15 Quilting Tools Hiding in Your Hardware Store

In this episode, I explore unconventional and budget-friendly quilting tools that can be found at your local hardware store. As part of Season 5's focus on building a creative business, this episode offers practical tips for quilters looking to save money while enhancing their craft.

Hardware Store Quilting Tools:

Tools Section:

1. Magnetic Bowls - Deeper than typical pin dishes, perfect for holding pins, especially heavy-duty long arm pins
2. Magnetic Bars - Used to secure quilt tops when floating them on a long arm machine
3. Telescoping Magnetic Handles - Great for retrieving dropped pins or reaching into tight spaces
4. Scissor Sharpeners - For extending the life of all-purpose scissors (not recommended for high-quality sewing shears)
5. Small Inspection Mirrors - Helpful for checking the bobbin area or viewing the back of a quilt without flipping it

Paint Department: 

6. Painter's Tape - Susan's "all-time winner" for marking boundaries, creating guides, securing loose seams, and making cutting jigs 

7. Rubber Mallet - Perfect for flattening bulky seams that won't fit under machine feet, also useful for snaps and grommets

Measuring Section: 

8. Yardstick - Longer than typical quilting rulers, useful for holding side clamp straps at the long arm machine

Storage & Organization: 

9. S-Hooks - Great for hanging rulers on pegboards or temporarily displaying quilts 

10. Wire Shelving with Wheels - Space-saving storage that can be rolled when needed 

11. Snap-Together Storage Bins - Perfect for organizing small supplies like seam rippers and marking tools 

12. Mesh Drawer Organizers - Good for visible storage of color-organized scraps 

13. Closet Organization Hardware - For storing batting rolls using closet rails and PVC pipe

Lighting: 

14. LED Stick-On Lights - For additional task lighting under machines - Tip: Use a floor lamp with adjustable neck for "quilting by shadow" on dark or busy prints

Building Materials: 

15. Plexiglass Sheets - For auditioning quilting designs

Want to try free motion quilting but don't know where to start? Here's 3 simple steps to get going.

