My tools

Tools of the trade. Everyone has them, that pen you have to use when you have serious writing to do. The knife that cuts the veggies just right. The screwdriver that has been through three generations. As I was working today I was thinking about my tools.

First is my Bernina Serger. Paying off this machine was my goal for the first year of my business. Done. But this poor, overworked thing just never lets me down. Whirring away through whatever I throw at it, it just keeps on stitching. (Yes, Carol - that is the pink thread from your sweater coat!) . Obviously it is my main tool.

But it is often the little things that make life easy. Here are three of my “can’t-live-with-outs”. In total they are probably worth $1.98, but to me they are worth their weight in gold! The magnetic pin holder is magic! I use it to sweep across the floor, under my chair and around my workspace. It stands ready to grab each pin as I remove them during stitching and is equally ready to distribute them when I am piecing. Shamefully I don’t even remember its origin. I think it was a “freebie” at a tradeshow that I attended in my previous life.
The little clippers, hanging on my son’s discarded lanyard, is my most frequently worn ”jewelry”! I can lose at least 5-6 scissors in the course of any day, but these are always hanging right where I need them as I start and stop each seam.
And then there is my chicken. She just makes me smile every time I see her, and she holds all my needles at the ready.

Working in my studio can be a solitary existence. But Winkin, Blinkin and Nod are the best non-complaining cooperative companions I could have. Looking at them is rather nostalgic; although they were employed to stand in for the range of customer sizes I sew for, they also remind me of the many sizes I have been in my life! They never scream when I pin them, they don’t call in sick and they rarely steal my lunch.
Tools are good. Those cave dwellers were on to something when they picked up a rock and stick.