Park Your Needle Safely

If you sew by hand, you know how vexing it can be to lose your needle. Maybe you were interrupted from your hand quilting, and upon return, you cannot find where you left your needle.

What if the needle is on the floor? That is a real hazard! It happens, but it can be easily prevented with this little trick of mine, whether you piece, applique, or quilt by hand, even embroidery, cross stitch, etc.:

Stop when the thread is not pulled through, and leave the needle hanging with the thread tail still "caught" in the work. 

Upon your return, pick up your quilt (or sewing project) and shake it - the needle can be easily found. The needle will not fall out, or be lost inside a quilt, and is less likely to stick you (or others) accidentally as you search for it. Then you will pull those stitches through and hear "that lovely sound of thread being drawn through fabric" (as my friend, Gina Prosch enjoys in This Day's Joy).

Whenever I teach hand quilting, hand piecing, or hand applique, I always leave my students with this motto: “Park Your Needle Safely!”


Keep Stitching!
Barbara M. Burnham
www.barbaramburnham.com
(c)2019 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Lap App Love!



Cherry Bird from Baltimore Garden Quilt

Having fun stitching applique on my new Lap App!


Thanks to my students at Baltimore on the Prairie for sharing their new Lap App with me.

Best invention ever! The Lap App is a new tool for stitchers of all kinds. Basically, it is a little work surface that you place on your lap and adjust to your own comfortable position for sewing.

I always encourage my hand applique students to brace their hands on a surface for stability

while stitching, rather than hold their sewing up in the air, and to practice good posture

for health and circulation.

So of course, I had to have one! I am so glad I made this investment - using the Lap App while sewing in my comfy armchair allows me to have much better posture. Now I can't wait to use it while sewing in the car, which is always a bit awkward!

The Lap App comes with a sewing themed cloth cover, an ironing cover, fine sandpaper for

tracing onto fabric for hand piecing or applique, and other features. Joyce Haskins, the co-inventor, explains more here: https://lapappstore.net/  

P.S. I have no affiliation, just a happy user.

Keep Stitching!
Barbara M. Burnham

www.barbaramburnham.com

(c) 2016 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.

Applique Organizer Folders

Great for hand piecers too!

Organizing Small Fabric Pieces for Applique or Hand Piecing

Applique and hand piecing often require a lot of small fabric pieces. Here is an idea to keep all those little pieces organized and handy, especially when travelling.

You will need:

• 1 Sturdy File Folder
• Cotton Batting -- leftover strips at least 12 inches long -- after trimming the edges of a quilt for binding, we often have long strips of leftover cotton batting. Save them!
• Rotary Cutter (straight blade, and pinking blade if you have one)
• Rotary Cutting Mat and Ruler
• Gluestick (not wet glue)

1. After trimming the edges of a quilt for binding, we often have long strips of leftover batting. Save those long strips! I use Quilter's Dream Cotton, Request loft.
2. Cut long edges of batting scraps with a rotary cutter. If you use a "pinking" rotary blade, the batting strips can nest together nicely. My folder is 11-3/4 inches tall so I made my batting pieces 12 inches long. A width of 8-1/2 inches would have been perfect for my folder, but narrower strips can be set side by side.
3. Open the file folder and lay it flat. On the right-hand side of the center fold, rub gluestick to cover the area, all the way to the edges. (If your folder has a "tab" don't glue that.)
4. Before the glue dries, carefully lay a strip of batting down onto the glue. The strips should be longer than the top and bottom of the folder.
5. Smooth the batting flat. Make sure all the batting adheres nice and flat. If one strip is not wide enough, add more strips until the right-hand side of the folder is covered with batting, except the folder "tab."
6. Let the glue dry. (Note: Don't use a wet glue, only gluestick. Wet glue will seep through batting, make it stiff and less "clingy," and will warp the folder.)
7. Lay the folder on a cutting mat. Rotary cut with a straight rotary blade to trim the top and bottom of excess batting strips even with the folder.
8. Arrange appliqué pieces on the batting in a logical order (by number, color, placement on the block, or however you like to work).

Fabric pieces will cling to the batting, flat and organized. Storing pieces this way avoids unnecessary handling, fray, and loss of little pieces.

You might want to store your paper pattern in the same folder. Oh, my! You could write a pattern name on the tab, and even file your folders and be really organized.

If you are like me, you will need a folder for each work in progress. Don't we all have more than one project at a time?

And here is my Applique Needle Organizer: Click here

Keep Stitching,
Barbara M. Burnham

(c) 2015 Barbara M. Burnham. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without prior written authorization.