Transcript

0:47

Welcome to Measure Twice. Cut once we're in season five, and this whole season is an exploration into behind the scenes of not just quilting, but building a creative business that truly lights you up. As someone who's navigated the exciting and sometimes bumpy world of turning a passion into a profession, I'm excited to pull back the curtain and share my own experiences. Some episodes are just me diving into my personal journey. While other episodes will feature guests who are also navigating the world of creative entrepreneurship, we'll explore the nitty gritty of building a creative business, the lessons learned and the unexpected challenges that come with transforming your craft into a thriving enterprise. And don't worry, I'm not leaving storytelling behind. Instead, I'll be weaving stories. Into the conversations about what it takes to grow a business while staying true to your creative spirit. So whether you're dreaming of starting your own business, or you just love hearing about creative entrepreneurship, this season is for you. And today I wanna talk about something a little bit. Different than we've had in the last few episodes. So many of us that are building an entrepreneurial business are doing it on a shoestring and budgets really, really matter. So I wanna talk to you about some surprising quilting tools that you can find. Drum roll in the hardware store. They're extremely inexpensive, they're readily available, and crazy helpful in your quilting studio. So we'll approach this as kind of a walkthrough following different sections of the hardware store. Let's start in the tools section. Number one. Some simple tools that I really love are magnetic bowls. They're often near the screwdrivers because people who are working with tools have these little bowls for their nails or their screws or whatever they're working with. We quilters love them for pins, and I particularly like them for the heavy duty style of pins that I use at the long arm because they're longer and larger. So these dishes from the hardware store tend to be deeper than the pinned dishes that you would often find in a sewing shop. And they have strong magnets in the base of them, which is fantastic. You can be pulling pins out of your quilt and sort of throw them in the general direction of the bowl and they'll catch and stick to it. And of course, the bowl will stick to your long arm rails if indeed you have magnetic long arm rails, which I do. In the magnetic theme, I love to use magnetic bars. These are tool number two, and I use them on the front rail of my quilting machine, when my quilt is loaded on the long arm, so I do have magnetic rails and I like to float my quilt tops, which means they're attached, they're stitched in the area where I'm quilting on that top level surface, and then the quilt top floats over the rail and hangs down in front of my quilting machine. Nevertheless, I still need that quilt top to be secured and held in place so it can't shift. And I do that by putting these magnetic bars on that front rail, nose to tail along the front. Now these bars in a hardware store, will typically be used either for hanging tools in your garage or shop, or perhaps you might use them for hanging knives in your kitchen. And they're long. They vary, but 12, 18 inches in length and about an inch wide. So long and slim, a super strong magnet throughout. A couple of words of warning. Don't let two of them stick together from end to end. It will be very difficult to get them apart. And two. Be careful that you don't get your fingers caught between them. They do clip together very hard, so be cautious when you're working with them. And I like to store mine on the floor literally at the base of a wall. So the junction of the wall and floor in that corner is where I put my magnetic bars just end to end. It keeps them out of the way so I don't stub them with my toe, and it keeps them from getting caught together in pairs, and that's really important. Number three, still magnetic. You can get smaller magnets that are on a telescoping handle. This can be very helpful for picking up things that you've dropped on the floor, like pins or needles. You can kind of sweep that magnet around if you can't see the thing that you've dropped or if you have difficulty bending over to pick up things. These long handled magnets can be very helpful. Or if something metallic has fallen into a crevice that you can't easily reach into, the long telescoping magnet is very handy. Okay. Number four, you can also acquire at a hardware store a heavy duty scissor sharpener. Now, I will say I do not use a DIY type sharpener on my high quality sewing shears, but I do use them on my all purpose scissors throughout my studio, things that I have perhaps for cutting batting or cutting paper and odd things so it can really extend the life of those scissors. Number five, a small inspection mirror, especially if you can find one that's on a long handle. But if not, you can often find small handheld inspection mirrors with mechanics tools for a quilter. This can be useful to check the bobbin area if your quilting machine. If a quilt is loaded and it's difficult to see in under there, a mirror can expand ways that you can view. And examine that. And also you can view the back of the quilt without having to roll it up or flip it. And I will add, you probably want to do this in conjunction with either a flashlight, which you could also get at the hardware store or the flashlight app on your smartphone, because you will need a bright light in addition to that mirror to be able to see the stitches on the wrong side of the quilt. You know how I'm always raving about bamboo batting in my quilts? Well, I found something that brings that same