Hey crew, welcome back! It’s been another quiet, yet productive Wednesday working at my home studio and I can’t say I mind. Once again the rain is coming down like cats and dogs with ice rain in between, so doing anything outdoors is 100% out of the question. No biggie though, since as we all know the term “inclement weather” is just a fancy way of saying stitching weather. If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on is you can never have too many days designated for stitch therapy. It’s always just what the doctor ordered – especially with so much going on between both the shop and retreat house this week! We have several retreat guests staying with us as we speak, with a bunch more checking in over the weekend. In fact, after my friend Vegas Val shows up with her mob this coming Monday, we’ll officially have a full house! Exciting to say the least and a bit overwhelming at times, so a little time away from it all before things really get wild is always nice.
While tidying up around the studio earlier, it occurred to me that it’s been about a month since I’ve talked about what I consider to be my favorite things in the quilting and sewing world. These include different sewing notions and quilting hacks that I feel like at this point in my quilting career I simply can’t live without… and think you should know about too! Unfortunately, I got away from doing that last year since we opted out of celebrating our usual 12 Days of Christmas like we have in the past. I’ve missed talking about the little things that make me happy in my quilting life, so I figured why not reawaken that idea? My goal is to feature one or two of my favorite things each month so that I can not only share the tricks I find to be efficient and time saving, but also to get feedback from all of you on what you think of them as well.
This time around I want to talk about something you might not necessarily consider to be a quilting tool, but I beg to differ! I love planning out my quilt blocks and appliqué designs ahead of time by coloring them in with colored pencils on paper first. That way I can experiment with the various ways they could look without actually setting anything in stone. That’s where this next item comes in… I’m sure you’ve heard of the art supply brand, “Prismacolor“ at some point in your life. They just so happen to produce my most favorite set of colored pencils of all time – the “Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils“ collection.
I bought this set and absolutely adore all the lightfast, richly saturated color options it comes with – very similar to my fabrics and wools! The box contains 150 premium colored pencils with soft, thick cores that are perfect for shading and shadows. These pencils are ultra smooth and feature thick, robust, leads that resist cracking and chipping. Vivid and intense in one stroke, yet soft in the next, these pencils do justice to any project you use them on. I love them! Want a set for yourself? Click the button below to get yours now!
The other item I want to talk about today is something I would truly miss if I didn’t have one, and that is my Daylight Wafer 3 LED Lightbox. As you know light boxes are simple and straight forward devices used to accurately trace an image onto another surface. Perfect for on-the-go artists of all kinds, this ultra thin, ultra light (only 9lbs!), and ultra easy to transport lightbox features fully dimmable LED lights for a bright, even spread of illumination from edge to edge with true color matching illumination for accurate viewing. The Wafer is not only ideal for quilting, but is also perfect for calligraphy, stenciling, scrapbooking, embossing, quilting, embroidery, sewing, and sew much more!
The Wafer is completely smooth and frameless, so your project lies flat and won’t get hung up on the edges. It also has a US/metric gridded border for measuring. Emitting very little heat, the Daylight Wafer LED Lightbox is powered by an AC adapter (included). Its LEDs are rated to last 50,000 hours. That’s a lot of tracing! Want one for your sewing room? Click the button below to order!
Well, what do you think? Are these weapons you already have in your quilting arsenal or are they still on your wish list? Let me know in the comments if you already own either of these nifty hacks and if so, how you like – or don’t – like them. I’m also curious to know what other types of hacks and notions you’d like to see. What are you curious about? Drop me a note and let me know!
Ok friends, it’s time to hang it up for the evening. I need to start thinking about what’s on the menu for dinner and continue preparing for another big day tomorrow. Just a reminder, I’ll be LIVE on STITCH with Lisa Bongean tomorrow at 1:00 CST on my YouTube channel with another exciting round of CommentSold PG style directly after (appx 2:15 p.m. CST). We’ll be talking about my current works in progress, what’s new in the shop and at The Gathering, plus “All Things Scrappy” during CommentSold right after. Set your reminders now so you don’t miss out! You can click the STITCH button below to watch… See you there! ~Lisa
The colored pencils have been on my wish list for a long time now and I have wanted a light box forever but just never knew much about them. They have such a price range I never knew which one would be a good one. Thank you so much for describing why you liked both.
Thanks for sharing!
Those Prismacolor pencils are so yummy! 😍
I was gifted a light box. It is not wafer thin and it gets hot but it was free.
The colored pencils I have given as a gift (not the entire set like you posted). May have to check them out since my pencils have trouble holding a point
Thanks for the tips. Looking forward to next time
I love my Daylight Wafer lightbox. It’s the best!
The wafer looks like an amazing thing that I need. I have a very old light box that just uses a nightlight bulb. How sad is that? Ha. On another note, I think your in-house chef needs to give another demo on making something yummy! Those are so fun to watch.
