Tools of the trade

 I am a hand quilter. I tried doing it by machine, practised, got lessons online and in real life ( which was a very disappointing experience: to many people next to each other, hence no room for your bigger machine table and a teacher that did not know one answer to any question…) After that I stopped trying and sticked to hand quilting. Yes it is painstaking slooooow and it takes forever to finish a quilt, but that`s the way it goes.

Since I`m in the midst of quilting the second Granny Square quilt for granddaughter 2, I thought to share the tools I use.

Thread, obviously: Coats and Clark has been my number one choice from day one. A pair of scissors, a quiltring and 

This ruler. I had it for ages. It is a bigger version of the one everyone uses at school here in e.g. geometry.

Can`t do without! I use it to draw my templates, a patchwork pattern, quilting lines etc.

A somewhat better picture… A Sewline pencil. I have a black one, a white one and this with all of the above.. Used all kinds of chalk pencils, powder but once I saw these, I never turned back. The sorry part of what once was a genuine fabric eraser, erases the pencil lines if needed.

Roxanne needles nr 11 and thimbles. I use a modified sashiko  ring thimble and a `normal` one. Since my finger joints act up every once in a while, I can`t push a needle through the fabric with my fingertip, I push it through with the side of my finger. My hands look like this:

The finger`condom` is to easily grab the little point of the needle easily when there are 4 to 5 stitches on it. I buy a cheap box of latex gloves and cut the fingers of for my quilting needs :)

And last but not least: 

I once picked up a piece of wood in the shed, put my ring on it and drew a cirkel. I cut it out and there you have a wooden board that fits precisely in your ring. Why? When the quilt is in there I slide the board in and I have a sturdy flat surface to draw the quilting lines! 

Now I don`t know if all this makes sense to anyone, but it does to me LOL…