New gadgets

I was sewing in the morning yesterday. It is too hot to continue into the afternoon. (In the afternoon I stayed downstairs and cut scraps into 2 inch squares for my leader/enders basket. It justified being immobile in front of the TV.)

While in the States I picked up three tools for my sewing room. One turned out to be a bummer, one is great and one is "why do I need this?"

The tool that didn't work out is this LED light that was supposed to attach to my sewing machine. I have a similar light that is electric and at the moment a bit erratic so I thought this battery powered one might be good. Unfortunately, although the light is strong enough, the adhesive on the back peeled off within minutes. This is probably due to the humidity and so I've given up on the adhesive part and will use the light set on the sewing table... which means it gets in the way of sewing. I could probably do without this gadget.

A little tool that I picked up on the spur of the moment at Joanns was this little seam allowance guide by Dritz. I was in the aisle looking for something else when the clerk came by showing a customer a couple of notions. This was one she picked up and I overheard her saying how nice this was to make an even seam allowance. When she put the packet back on the wall I grabbed it up and decided to give it a try. Usually I have sticky felt cushions (the type you attach to the bottom of your chair legs) on my sewing machine for a seam allowance guide. (Come to think of it... why does that adhesive stay attached when the light adhesive didn't?) Yesterday I tried sewing with the little magnetic version and it is wonderful! Hmmm. I wish I'd picked up 5 or 10 more as presents for my sewing friends. Small, lightweight and cheap!

And my not so cheap gadget I picked up at the Long Beach Quilt Festival. This is a Superior Thread Holder. As explained to me, thread is on those spools (or cones) and when it comes off and into the machine, it twists. So... to avoid the twisting, the thread holder is a must. Well, it seemed logical at the time. I was standing at the Superior Thread vendor booth drooling over the thread (not that I needed any) and when the clerk who obviously knows about thread tells me I need this thread holder then I guess I need it!

Using the thread holder yesterday I realized I'd never even THOUGHT about how thread came off the spool and how it never had given me any problems. So why did I need to fix what wasn't even broken? And truth be told, maybe there is a bit too much tension now using the thread holder (but I'm sure that can be adjusted). This is my "why do I need this?" gadget.

And why was I using all these nifty tools? I was sewing strips and then making wedges for my niece's quilt. Moving along nicely there!