Dollar Store and Back to School Shopping

/ quiltinggail

It’s August and kids are starting to get ready to go back to school … or not.  At any rate, the stores have all their “back to school” sales on.  Do you take advantage of these sales for your sewing room?

I do.  Here are some of the products I use in my sewing room:

  • A flannel back tablecloth is great for a design wall … especially if I’m going sewing somewhere besides in my home.
  • Hair clips are great for clipping labels onto fabric
  • Spray bottle for water (I always use a dry iron … and I spray the fabric if I want steam)
  • Shelf liner … will hold your sewing machine foot in place, add it to the back of pincushions to prevent them from slipping around, and in a pinch, you can use a couple of pieces (3″x 3″) to place under your hands when you free motion quilt
  • Hair ties – place them around the thread and the bobbin and you know which bobbin goes with which thread … plus it keeps the thread from unwinding
  • Notebook with grid lines … for planning that next quilt and Pencil crayons to colour your quilt
  • Mechanical pencils for fine lines (on the back of HST or to mark the centre of a block.
  • Elmer’s School Glue … I use this a LOT … dilute it 4 parts water to 1 part glue and it’s perfect for gluing down binding or whatever needs to stay in place.

There’s probably a lot of other school supply and dollar store products that can be used for quilting. What do you use?

On the Quilting side of life

The first picture is a snapshot of the stitch in the ditch quilting I’m doing for the Carpenter’s Star. The 2nd picture is some of the border pieces cut out for the murder mystery UFO.

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting!    
Gail 

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33 thoughts on “Dollar Store and Back to School Shopping”

  2. Pingback: Put your foot down #64 -

    • Hi Kathy,
      My kids haven’t been in school for about 20 years … (how did they get that old???) … but I still like to shop the back to school sales!
      Happy Quilting! 🙂

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  6. I use all these things except the paper. You can also buy binder clips and use them for keeping blocks together, they are used a lot around here for keeping my pp templates for different sections together. After I have pieced a specific section then I use the same clip to hold the blocks together. When I cut fabric for traditional piecing I use scraps of white fabric and use a sharpie to write patch A, B or C on the patch and clip that patch with the fabric squares.

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  7. Pingback: More Dollar Store Treasures | Quilting Gail

  9. Thanks for the reminder about back to school supplies. Every year I buy mechanical pencils at the back to school sales, and still need more the next year. Wonder where they go? One thing I’m not wondering about is if you’ll finish your UFOs; you hardly have any left! Love that quilt with Deb Tucker’s ruler. I’ve never tried any of her tools, but will be on the lookout for them now. Happy quilting!

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    • Thanks Ann!
      All of the Island Batik ambassadors are using various Deb Tucker rulers this month … there are some pretty neat creations! As one fellow ambassador told me, Deb Tucker rulers are like chips, you can’t just try one! 🙂
      Happy Quilting! 🙂

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  11. I love the Dollar Tree, where everything is truly one dollar. I spent a whopping $15 there the other day and most of it was for my studio.

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  12. Hi Gail! Your quilting gloves are so nice and clean!!!!! Are they new or do you have a suggestion for cleaning them? I love back-to-school sales. Sue was a first-grade teacher for 33 years and we always stocked up on everything. Either kids couldn’t afford supplies or they ran out/forgot. Notebooks for a nickel, pencil boxes for fifty-cents, and notebooks for a dime. ~smile~ Roseanne

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    • Hi Roseanne!
      Ha! Ha! You caught me!!! Those gloves are almost new … they do have the pointer fingers and possibly the thumbs cut out and I only use them if I’m demoing or in pictures. The gloves I use all the time are NOT pretty … I’ve washed them, I’ve soaked them … and no, they are not clean! 🙂
      Happy Quilting, my friend! 🙂

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    • Hi Gene,
      I find that it works really well if it’s diluted. Less residue and less worry about getting it on the iron. And yes, I do get some on the iron, but it’s a simple clean with a damp cloth!
      Happy Quilting! 🙂

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  15. Before seeing this, I sent you an email about glue sticks!! I use liquid glue like you show, too, and dilute. Do you use a fine tip on your glue? I have trouble getting a thin line and I know such a tip exists but I haven’t found one.

    I also like the little flag-like post-its if I need to label cut pieces with more than just a letter. I’ll still pin them on, but they are a good size for tiny notes about tiny pieces.

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    • Hi Emily,
      I’ve tried to find a fine tip thing-a-ma-jig, but with little success. A friend of mine got something from her dentist, but I can’t remember what it’s called.
      I use a smaller glue container, 4 oz, and just open the tip part way … that way I can control the flow and get just what I need.
      Using little post-it notes is perfect for labelling tiny pieces! What a great tip!
      Happy Quilting, my friend! 🙂

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  17. Good tips – you need to link this up to Kathleen McMusing’s Tips & Tutorials linky party on the 22nd! Here’s another handy tip for shelf liner – cut a small 2″ square and place it between your small square ruler and fabric. It will keep the ruler from shifting. I picked up that nifty trick in a quilt class.

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  18. I had to read your blog after reading your title. I love shopping for Back to School “stuff” but haven’t gone back to school for years after retiring as an elementary media specialist. In face my collection of paper — grid, lined, unlined hasn’t run out for 8 or so years. The only thing I ‘might’ have to replace is ball point pens… many are running out of ink and I plop them right in the trash as I hate to have to search for a pen. I can’t quite figure out how you use the hair ties with with the spool and bobbin. I used hair ties on masks and for little notebook covers. Mine probably are too big to hold bobbins and spools together. Have a good weekend.

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    • Hi Bonnie,
      It’s a nice feeling to have lots of paper, right? Now is the time to buy those ball point pens … the price doubles after school starts!
      As for the hair ties with spool and bobbin … I’ll show you in another post!
      In the meantime, Happy Quilting! 😉

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