Tools that mock one

When I travel I always take my "quilt travel bag" with me, and it does a pretty good job keeping everything together somehow. It is a quilted tote bag I made of the size I wanted, with handles long enough to sling over my shoulder and hang at the right length for me. There are 2 pockets -- one ordinary one on the inside of one side, and a long fairly skinny one with a gusset on the inside of an end just for glasses. I also made a little zipped bag the size to hold paper money, and a special zipped case for the usual quilting stuff -- needles, pins, wrist pin cushion, picker, threaders, thread, beerswax, a variety of thimbles since my fingers change sizes in different climates and weathers, and scissors. The scissors I have tethered to a very long thin ribbon I can put around my neck so I can use the scissors and then drop them in my lap again. The case for the quilting stuff is about 5" square, 1.5" deep, and zippered on 3 sides around the top, and sits nicely on a table with the lid open. It is quilted, so it has enough heft to be sturdy but is squishable inside a suitcase. If I'm on a ship and find a cozy corner of a lounge with good window light, everything stays in the case unless I am actually using it, so nothing goes astray or gets wet from a soda pop on the table. As to what I'm stitching, I generally take piecing to do, and have it organized so each little piece for a block is cut and all the pieces for each block are in envelopes -- one envelope per block. Piecing takes up very little room in a suitcase, too, and I usually take one block per day I plan to be gone. I also carry an enveloped marked "extras" with a few extra pieces in each shape and size and color just in case I have mis-counted all those little snippets for the blocks (which are 12" blocks with 72 pieces each). When I am not traveling the bag and it's set of goodies lives with my suitcases in a closet.

I have a similarly-equipped basket lined with old white tea towels that I use to take stitching out to the porch or the patio at home. The basket is about 12" by 6", oval, about 4" deep, and has a very tall handle -- kind of a natural wicker Easter basket. It's larger than I need, but is what I already own. The basket lives in the dining room under the large silver chest. I was concerned that the new cat might be too interested in it, but after a few sniffs she has left it alone.

For everyday stitching at home, I keep an antique pincusion with 7 needles and threads in a pretty tin that I close up when I'm not stitching, and keep the scissors, thimbles, etc. in a very large ashtray next to my favorite chair. The only stitching tools that ever seem to go astray are those, probably because family and houseguests always seem to need to borrow scissors "for just a minute". However, what none of them realize is that I happen to have my grandmother's old sewing basket tucked out of sight, and it is full of extra everythings! And NOBODY puts their fingers into Grandma's sewing basket but me . . . And eventually I find the scissors and other things that have gone astray.

I can relate Polly. Being the organized person that I am, I try to have scissors, etc. in each place where I am likely to be sewing. Do they stay put? Ohhhh nooooo. They all end up congregating in one place. What's up with that? Sewing tool gossip?

Best regards, Michelle in Nevada, USA