Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Playing favorites


I frequently see bloggers claiming favorites. Favorite fabric lines, favorite colors, favorite patterns, favorite techniques ...so many favorite things out there but not too much mention of needles.
My all time favorite needle is made by S.Thomas & Sons of Studley England. I used to buy them at a place called Quilt House Yama that has closed years ago. Before it closed I went out there and bought up the rest of their supply of my favorite "betweens" is whatever size they had left. Last year at the Tokyo Dome I found a booth carrying that brand and bought one pack. This year I looked and looked but it was just too crowded to see what brand of anything was in those stalls no matter how many times I roamed the aisles.
Yesterday our group met to work on the auction quilt. No pictures to share but being our first quilting day, everyone was dealing with fluffy batting and backing that shows every stitch. (or space where stitch does not go through) This is going to be a big challenge.
We had two packs of needles to select from. One of them broke too easily and the other bent.
Somewhere in that batting is the tip of a needle. My magnetic needle case contains those less favorite needles. The little fish is meant for soy sauce but I carry it in my sewing box to hold all those pieces of broken needles. I have been to a shrine in the Tokyo area where broken needles are brought to thank the Gods for their hard work and sacrifice. Now why would I thank that needle that didn't give me more than two hours work!

3 comments:

  1. Julie I've heard stitchers talk of favorite needles but I've never found a favorite. There are some I like better than others but I think my problem is trying to hold on to a needle far too long. I want them to last forever and they just don't - the tips do get dull after a while. That's really odd because I'm not normally that conservative! I think it comes from reading a lot of novels about pioneer women who had one needle and how much they protected and treasured it. I do the same thing with machine needles - keep them on the machine past the point where I should. I've not heard of the brand you mentioned. blessings, marlene

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  2. I have a favourite needle too. Probably because they were the first I started with and I got used to them. Luckily they seem to be everywhere. These are the Piecemakers. I use the hand applique for both applique and piecing and the "Betweens Quilting" size 12 for quilting. Wish I could use a larger size for the quilting, but that's what I'm used to. Would be very unhappy without a large supply of my favourite needles. I have tried others but they just won't do! Pity I haven't heard of your favourite needles either. Have you googled them?

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  3. I have favorite pins - I'm a bit of a bit snob. I like the super long and super sharp Clover quilting pins (and unfortunately super expensive). I purchased them sort of by accident once and was committed at the check out after I went through price shock. I'm glad I did because now they're the only pins I buy - when they're on sale of course.

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