A good reason for class

When I first saw one of the class participants using these "Grip & Stitch" pads from Clever Craft Tools in class, I thought they looked fun. I thought she'd enjoy them in the first part of class, when we were doing large scale quilting, but later on, she was going to want gloves.

Now, I own a pair and I have to tell you, they are terrific! I used them for several hours yesterday. They have a black side and a blue side. I started out using them blue side down and thought, well, this is nice. But, they slipped on the quilt, just a little bit. Then, I tried the black side and you talk about sticking to the quilt and giving me very much control. I started out doing straight lines and then when I got to the tiny stuff, I went back to my trusted gloves. But, after I had to take them on and off a few times, I switched back, just to see if these would give me the control for some specifically sized, unmarked feathers and then some outlining.



Needless to say, they did. I microstipple with my fingertips, so I'll have to try them on that and see how well they work out and if I can get the same control using my shoulders that I get with my fingers, but for everything else I've tried, they worked great!

Okay, so my caution. Relax your shoulders. I tend to push down, mashing the quilt between my hands and the machine bed to make sure I get sufficient contact with the quilt for good traction. Pushing down made my shoulders ache. The rubbery sole means, I don't need to push down. They have sufficient "grip" to hold the quilt and go front or back, or side to side without the downward pressure. Oddly, using downward pressure with these seemed to make my shoulders hurt worse, so I have to be very cautious not to push down. And, when I didn't, my shoulders were fine.

I am enjoying them and am using them on the red silk quilt. I did notice that the sticky bottom tends to pick up my ceramic marking pencil lines. I noticed the lines, but don't know exactly where they came from. That said, I have not had any trouble seeing any of my lines as I've quilted. And, you know I drew a bunch of lines on that quilt to do that little feather border. But, if you marked too much, these might speed up the erasing process. Not a problem for me because I mark small section at a time.

So, classes are a great place to be exposed to new things. Things you didn't even know you needed and I picked up two from this one experience. Plus, I got to look at a book I might want to pick up. 501 Quilting Motifs.

Squishy! Rob said "you got Royal Mail." And, I did. Shevvy sent me this squishy. She found me a thimble with flexible sides. It does fit on my finger and will give me a flat topped quilting thimble. Thanks Shev! But, the thing I like the best is the flag. Already have it hanging on the wall.

Thanks so much again!!

Everybody have a great Monday. Lane