Back to School

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops.

Henry Adams

Crayola Twistable Crayons  What Fun!!

School starts earlier now than it used to.  The county next to ours started back the last week of July.  Our county started the first week of August.  Do you remember what you learned in school?  Some things are only retained with frequent repetition - like math and foreign languages.  Quilting requires some use of math.  I have recently proven to myself my inability to retain some math facts.  I will not admit to bore you with the details but in my defense it has been 40 years since I was in high school.  Suffice it to say that I will double check my figures with a calculator and my formulas with a good reference book more frequently.  Of course I did check the formula with my accountant husband and he agreed with me but he doesn't do geometry regularly like I do with quilting so we were both wrong.  And to think... we met in Geometry Class.

Now in my studio I have several good quilting math fact books that I use.  I also have a quilting calculator that will figure out yardage and other things.  I was delighted yesterday when I was lost on Pinterest and happened to find a FREE DOWNLOADABLE chart for quilters.  You can get it too!

This chart is from the Landauer Corp. Com they publish craft books including quilting books.  If you click this link it will take you to the page where you can view the chart or download a PDF version when you scroll down the page.  You do not have to enter anything into the shopping cart but if you do it is listed as FREE.  A big THANK YOU to them for providing this to quilters!  Now that I have a reference chart in my computer maybe I can stop sounding like an idiot provide intelligent answers and advice without having to go down to my studio for my reference books.

Back to the subject of school.  Having raised four children the smell and sight of school supplies makes me nostalgic.  Seriously, am I the only one who loves to wander through the office /school supplies section at this time of year?  I thought I would share with you some of the fun and useful tools you can grab for your sewing  room now for very little money.  That means you'll have more to spend on fabric right?

First for this month's find.  What do you think of this pile of zippers?  Love the colors!!!

Cool Colors in Zippers

Maybe you can guess from the label but they become this pretty little thing!

Zipit Pencil Pouch

I know they make these in all sizes.  I saw a tote bag somewhere.  I found this treasure at the grocery store.

Now this next little goodie I've seen all over the place for a few years now.  Usually priced at $1.

Sliding Drawer Pencil Case

I've snapped up a few of these a couple of times.  They come in bright colors and are fairly rigid.  I'm using them for different pencil collections to travel with my journals and sketch books.  I also think they would be great to use like this:

Safety Travel for Rotary Cutters

There's nothing like reaching into a bag during class and hitting the sharp end of a rotary cutter.  Ouch!

They sell some more ridged fatter ones at quilt shops but this does the job for less $$.

Last time I was teaching a beginners class I grabbed a stack of these to use for Christmas gifts.  They were on the marked down school supplies aisle and they come in fun colors.  I know many quilters are making bags of all sizes but I got these for less than what a zipper would cost and I didn't have to spend any time making them.  The sides are see through too.  

There is a Pocket in the Lid Too!

See the pencil case easily would fit inside.  Scissors and seam rippers would not poke through the vinyl sides, bobbins and needle packs would not sink to the bottom of your tote bags.  Lots of uses for these 

don't you think?

Now this little treasure was a real splurge as I already have a couple of nice desktop tape dispensers.

Lime Green Tape Dispenser

But I did not have a cute little stubby lime green one.  It wasn't expensive, it is weighted and I found it at the grocery store on the office supply aisle.

Well students, quilt class is in session soon.  Are you ready with your supplies?  Do you have a cool idea for using them?  Share it in the comments, include a link to your post about it if you have a blog.