Add Sandpaper to Your Quilting Toolbox

If you're a quilter and mark your stitching line for hand piecing, you know how important it is make that mark accurately for every piece of your project so that your points will match up nicely.  You also know that it's not always easy to do, especially when marking small pieces of fabric that will slide around under your ruler on your cutting board.

One simple tool that can help you make more accurate stitching lines is a simple piece of fine grit sandpaper.  You can buy a ready-made sandpaper board, but I'll bet you have some sandpaper on hand somewhere in your house, garage, or work shed, and could make your own very easily by attaching the sandpaper to one side of a piece of plywood.  If you have a small cutting mat that you use to trim pieces of your blocks, you could affix the sandpaper to the underside of that, as long as you cut the sandpaper the same size as the mat so that it remains stable and doesn't wobble or cause the mat to warp.

I've been doing a lot of hand-piecing since I'm still displaced to a hotel from the hurricane, and find the sandpaper trick very helpful, but it can also be useful for those who use templates to trace applique designs.  If your fabric should shift at all while tracing around the template, it could really distort the design, so set your fabric on the sandpaper first, then place the template on top and trace.  The fine grit of the sandpaper will be just enough to hold the fabric in place.

Wonder what else you could find in the workshop to help with your quilting?

 ~ Marie Anne

P.S.  The little Jinny Beyer Perfect Piecer ruler you see in the photo has been a blessing for marking accurate 1/4" seam lines also.

Great Sale Plus Price Match at JoAnn's

I heard that JoAnn's had Christmas and other holiday fabric on sale at 50% off, so off I went today to see what they had.  I got a 25% coupon in the mail the other day and it was good for regular and sale priced items, so I couldn't pass up the double savings.

I went through the remnant bin first and found three pieces between a 1/2 and 3/4 yard that were marked down to 50% off the listed price, so scored a deal there.  I spent way too much time looking at Christmas-y fabrics, but picked several that complemented each other and got a half yard of each to use for English Paper Piecing (EPP).  I still needed some brown to make a tree trunk for my EPP Christmas tree , and also grabbed some black and white prints, and a piece of autumn-like print that will also go well with the tree-trunk brown.

Thanks to a good deal at Joann's, I have a nice start on my fabric stash
©Marie Anne St. Jean

I wanted to buy a Fiskar's hexagon punch to make 1" hexies with cardstock, and joann.com had it on sale for $10.79.  I checked while I was at the store today and saw that they weren't on sale, and even with 25% off the $17.99 list price, it wasn't going to come near as cheap as the online price.  I asked the lady cutting my fabric if she could do a price check to see if it came up at the regular price, and she said if I had a smartphone and could bring up the online price, they would do a price match, and then I'd still get 25% off using my coupon ... win!  After the price match and coupon was applied, I ended up paying $8.10 for the extra large hexagon punch - less than half of the listed price.

I came home with 1/2 yard of 11 different fabrics plus the three remnants, so more than 7 yards of fabric for $21.82, an average of just over $3 per yard - quite a savings when you consider that some of the fabrics were originally $10.99 a yard.  Including the Fiskars hexie punch, I paid a total of $32.61 plus tax for everything you see pictured.

Make sure you sign up to get coupons and special offers from both joann.com and hobbylobby.com and take advantage of the great deals on all of your crafting supplies.  I'm still starting out with EPP, but if I watch for deals like this, I'll soon have a good stash of fabric built up.

~ Marie Anne

Thrifty Thursday - Using Up Yarn Scraps

Thrifty Thursday is hosted by  Leigh over at Tales From Bloggeritaville.





Crafters are normally thrifty by nature and  if you crochet, you probably have a bag or box somewhere full of small balls of yarn left over from larger projects.  This week I thought I'd highlight three really cute crochet patterns that can help you be thrifty and use up your scrap yarn.

Rather than throw away those yarn remnants when cleaning out your yarn stash, use these three crochet patterns from Jami to turn them into pretty and useful items you can crochet in a jiffy.

First she shows us how to crochet a cute little Scrap Cap.

This hat can be crocheted in a solid, two colors, or several colors of whatever you have on hand in your stash for a really vibrant effect.

Next up is a pretty scarf made from little granny motifs that are joined in a strip, then a crochet border is worked around the whole thing.   Adding fringe to the Spring Stash-Buster Scarf is a nice effect and another good way to use up scrap yarn.

Last on the list is my personal favorite.

I love these Crochet Bows for Gift Wrapping!  Making your own bows out of scrap yarn is a great way to use something that may otherwise be thrown way (or clutter up your craft room) and they can add a unique look to your gift-giving.

Free and Cheap Yarn and Craft Supplies

Not just for yarn, you can use these ideas for any craft supplies. Crafters, you don't need to pay full price for your hobby needs. There are so many options available if you just know where to look for free and cheap yarn and craft supplies.

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Have more ideas to add to the list? Leave a comment on the article itself and let me know here that you've done so, and I'll give you credit for the tip!