Attach a couple of those cork or rubber floor protectors (that you use on the legs of furniture) to the bottom of your sewing machine foot pedal to keep it from slipping away from you on slick floors.
Practice free motion quilting designs on a dry-erase board. This helps develop the eye-hand coordination for the particular design you have chosen and you can practice it over and over. Just wipe away the markings with a soft cloth or scrap of batting until you have the pattern embedded in your brain. It really does help.
And here are a couple of newer products you might want to look into.
The first is called Pinmoor. These are small silicone cylinders that you stick on the ends of straight pins so you can baste your quilt with straight pins without worrying about the pins sticking you or falling out. They come in packages of 50 for $19—a bit pricey, but right now they are on sale for $14.45. Watch a video at http://www.pinmoor.com/video.html to see how easy they are to use and a few other uses besides basting.
The other product is for those of you who do embroidery and also own an iPhone. It is a new app by Judith Montano called Embroidery Stitch Tool. It is put out by C&T Publishing and is available through the iTunes App Store for $4.99. There is also a free “lite” version. The app gives you basics, nice how-to illustrations and instructional videos. Seems like it would be handy to have when traveling or on the go. It is the first of three in the series.
That’s it for today, friends.
