One of my favorite tools used for quilting is my toothbrush! No, it’s not a used one, but rather a nice new clean one that I use exclusively for quilting! I actually have 2. One of them I keep by my sewing machine to brush out excess dirt and lint. ( Q-tips work well too!)
But my favorite use of a nice clean toothbrush is for getting out marked quilting lines.
A toothbrush works really nicely to wipe away chalk marks when using a chalk pencil. I made a Double Wedding Ring quilt for my sister-in-law earlier this year and marked all of the center motifs with a chalk pencil. I just took a little water and scrubbed with my toothbrush to get out the marks.
This spring I starting using Sewline marking tools. I stenciled some Scottie dog motifs with white ceramic leads on my Little Rascals charm pack quilt.
I erased the lines with an eraser pen and easily brushed away the erasures with my handy-dandy toothbrush.
Most recently, when quilting the cute little hands and background fillers of my Bungle Jungle charm pack modern quilt (it needs a shorter name!!), I used a toothbrush dipped in water to clean off all of the blue ink from a blue marking pen. With my toothbrush I was able to control where the water goes.
I love using my toothbrush as a tool for quilting.
I wonder what else can I find around the house that I can put to good quilting use???
One of my favorite tools is a metal pick from a nutcracker set! I love the weight of it, and I use it to gently guide fabric beneath the foot when need be. Best of all? I already had it and didn’t need to spend a dime. Must save all my dimes for fabric!