What's your favorite stitching accessory or utensil? Mine is (are?) the heavy duty magnets that I use to park my needles.
This survey is an attempt on my part to up the number of messages on rctn ;-) Vote early; vote often
Magnets for needles are good.
BUT - my favorite (and cheap) tool are the scissors that the doctor uses to snip stitches.
Though of late, needle threaders are a useful tool.
Cheryl
I find the magnets cumbersome and stitch a "button" in the corner of my work to use to park my needles. My happiest and most useful find lately is the magnifier glasses that I wear on my head so that I can see better. They go be the brand MagEyes. Light weight and come in different magnifications. Clarice in AZ
my floor stand
--Barbara
OK, I'll join in: my Dololly.
Felice
My cheap old magnifier lamp from Kent Building supplies. Ruby
Can I list three??
Thought I would be a bit different; that is why I top-posted! .
Gillian
Stitcher wrote:
My little beaded thingummyjig that I use as a scissor fob, that Cheryl made for me! It hangs my good scissors on the turn-lever of my Lowery Stand (Which, come to think of it is the VERY best gadget I have!) Also my clover cutter - also from Cheryl!
Pat P
Or one can buy cheapo drug store specs in the right magnification, or reuse prescription frames, that's what I do. Buy new frames and have the man make new lens with the bottom half of the bifocal prescription in the old frames. Works perfectly.
My cheap (25 dollars american) Office Depot magnifying light. I attach it to a wooden TV tray and I pretty much have a nifty work area to park in front of the TV. It's nice and bright (though fluorescent) and really helps with the eye strain.
Oooo, I vote for this one! After all, how can we stitch if we can't see what we're stitching???
Joan, wearer of cheapo magnifying glasses more and more of late. sigh. Better than going without stitching, tho! :)
I love my little plastic needle/scissor keeper with locks on the sides. It's easy to pack and go - just grab the little box and my Handeze gloves, and I'm ready to travel. And if (when!) I drop it, the needles don't fly out everywhere.
And my Handeze gloves - can't stitch or type without 'em! (I'd feel naked!)
Sue
Guess I'm a minimalist. :-) Unless you count a needle or scissors (and since they are pretty much a necessity, I doubt they count) an accessory, I'm pretty stymied what to choose.
As odd as it seems, I'm going to have to vote for a plastic tape case. It folds up all sealed. When open, it sits on an angle so beads and sequins don't fall out. I've been doing a fair bit of felt applique, so it has been a handy addition.
Tara
Okay, is you can list three:
Someone in our group had one of those Christmas tree decoration balls that you can fill with orts - when filled we didn't think it actually looked that decorative. Interesting, but not particularly decorative. Might be better if you were doing gold/silver work or using lots of Krenik.
Lol, good one!
As a kid, parcels came wrapped in paper and tied up with string, the knots were held tight with a dab of sealing wax - yes Virginia, there really was not any scotch tape in those days, yet to be invented.
We were never allowed to rip anything, the knots had to be unpicked, too wasteful to cut the string and the paper carefully unfolded so it could be ironed and used again lol
My uncle, now 85, STILL takes the string from the meat, washes it and saves it to tie up garbage bags. My aunt has given up trying to cure him of the habit.
It's definitely in my genes too Lucille...
A couple years ago, one of the candy manufacturers put out Christmas decorations filled with their candies. I scored a bunch of them at the after-Christmas half-price sale. I have one for my 2004 orts and one for my 2005 orts, but haven't yet hot-glued them shut for the same reason you cite -- I want to rearrange my orts so the shiny stuff is on the outside and the plain floss is in the center.
You're sure your uncle isn't my Aunt Ingeborg? On your first Christmas, you were allowed to rip the paper, but by your second Christmas, you were expected to have learned the patience to carefully unwrap so it could be used again.
She had Christmas at her house every year so that she could gather up more paper to use the following year. Thought it was terribly wasteful that I bought new paper every year, but when you think about it ... half my presents were shipped 3000 miles away, and the others (including everything I received) were opened at her house where she confiscated the paper. I didn't have anything to reuse.
The one thing her kids were most looking forward to upon her demise was emptying out the dresser in the spare bedroom that was filled with ironed (and starched!) re-re-re-reused gift wrap. I'm sorry I missed the bonfire.
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