What’s Near Your Sewing Machine?

Some supplies you just NEED to have handy at all times.  Thread, scissors, needles, and pins are all very common accoutrements for sewing and quilting.  The industry has created so many tempting supplies that you just must have as well.  I thought it might be fun to share exactly what is always near my little sewing area.  Join in the comments with some of your ‘must haves’.  We would love to hear them, and we may have to run out and get it!  Christmas is coming, and Santa needs our wish list you know.

On My Sewing Table

Newly found clamp and small Ott light are constant companions on the edge of my sew table.  Occasionally I pull over the Ott light, like when I’m working on dark fabrics.  The issue is that it gets in the way of bigger projects.  I really need to get one of those extra lights that stick directly to the sewing machine.  Assorted full bobbins, safety pins, and pressor feet rest in the area on top of my machine.  I have to laugh because my quilting table does NOT look like that right now.  It has a big ‘ole quilt sitting on it with my quilting gloves laying helter skelter on top of it.

Right Side Means Really Handy

Water is always available for quenching our dry throat.  The Miller Genuine Draft glass is mostly required as well because we live near brew-city, and it holds a good sized amount.  The scrap of fabric used for testing stitches is more often a coaster, and the quarter was in my pocket one day.  Behind that is my pin cushion with my preferred white-tipped pins, some of those annoying yellow-tipped pins, and assorted hand needles.  Finally, I wised up and put a side-loading needle there for burying threads.  Sue’s 20-year-at-her-school-district mug holds rulers, one fine point black pen, a stiletto, and a few water soluble marking pens.  Assorted colors of those are needed, right?!  Oh, and my white chalk marker rolling thingy.

Top Drawer Left Side

This drawer sees a lot of action.  Holding the most often used oversized pressor feet like the walking foot and FMQ foot choices (open- or closed-toe, etc), I swap them out often.  The container that holds them on the back left also shares the space with some smaller spools of thread in odd colors.  I’m not sure why those are there upon reflection now.  Hmm.  Also in the back but closest to me is an arch/straight ruler, an old rotary cutter for emergency cutting (!), some 3M tape to stick the laser light on the front of the sewing machine.  Most importantly, under the rotary cutter is my ruler foot in the plastic bag it came in.  It could join the other feet in the box to the left but no.  It is special for some reason.  Needles of all sorts live in the front left box.  All needles that cross my path anyway, because Sue has her own supply.  The coolest stuff live in the rightmost front bin.  Q-tips for bobbin area cleaning, laser light for making HSTs, pink clips, extra filled bobbins used most often along with an empty one or two.  Did you notice there are two areas for filled bobbins?  One is the most often used color, while the other is the current color and you will definitely-need-two color.

Second Drawer Left Side

This drawer looks neat but it isn’t.  I stuffed these ideas for FMQing in there, printed off during a class with notes to myself about where to use them.  Underneath are some blocks and fabrics that Sue didn’t want to deal with and I didn’t want to throw away.  I don’t know what to do with them either so they’d better be close and very handy.  In case I find inspiration.  My quilting gloves live here but they are on top of the table right now.  Having just been taken off mid-quilt, they don’t go back in the drawer until the quilt is finished!

Other Miscellaneous Stuff

The third drawer (the deepest one) holds two spools of Aurfil thread, and a ton of leftover binding scraps.  Every color possible and mostly the same width, I rummage through these leftovers often.  Dolly quilts, recent string blocks for charity, mug rugs, and other small projects fall into my realm for selecting the binding.  Larger project falls upon Sue to cut the bindings.

Lusting After Maybe?!

As silly as it sounds, I am thinking I may need to pick up a 1/4″ ruler for next year.  I know ALL rulers have 1/4″ markings but this only does that.  Rather indulgent perhaps?  I plan to tackle paper piecing and I like the idea of not picking out paper from a seam.  Not sewing through paper sounds like a good thing to me.  Doesn’t it dull a needle really quickly?  Also, my friend Quilting Gail just sent me a cool pattern that she designed (list it on Craftsy please!).  It uses the Easy Angle ruler which I may need to have.  I really DO want to make the pattern.  Anyway, we’d love to hear what you need and why we need it also.  And Wendy just recommended the Olfa Endurance blade.  I think Carol M. told us about that back in April.  Susan Marie, we need to get those blades don’t you think??

P.S.  If you made it this far, thank you!  Someone asked me for a list of Cozy Mystery book names that I now have.  I just can’t for the life of me remember who it is.  If it’s you, leave me a message so I can send you a bunch of author names!!  Good grief.

Our other Linky Parties can be found by clicking the link or along the sidebar on our website for more quilting fun – check out what our friends are up to.  Like/follow us on our Facebook page and you can share your photos of what you’re working on.  We would love to see them!

Sharing