| Chop Sticks | - use the Japanese ones as the tips are a little more rounded. Use them for turning points and stuffing. |
| Peep Hole | - for getting perspective on your designs, they're cheaper then reducing glasses. Or try the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. |
| Retractable Magnet | - it looks like a clip-on pen, but telescopes for picking up pins, saves bending! |
| Value Finder | - removes colour from your designs and gives only the colour "value" ie. light>>dark. Buy red Mylar at the office supply, it's cheaper. |
| Permanent Pens | - for labelling and signing your work. They come in a huge range of colours and thickness. Also useful for tracing templates etc. Make sure you give the ink a chance to dry, otherwise it can smudge. |
| Glue Sticks | - have several around for appliqué, and templates. |
| Stapler | - good for keeping your notes and patterns in order. |
| Freezer Paper | - now that it's available in Canada in white, there's no excuse not to have it, a necessity for appliqué and foundation piecing. |
| Silk Pins | - spend a little extra to get the best quality. The ones by Clover are smooth and even. The glass heads mean you don't melt the tops when ironing and they're easier to pull out of the bottoms of your feet! |
| Dry Line | - an indispensible product from Liquid Paper. Buy the one that's yellow and use it for the backs of templates and rulers, it creates a non-skid backing. Margaret Miller taught us this one! |
| Molefoam | - it's self adhesive, you can cut and position this on the sewing machine to mark the ¼" seam allowance. |
| Soap | - hard soap slivers for marking your quilting designs, great for dark fabrics! |
| Flexicurve | - a drafting tool for making curved quilting designs. |
| Mini-vacuum attachments | - for cleaning your sewing machine CAREFULLY! |
| Cereal Boxes | - for templates. |
| Bicycle Clips | - use these to hold your rolled quilt as you machine quilt. |
| Glass Jar | - put your specialty threads in this behind your machine so they feed better. |
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