondering if anyone has a favorite they'd like to share.
I just learned one from an Anita Solomon Grossman book which she uses when starching large quantities of fabric. I rarely startch, but I love this tip: partially dry your fabric and throw it in the fridge or better yet the freezer. Iron when you have time. Something about the coldness of the fabric makes it iron even smoother. Don't know why, but it sure works, especially when I don't have time to iron and don't want the fabric to get too dry or go sour.
I just learned one from an Anita Solomon Grossman book which she uses when starching large quantities of fabric. I rarely startch, but I love this tip: partially dry your fabric and throw it in the fridge or better yet the freezer. Iron when you have time. Something about the coldness of the fabric makes it iron even smoother. Don't know why, but it sure works, especially when I don't have time to iron and don't want the fabric to get too dry or go sour.
08-10-2010, 08:23 AM
#94
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Plano,TX
Posts: 232
I keep a couple of empty (and clean) toilet paper rolls in my sewing room. After I cut and press my binding for quilts I wind them upon the paper rolls. And when I have leftover binding, I leave it on the roll and store it for the next time I do charity quilts. When I am ready to sit at my machine and attach my binding to my quilted top, I stick a comfortable old necktie through the paper roll (with my binding on it). Then tie the necktie on like a necklace. As I attach the binding, it unrolls from the toilet paper roll from around my neck. This way the binding does not get tangled up in my lap or on the floor as I attach it. Saves me some time from the continuous untwisting of the binding! I also remember having to sprinkle clothes....Now I keep a plastic spray bottle of water and another of of water and pretty smelling starch on my pressing board for my quilting fabrics. But clothes??? From dryer to my body!
08-10-2010, 08:36 AM
#95
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Plano,TX
Posts: 232
Here is a reproduction of the plastic sprinke cap that you can purchase new, now:
http://www.gourmac.com/launsprin.html
But you can find the older ones on ebay too.
Or, take an waterbottle's plastic lid off, heat a nail and punch holes in it. Re-screw the lid on, and off you can sprinkle. Not as wonderful as the one Mom used.....but will work
http://www.gourmac.com/launsprin.html
But you can find the older ones on ebay too.
Or, take an waterbottle's plastic lid off, heat a nail and punch holes in it. Re-screw the lid on, and off you can sprinkle. Not as wonderful as the one Mom used.....but will work
08-10-2010, 08:36 AM
#96
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 143
Originally Posted by MarySews
A hint for the footpedal of your machine -- to keep from sliding, put it in one of those trays for wet boots -- they come in a two pack so there is usually one left over -- my basement (aka 'the studio') occasionally gets wet and right by my chair -- the boot tray has about a 1" lip and it is rubber. The foot pedal is always dry and never moves
Mary
Mary
Thanks for the great hint!
Nettie
08-10-2010, 09:11 AM
#97
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Upstate NY, north of Syracuse Area
Posts: 6,003
Originally Posted by watterstide
My favorite tip:
Walk away from the machine or the cutting board when things start going wrong..
that is probably the hardest advice i ever learned..and the smartest!
Walk away from the machine or the cutting board when things start going wrong..
that is probably the hardest advice i ever learned..and the smartest!
Also, my most helpful tip was to press from the top. It really helps! I am still struggling with the concept of pressing, not ironing. It seems like my arm just automatically irons, no matter how often I tell it to stop and just press. :roll: :roll:
08-10-2010, 09:59 AM
#99
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: PEI, Canada
Posts: 521
I just found these two last night from Lynne Edwards, one of my quilting heroes. The first is for making pieced borders fit perfectly. She's so laid back! She makes a strip of pieced border and then works backwards adding one or more plain borders to make it fit. Have a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNT5fiXXlcA
The second is one I already do and have for a long time now. I try never to cut width of fabric if I can possibly avoid it. I cut the length which is so much more stable. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTWw...eature=related
I'm sure enjoying all the posts. I remember my Mom heating irons on the woodstove when I was kid. No, I'm not really the Ancient of Days. Electricity didn't come to our area until 1957 or thereabouts. My school had an outhouse and so did everybody else. I got a look at a flush toilet for the first time in around 1959 when we went to visit someone in the 'city', population 2,500. LOL
The second is one I already do and have for a long time now. I try never to cut width of fabric if I can possibly avoid it. I cut the length which is so much more stable. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTWw...eature=related
I'm sure enjoying all the posts. I remember my Mom heating irons on the woodstove when I was kid. No, I'm not really the Ancient of Days. Electricity didn't come to our area until 1957 or thereabouts. My school had an outhouse and so did everybody else. I got a look at a flush toilet for the first time in around 1959 when we went to visit someone in the 'city', population 2,500. LOL
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Onebyone
General Chit-Chat (non-quilting talk)
10
04-10-2017 05:23 PM
