Good Morning!  Today I thought I would share with you my Top 4 Favourite Tools for Hand Sewing.  Whether it be Needleturn Applique or Paper Piecing.

No 1 - Needles.  I use a No 15 Milliners Needle by Sue Daley for my Needleturn applique.  I love this needle, it is nice and long and very fine.  It measure's 490mm long.  I do get asked if I bend the needle.  Yes, I do, but I also change it regularly as that makes heaps of difference.  You don't realise how blunt your needle is until you change it.  We need to look after our hands and this is the best needle for that job.

For Paper Piecing I change my needle to a No 9 Milliners Needle.  I alternate between two needles.  The Sue Daley No 9 Milliners Needle or the Bohin Applique Long No 9  Needle.  These needles are thicker, a little shorter, but also stronger to use.  The Sue Daley needle has a long skinny eye and the Bohin have a small round eye.  Some people have a preference on which eye they find easier to the thread.  I personally find either pretty good to thread also this will depend on which thread you use as well.

No 2 - Thread.  My favourite thread to use is the Aurifil 80 weight 100% Cotton thread.  This thread is wound on to a cute little wooden reel.  I use this for Needleturn Applique and Paper Piceing.  I paper pieced my entire Farmers Wife quilt by hand using this thread last year.  I use a green/grey colour 5021 as I am lazy and don't like changing my thread.  I find that it embeds into your fabic and blends really well.   The other colour I use is silver 2600.  I use this when my 5021 is showing up or is a little to obvious to the eye.  I find I can use these two colours  for most of my projects.  I also use black when I am sewing dark colours and white if I am using a really stark white fabric.

No 3 - Scissors. My favourite scissors to use are the Karen Kay Buckley scissors.  I have these in every size.  I use the little green ones for cutting my thread and I use the tip quite often to poke a stray thread when I am sewing as if you are using a really fine needle like I do you can't use your needle to do the poking.  I use the blue handled scissors to cut around all my piecing for paper piecing and also around my pieces for needleturn applique.  I have more than 1 of each type and they sit in my sewing basket and I have another pair packed in my project bag for when I am on the go.  

No 4 - Thimble.  Omg I think I have tried every thimble on the market and I will let you know straight up, that I am not the best thimble wearer, I am really fussy.... and I mean really fussy...I have purchased many over the years and many different sizes, but because I have generally really long nails, it was quite hard to get one to fit properly.  I was really excited when I tried the Matilda's Own Rubber Thimble as they have a little piece that you can snip out with your scissors to allow your nail to poke through.  I also think this helps your skin breathe a little.  I use the blue large size and I do find they stretch a little over time and again I do replace them quite reguarly.  But I also think they are quite reasonalbly priced as well.  So if you are struggling to find a thimble that fits you right I would recommend you giving these a go.

Well, that wraps up this morning's post - Volume 1 on my top 4 favourite hand sewing tools. All the items I have mentioned above are available to purchase in the store if you would like to give them a try.  I hope you find some time this weekend to sit down and sew.  I will be back next week with Volume 2.