Quilting Tools
These are a few of my favourite things … or in other words, quilting tools I use every day and wouldn’t be without. There are myriad gadgets and must-haves that the manufacturers of quilting notions insist you cannot do without. You could really spend up big, or you can spend smart and buy the things that help you to craft your projects effectively and with much joy.
Everyone has different needs, so I will be discussing the things that I believe a machine quilter and patchworker will get good value from in their everyday work.
Anita Ellis
Needles
Needles for machine quilting
These needles have quite specific properties: sharp and smooth to get though many layers, strong to reduce needle deflection when you are pulling your quilt in all directions and with an eye appropriate to the thread you are using. The size of the eye will affect the size of the needle, and should be chosen to match your thread. The finer thread demands a smaller needle, the thicker thread a bigger needle. With a 40-weight thread such as Glide, I use a 90/14 top stitch/quilting needle. If I was using a finer thread, I would go down to an 80/12 size. Experiment to see what suits your particular quilt and