incredible softness to your entire sleep experience. Cozy Earth's Bamboo Sheet Set. As a quilter, I'm pretty picky about the feel of fabric, and these are honestly the most luxurious sheets I've ever slept on. They're breathable, silky smooth, and they feel amazing against your skin. And they get softer and softer with every wash. Great days, after all, start with better nights. And better nights start with Cozy Earth Sleep Essentials. Not sure if you'll love them? Take a hundred nights to decide with a sleep trial and a 10 year warranty. Visit CozyEarth. com and use my exclusive code MEASURE. That's M E A S U R E for 40 percent off your entire order. Prioritize your sleep. Prioritize you. Your creativity will thank you tomorrow. All right. Let's move on to the paint department for some surprising finds. I bet you guys that know me might be able to guess what's coming. Number six is painter's tape. It is my all time winner in terms of quilting tools that I love for so many reasons. In my quilting and sewing studio, it is certainly less expensive than buying actual quilt marking tape. It has a low level of stickiness, so it removes easily and cleanly without leaving any kind of residue. And of course, you can tear it. To any size that you need, all you have to do is watch my live and unscripted episodes on YouTube and you'll see me using it for various things, particularly for marking. So sometimes I'll use it for, um, marking a boundary or a straight line, like how far I can quilt forward at that front rail. Or I'll use it to just. Organize my wavy line or some type of design that I want to quilt in casual rows. It keeps them from veering up or down. Sometimes I'll use it if a seam has come open a little and I need to hold it closed while I quilt over it. Sometimes I'll use it to make marking jigs on my cutting rulers if I'm cutting the same thing over and over again. It helps me not have to count out those inches every time I just drop a little piece of tape in place. And don't forget trimming a minky type backing without creating a crazy mess in your cutting studio. It is so, so helpful. I. Another tool, number seven that's often near paint tools is a rubber mallet. Now, this is not a thing that I use often, but when I do need it is super valuable. I use a rubber mallet for flattening bulky seams. It's a bit softer than a metal hammer, so it won't damage your fabric. But there are times when you have really bulky seams. Think maybe flannel seams or denim or t-shirt seams that are really thick. Sometimes a quarter inch or more, and they won't fit under the hopper foot of your sewing machine or your long arm quilting machine. So you need to take that quilt to something that is secure to pound on, like a floor or a piece of wood, a two by four or something like that. And you can literally pound it a little with the rubber mallet and that bulky seam intersection will flatten out and smooth out and be much easier to quilt over. And of course, if you make bags or other projects that perhaps use snaps or grommets, the rubber mallet is super helpful for those as well. Number eight, in the measuring and leveling section, how about a yardstick? This is much longer than typical quilting rulers, so for measuring perhaps backings or things that have longer distances to measure, but I use it the most at my long arm to hold my side clamp straps up, so I will literally put a yardstick extending from the front rail. To the back rail on top of both of them and hoist up that side clamp, whether it's attached to a cord or a Velcro tape or whatever the string is. Literally hoist that up just a little bit so that my long arm nose is not bumping against those side clamps. So a yardstick is super helpful for that. A few storage or organizational tools that you could find in a hardware store. So number nine is S hooks. They are perfect for hanging rulers, for example, from a PEG board, and they can be linked together in multiples, of course, if you need a longer drop. And obviously they're very easily repositioned. I use them from time to time to hang quilts, particularly if it's a temporary hang, like for taking photographs. So I'll use an office. Uh, pinch clip or several of them along the top edge of my quilt, and then literally hook those clips over s hooks. And that's a great and easy and quick way to hang up a quilt. Number 10, wire shelving with wheels. These I use in what I call my ugly room. I have an organizational room where I have some cutting tables and these racks that store incoming quilts, client projects, batting, things like that, that are all in my not pretty area. However, one of the advantages of the wire shelving is. It can roll easily. And so,'cause they're usually on casters and so they're space saving because you can literally stack two of them, one right in front of the other and just roll them when you need to get access to them. So a great thing to use them for that I do is for incoming quilts. I keep baskets on this wire shelving, fairly large baskets and everything for one project goes into one basket so that it's all organized and I can put my client name. With painter's tape on the front of that basket and keep easy, visible track of what's to come, what's in the pipeline. Snap together storage bins. Number 11. These are often used for smaller things, at least in my studio. So it might be things like my supply of new seam rippers, or perhaps new marking pens or chalks or small tools like rotary cutters or packets of rotary blades or alcohol swabs, all kinds of things that. Typically are kept in shallow drawers, but rather than having a jumble of them having these small organizational plastic bins, kind of similar to a silverware organizer or perhaps a bathroom drawer organizer, but