Things I Love Thursday - Sewing Tools

Whirrrrrr, whirrrrrrrr, whirrrrrr, click.  snip, click, whirrrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrrrrrrr...  

These have been familiar sounds this last week at our house, but last night, after ripping out, repositioning, and much mumbling, I finally finished the quilt top.  Through most all of my sewing projects, there are a few sewing tools that I rely on each time.  Most of them are basic, but still, I don't sew without them.

This is my ring pin cushion that I made years ago after seeing a similar one at a War Eagle Craft Fair.  Being the "crafty" person, I went home and custom make this one so I could wear it on my left hand so I could have access to my pin cushion when ever I need it.


My Seam Ripper - I have a love/hate relationship with this wonder tool.  While I hate to use it, because that means I've screwed up on something, but I love that it does it's job. 

Years ago, when I purchased my first serger, I quickly discovered that regular seam ripper makes the job of undoing mistakes a long and tedious process.  This is when I found my 2nd seam ripper made just for serging mistakes.  It looks like a surgeons scalpel, but do I love this tool!The special curved blade helps keep me from ripping into my material and focus on just the seams.

Since I started a rag quilt, I've discovered a Fiskar's 5" Easy Action Spring Micro-Tip scissors that save my hands from blisters and tiring out too quickly, plus the handles are very comfy! The orange button is a unique locking system that allows me to quickly lock the scissors shut because they are VERY sharp!  I've snipped my finger more than a few times.  Guess I need to buy some new kids band aids!

When it comes to cutting out squares and stuff for sewing, I really rely on my Olfa Rotary Mat, ruler with a lip (acting as a T-square to keep it straight on the mat without slipping off) and rotary cutter. I love the way it allows me to cut my time in half.  I'm all about time-savers!

If you want to learn about other things that people love, head on over to Things I Love Thursday!

Can it be I love my Rainbow?

When I think of the things that make my life easier, and something that I use at least twice a week now that the Princess comes, it would have to be my Rainbow Vacuum.

 Do I love it?  Well, I can't say I would save it if the house was burning down, but it can really suck up the dirt in our lives (amongst various other items: cat toys, toothbrushes, legos, socks, marbles, etc). That in relation to the age of the user and that they didn't want to actually bend down and pick up the item. That lesson is for another day. 

 I must say, they aren't cheap, but this is the only vacuum that we've ever owned.  We have many of our friends purchase 2-3 vacuums in their lives, but (knock on wood), ours has been great.  We've only had it worked on a few times (it will probably go out tomorrow) to replace the belt and roller beater. We got it right after we got married, almost 20 years ago and took the plunge because of the great features to help with allergies and getting rid of all the junk that settles in the carpets, floors and furniture.  Now that we have indoor critters and live outside of town, we find that it is even a better help with country air dust, pet hair and dander.  If your cat will lay still like ours, we use it to suck up the lose hair from her.  I've used it to clean our ceiling fans, upholstery, and some quick dusting on tables and picture frames (yes, I own dust cleaner and rags).

All of the dust and junk from your floors, carpets, furniture goes directly into a water filled basin without any hope of swirling  back into the atmosphere when you empty it, like with a bag or up right canister. It was a little  horrifying at first to see all the junk we had been living with that collected in the basin, but we quickly realized that the more in that got sucked up into the basin, the better for us. 

I know it's a strange thing to love, but there you have it, I love my Rainbow!

Things I Love Thursday: Pandora Radio

If you hop in the car with any of us, you will probably find the radio turned to Air 1, but don't be surprised if country, sports talk radio, 80's or something else. But let's face it my kids and Honey have different taste in music than I do.  Depending on the mood and who is with me, but when I'm by myself, driving, sewing, cooking, or mowing, I love my kind of music. I don't have tons of money to buy cd's or download music from iTunes of all the songs that I like to, that is why I LOVE Pandora Radio. 

Never heard of it?  I actually listen to it on my iPhone and on my computer.  It is like a personalized radio station just for you (or me).  I get to pick what songs I want to listen to and it's FREE!  Here's a little of what they have to say:

We believe that each individual has a unique relationship with music - no one else has tastes exactly like yours. So delivering a great radio experience to each and every listener requires an incredibly broad and deep understanding of music. That's why Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents over eight years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans everything from this past Tuesday's new releases all the way back to the Renaissance and Classical music.

Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country

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Things I Love Thursday

My Brother P-touch labeler

I love to be organized, but sometimes the simplest thing works best.  When we take a dish to church or some other gathering, masking tape and frequently the permanent mark (a little ugly if I may say) can be
 inadvertently washed off by a well-meaning hostess.  One way we solved this problem is with our Brother P-touch label maker I bought a few years ago.  The labels are durable, water-proof,  and stay until you take them off.  I've not had any problems removing them from items, except when we use them on files.  I love labeling not only dishes we take other places, but file folders, items that we put in the freezer, books, notebooks, items and clothes that go to camp or on trips, diaper bag items, and more.  It has awesome features that allow me to change the font size, put two lines stacked, stores frequently used labels messages, use different decorative frames, print multiple labels of the same label, and more.  Using a standard QWERTY keyboard, the P-touch allows me to use different types of labels (clear, white, etc.) while viewing my label message in a digital window. 
 

**This post has been entered in Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries!**