Quilting Tools I Can’t Live Without

Look, I admire the quilting women of generations passed who just needed a needle (and it didn’t even have to be all that sharp) and some fabric to create a beautiful work of art…. but I just can’t do that. I LOVE all my modern quilting tools! There are so many that make my life easier and allow me to work more efficiently and save me time! SO I thought I would share them with you today. These are the Quilting tools I can’t live without!

These are 6 Quilting tools that I can't live without in my sewing room!

1) First off – My Sewing Machine!

This beautiful machine is my sewing BFF. We’ve been together for a few years now and it has been worth every single penny of my investment and then some!

Overwhelmed with the sheer amount of accessories you can have in the sewing room? - Read this list for the top 13 Must-Haves in the sewing room!

I have the Janome 3160QDC. She is as absolute dream home quilting machine without going too deep into your pockets!

Sewing machines are kind of like cars… some people prefer Ford, some people like Toyota. It is still going to run and do the job it set out to do, but some brands have a few more bells and whistles than others.

Whatever you decide is “your” beloved brand, do yourself a favor and really consider where you want your skills to be in 3-5 years. When you buy your sewing machine, make sure it has those capabilities because, with regular care, you two will be besties for life!

2) Wonder Clips

If you’re the boss of your sewing space, these babies are like your personal assistant – behind the scenes keep everything together and organized.

Also, bonus, they won’t stab you like their pointed job counterparts… I’m looking at you single pin that fell down in the carpet and was found later by my foot. ouch!

3) Rotary Tools and Accessories

My suggestion is if you invest in only one single tool, it needs to be one of these. Scissors just ain’t going to make the cut for modern quilting patterns and templates. (I mean scissors WILL cut… but not well… you know what I mean)

I can’t even imagine being able to cut accurately without my rotary cutter!

The one I use the most is this one. It is a Fiskars brand rotary cutter. I also have an Olfa brand one that I like, but the fiskars one just fits ergonomically in my hand better.

Make sure you get one with an easy closing blade and make sure you train yourself to close it after every.single.cut. Sometime I will share with you what happened when my rotary cutter slipped off of my cutting table and fell on my barefoot. It didn’t hurt at all. In fact, I barely felt it… but the cut, and the blood…. close your rotary blades, ladies!

I also highly suggest investing in a good self-healing cutting mat. Wait no, not a suggestion. You have to get one of these as well. Otherwise, you will destroy whatever other surface you have in your sewing room, as well as the rotary blade itself.

6) My Rulers!

This goes hand in hand with the rotary tools, but rulers easily are a category of their own.

Your standard crafting and dollar store rulers will be sufficient for a while but they will show wear. When I bought quilting rulers for the first time… oh man, never again will I use anything else as a straight edge to cut with. (I truly was super budget in the beginning and I used a lot of amazon boxes as my templates and rulers! … gasp… I know!)

My favorite brand is The Gadget Girls rulers. Besides being just absolutely wonderful people, their products are amazing quality and the selection is vast enough that if you’re looking for a specific function ruler… you will find it! http://www.thegadgetgirls.com

You can also read my post Essential Quilting Rulers and why you need them.

5) My Tiny Iron

I wrote a whole different post on irons because they are essential in the sewing room (you can read the iron post here – Which Iron should you be using?)

This little one is my favorite! – No, it doesn’t replace my big guns iron. But the little girl does a fine job of ironing my seams and not blasting hot hot steam all over my little fingers while working in tight areas!

Tiny in size but powerful in uses and easily near the top of the list as most useful tool in your sewing room. Read more why THIS iron is my favorite...

6) My SeamRipper

Yes, something I wish I didn’t hold near and dear to my heart….. yes, my seam ripper is absolutely essential in my sewing room because… I don’t know, sometimes I’m a total spaz and I make terrible sewing decisions or even just spaced out silly mistakes. *shrugs* Thats just life. What are you going to do?

My husband MADE me a good sturdy one. (Yes, ladies. The mister of the house is a crafty one too!) It makes a frustrating moment a little less terrible knowing that he loves me. 🙂

7) Misc Notions

To be honest, if I ONLY had the 6 items above… I would be able to survive just fine in my quilting room!

You don’t need a ton of extra fluff and tools. But there are a few times where if my budget has allowed, I splurged on a few extras.

These extras have included pretty pins, organizational bins and trays, Different sewing feet for my machine etc… but mostly just pretty little things that I find (and of course, have a coupon for it, so why not, right?)