in hardware stores, these are available too, and they work super well in shallow drawers to keep your bits stored, separate, organized, and easy to see. Likewise. Mesh type drawer organizers work well, you can get the ones that fit inside a drawer and also you can get the type that hook on the bottom of a shelf. And I love those for things that I want to keep visible because you can see through the wire. So it might be scraps organized by color, for example, and you can easily find labels that you can put on the front of those to keep them, uh, to keep clear what's in them as well. Number 13, and I don't know that I've remembered to say all these numbers, but here we go. Number 13, closet organization. I purchase quilt batting by the roll, and I usually have several different types, therefore several different huge roles on hand. And the way I've chosen to store it is with. A closet hanging rail. So at a hardware store, you can literally purchase those end pieces of hardware. They're like a triangular shaped bracket that needs to be screwed to a stud, a secure surface, and they've got a built-in curved hook at the front. On which a closet rail can rest. Now I've chosen to use PVC pipe for my rail, and then I've drilled a hole right through both ends of it that corresponds with the hole that's already drilled in those closet hangers. Thank you hardware store for thinking of that one already. And now then I can hang my batting on that rail. Put a big old D clamp right through the BVC pipe and through the hook, and that rail will stay in place. My batting is not at risk of falling, and I can spool it off freely. It works super well. You also, of course, could use the closet hanger for actual incoming quilts, and for that you would want some heavy duty hangers, which you may or may not be able to find at the hardware store. And then you can hang the. Backing or the batting or the, actual quilt top over that heavy duty hanger and keep them organized in that way. I will typically keep a bag with it and tuck any little bits that go with it, like perhaps the thread color we've chosen, or maybe if I'm attaching binding for that client, there will have, there'll be extra pieces and they can all tuck in that bag, hang over the hanger, and it all stays organized on that closet rack. Number 14, lighting fines. Again, there's so many options here, but I'll just highlight a couple. LED. Stick on lights are super convenient. Number one, they don't ever need the bulbs replacing because they're LED and they're very low power usage, so that's lovely. But you can tack them wherever you need additional lighting. Think the underside of your domestic swing machine or the underside of your long arm machine, and they'll cast light. On your task wherever you need them to be. Another thing that I've used lighting for is I have a freestanding floor lamp with kind of a gooseneck adjustable top, and here's what I use it for. Occasionally when I'm quilting at the long arm, I'll be working on a print that is either very dark or very busy, a fine print, and it's super difficult to see where I'm stitching or what I've already done or where to go next. So what's really beneficial in this case is to turn off all the lights in the room, all the lights on the machine, and have this strong side light shining from one side. So the movable floor lamp. With the gooseneck is ideal for that, and I call it quilting by shadow. It casts a shadow across my work and I can see now where I've been and where I need to go next. Okay, number 15, one last one. This is another favorite in the building materials section. You can find plexiglass sheets in a hardware store, and I've always been able to find them pre-cut to several different sizes. My personal favorite size is one eighth of an inch thick. And 18 inches by 24. I love that size because it's big enough to do my quilting audition work on, and it's small and light enough that I can set it right on top of my quilt as it's loaded on the long arm. So what I use these for is auditioning my quilting design. How big, how small do I want it, or even what design am I going to quilt? Or do I want feathers or lines or what's it gonna look like? And to audition these designs, I use a dry erase marker in one hand and a piece of scrap batting for an eraser in the other hand. And let me tell you, it's much easier to audition a design that way than with actual stitches that you have to undo. So you can lay it right on top of your, the top of your quilt, whether it's loaded on your long arm or whether you're working at a table in advance. Either way, you can load it right on top and in real size. You can audition these different quilting designs on it. So helpful. One top tip for that though, the markers do leave a little bit of residue on the plexi, and so you want to always have an upside so that the clean side is always on the quilt, and you also never want to be at risk of drawing off the edge of the plexiglass sheet onto the quilt. That dry erase marker is permanent on fabric. So the way to solve both those problems is to create a frame with duct tape or something similar around the edge, the outer perimeter of that whole plexiglass sheet on one side only. Then you always know that's the upside, and the other one is the clean side that you put down on the quilt. So there's my top 15 ideas for great things that you can find inexpensively at the hardware store. Let me know which ones come as a surprise to you and what you're going to try out next. Email me at support@stitchedbysusan.com. Scroll way down to the bottom to leave a review. If you've enjoyed this podcast or share it with a friend, I would love to hear from you. Well, until next time, may your sorrows be patched and your joys be quilted.