A Quilting Hack (or Two)

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I like to be as environmentally friendly as possible. While I do the best I can, there is one thing I do and feel bad about—using a sticky roller brush for quilting. Even though I hate the thought of all those plastic sheets going into a landfill, I haven’t found a more effective way to clean up threads. On the bright side, I never throw away the handles saving on one-time plastic waste and I only buy sheet refills.

Which brings me to my first hack—using the handle for wrapping long strips of fabric. I purchased a twin pack of brushes and kept one for its intended use and kept the other (once empty) for wrapping purposes. It’s a great size; it fits strips up to 4″ wide which is ideal for border strips sewn together. And it’s pretty hard to misplace. 😉

Once wound, I can store it until I’m ready to cut. The handle makes lengthy strips manageable; rolling and unrolling is a breeze, too.

Above shows ten 2 1/2″ sewn together strips totaling about 400″! It’s funny because I’ve done this with white strips too, and I admit I grabbed it a few times thinking it was my sticky brush. 🙂

A couple of years ago I discovered another hack when I needed to store binding. I’d made some before I was ready for it and I needed an object to keep it rolled on. I headed out to the garage to see if there was something I could use. On a peg board I found a 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ PVC pipe for irrigation purposes. It was sturdy and the right size so I thought, why not? I cleaned it up (after making sure my husband didn’t need it) and it worked great!

It’s easy to use as well. When I start to wrap my binding, I use a small piece of washi tape to hold it down, then just wrap to the end.

These little gems are a perfect size for binding at just 1 1/2″ high, and since they’re petite I can conveniently store the PVC pieces in a compartmentalized box when not in use.

Since I thought this was such a great discovery, I purchased a few more at Home Depot for about 45 cents each. It was a while ago, so I’m not sure about the price today but I doubt they’d be too expensive.

I know many quilters use Binding Buddies that are actually made for binding, but quite frankly, those doll heads frighten me so I think I’ll stick to my nonconventional ways. 🙂

Looks like I have a few quilts to bind…