Cicada Daydream (who has some really lovely items in her Etsy shop) blogged about her “Top 5″ tools of the trade yesterday, and inspired me to do the same! Ivy & Mae and Fog and Thistle also blogged about their Top 5, and I found it pretty interesting to read about the tools each of them love/use the most.

1. Baby Lock Creative Pro - I love this sewing machine. I sew almost every day, and this new machine handles fabric more smoothly than my old one ever did.  If I had a top 6, I would probably also mention the walking foot, which I bought separately. The walking foot makes sewing stacks of fabric together so much nicer than I ever thought it could be!
2. Fiskars 45mm Rotary Cutter - I almost always cut my fabric with a rotary cutter. My lines end up straighter and I can cut through several layers at once. Not to mention it’s so much faster than scissors.
3. Westcott Titanium 4″ Curved Embroidery Scissors - I use these little scissors all the time to trim threads close to the fabric.
4. Olfa 18″x24″ Self-Healing Cutting Mat - A rotary cutter isn’t much good without a mat. I love the grid and diagonal lines on this mat. It is large enough for most of my projects, serves as a ruler, and also helps me to mark diagonal lines I use when quilting some projects.
5. Donna Dewberry 6 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ Easy Read Ruler - Large enough to easily measure out pieces for card wallets, which I make frequently, transparent, and with clearly marked half inches. This ruler also came with optional stick on feet to keep it from slipping on fabric, which made a big difference for me.

These are the 5 tools I use most often and would be lost without. I’m not sure they are all the coolest tools I own, though (Baby Lock excepted), so I may have to do another top 5 of my coolest tools. What are your top 5 tools of your craft?

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