I have a Cricut lightbox and have used it for several years, especially when getting embroidery projects ready. I also have Prismacolor pencils. Both are super handy help in stitchwork and quilting. Thanks for the reminder about how helpful the little things are.
Yes I have both and love them. The color pencils are great to color some embroidery projects before stitching and use light box to trace designs. Looking forward to tomorrows Stitch with Lisa.
It’s totally all about Primitive Gatherings. Lol. Looking forward to punch needle class this Saturday, been working on my quilt box & getting the newest one tomorrow, ordered from comment sold, picking that up Saturday, been working on block 2 of fresh cut flowers along with a bunch of different wool projects. All PG patterns lol. Thanks for keeping me busy! 😊
I have had my wafer light box for a few years and love it. Such a handy tool for quilting, wool applique and other craft projects.
Wafer light box on my wish list. I’m curious about what LED light that you would recommend that might attach to my sewing machine. Or lamp that extends light over the machine so that the light shows in the needle area, but doesn’t interfere with the quilt I’m seeing.
Light boxes
Always an important tool!! From first efforts with sliding glass door n tape to inexpensive light boxes to high quality wafer with variable light this tool has evolved over time in technology, price and ease of use. I’m all about good quality and ease of use. Both equate to more stitching no time. Get the largest wafer you can afford. You will be so glad you jumped into this pond of light.
Those colored pencils look fun!!!
Oh they are Sherilyn… Just looking at them makes me happy!
I have both the wafer light and a smaller set of the Prismacolor pencils. The light I couldn’t do wool tracing without. It is so wonderful. I absolutely love it.
The pencils I use to color in embroidery “pictures” before stitching them, just to add some color and life to the stitch outs.
Thanks for the shout outs to both of these “notions/tools!”
Prismacolors are wonderful! Guess you know that you can lay on some color from these oil-based pencils and then use a paintbrush dipped in order-free terpentine to spread the color around the space you need it in. Sort of like watercolor, but not. And the Wafer is the BEST tracing light ever invented! Happy stitching!
I have the prismacolor pencils, to color in embroidery patterns before stitching
Yes it has definitely been stitching weather here at the beach In Westport WA. I have the prisma colored pencils. Absolutely love the big set and the quality. I do need a good light box. I think I will like the bigger size I order from Primative gatherings
I have the full set of prisms pencil. I bought them for color shading on quilts. Haven’t used them yet because wool box keeps me busy. I bought cutterpilar light boxes because they were a much better price. I got two for the price of one. One is HUGE and the other rechargeable so I can ditch the cord.
I saw the light box on a retreat last weekend and it is on my wish list!!! Would also be great for redwork design prep!!
The light box would be wonderful but for the time being I’ll have to rely on a sunny window☹️
Hi Lisa
I use color pencils also not just quilting but tshirt designs and personal card for my family and friends. My family never know when or if they are the one getting the card this time(when I start I do not always know either) . Quilts are the same way. I think both are my entertainment- kind of expensive but my children are adults and I live alone therefore I do what makes me happy.
I see people sharing their favorite things and when I think of that it’s so hard to pick or I have done it for so long it seems natural. I moved my insulation board design wall to sewing room and my daughter thought something was wrong(had company coming, hahaha). So I vote my easy to move design wall. The reason is at times when I start a quilt I may not like something about design could be color or block placement. So I put it on design wall and let my mind work on it for a few days or weeks, may even put it away and work on that again on another day.
Happy sewing to you
Charlene
I have the wafer light, but that box is colored pencils makes me very envious. I might need to make that purchase 😊
I also use prismacolor pencil and a very similar light box, but come to think of it, I wonder where my pencils are, haven’t seen them in a bit, guess I’ll have to put that on my list for today. Happy stitching, I’ll tune in later!
I love your tips on tools!
I have a light box not sure it’s the same brand but does all that( I am at work so I can’t check), I gave the pencils to my grandson. What I want to know is: do you draw your blocks out or do you have a program or something to print them on so I could color different bocks to see which one I like best when designing my own quilt pattern or even someone else’s pattern?
Hi Ronalda! Typically I draw them out by hand using graph paper but recently I started learning Adobe Illustrator so I’ll be able to do more on the computer in a more efficient way in the future!
I have a light box recently purchased at a LQS (sorry, but you’ve got to spread the love between on-line and local so our local shops are there for us), and a light box is a game changer. No more squinting or waiting for a sunny day to use a window!
Prismacolor pencils… learned about those in the year 2000 when my first artistic child started high school, and like Pokémon… he had to have them all! And then the second artistic son when to high school, and he had to have them as well. No sharing allowed, evidently.
They are both grown up, married to artistic types, four masters degrees between them all, and everyone’s poor but loving life and their work! I keep encouraging them, as illustrators and printmakers, to look into jobs with fabric manufacturers so I can get a discount! Alas… I continue to pay full price!
Thank you for the first 2 tips. I recently purchased the light box. After seeing you demonstrate it at the Valentine’s workshop I knew it would be very valuable with placement on wool projects.
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