Get a Grip Already!!

Hello, lovelies! I had a custom order I was working on this week, so I've been a bit absent. I should have thrown in a bit more exercise to make up for the gluttonous amounts of buttercake I ate on Tuesday, but I digress. No, wait--let me re-digress. Have you ever had butter cake? One of my work mates brought in a freshly made cake on Tuesday. We put it in the oven to heat while I chair-danced in anticipation. The gooey, oozy, sweet and buttery yum could not be equalled. My aerobics instructor frequently says "When you're about to eat that (insert fatty treat here), think of how hard you'll have to work to work it off and ask yourself if it's worth it." I can assure you, dear readers, every single bite was worth it. The cream doughnut I had over the weekend was stale and not worth it, but this was.

Also--I wanted to say hello and welcome to my new followers (and my older ones too)! I do so hope you enjoy your stay. I try to mix it up with a little of this and a little of that, so hopefully we'll have good times together :)

OK, getting back to my point. I love craft gadgets. Could the points of scissors poke out some corners just as easily as a bamboo point poking thingee? Yes, of course. But I have one anyway. Actually, I have two. I just love having all of these little things that can make a task so much easier. And when it's a bit easier I enjoy it more. I wanted to show you a few things I received in a box of sewing goodies for Christmas. I put them to use right away...

First up: a gripper for my cutting ruler.

It's not very large, which is fine because it does the job well and can be used on several rulers. One of the handles moves to release or engage the suction cup on the bottom. I love this because it safely keeps my fingers out of the way when I'm rotary cutting. I once had the blade barely touch my finger and it left me with something akin to a wicked paper cut. I can only imagine if I was doing some serious cutting when that happened. If you'd like a larger size there's the one that I think looks like a princess phone:

I opted for the smaller one as it would be easier to store. So far I'm happy with it.

Next up: when you cut do you find your ruler ever sliding out of place? I'll be moving along, thinking "What a perfect cut I'm making!" when objects start to think for themselves and my ruler slips over here, and my blade goes over there and then I start cursing under my breath. Well, since I stuck a few of these little babies on the underside of my ruler I haven't had that problem:

The only thing I'm less than thrilled with is that if you're trying to slide your ruler a hair to make an adjustment you can't really do it with these or it could pull your fabric. Still, I'll take the extra 2 seconds to set my ruler over having to waste fabric or neaten up messy cuts from my ruler slipping.

The next two are pretty sharp (and I intend this as a pun--you'll see :)  Needles can be pretty pricey. They tell you to change your needle every project. I try to make them last as long as I can. When the machine starts making the noise that lets me know it needs a new needle then I change it. But now I have this nifty needle sharpening pad:

I'm not sure about it yet as I've only used it once, but I'm hoping that it will make my needles last a bit longer.

And finally, have you ever dropped a pin? Sure you have. Have you ever found it by stepping on it? No matter how hard I try to get each pin in the cushion I do have some epic pin-dropping failures. And since I have a curious dog, it's not the best idea to leave my sewing area with a rogue pin lying in wait. So I got a magnetic pin caddy and I love it. I just need to let go of the pin in the general area and the caddy sucks it into position. Plus, if I drop one, I just kind of wave this thing over the area until I hear the 'click' that lets me know my feet are safe again. And my nephew enjoyed conducting experiments with it to see how far away you could be and still get the pin to come to you. It's pretty far, lemme tell ya!

 

I had posted some of these before as major "wants" and when my mumsy said she needed a few more ideas I was well-prepared. So that's that.

I found all of these at Nancy's Notions. Click each picture to go to the product page.