Quilting Tools: Selecting the Right Scissors

As a professional long arm quilter I'm often asked what tools I prefer to use while I'm quilting. And today I thought I would show you some scissors that I particularly like. I think scissors are a very critical part of quilting event though most of us as have indeed gravitated to the rotary cutter, there still is a need for scissors in our arsenal. The first one, and if I could only have one scissor, it would be the classic sheer with the long blade. These are ginghers, or gingher rather, and I have had these for years and I love them because it has a nice firm feel to it and it gives me a nice knife edge every time I cut fabric. These can be re sharped, which makes them a life time gift, literally, and if you've got somebody on your list that's looking for something to add to their quilting tool collection, definitely consider a nice pair of scissors. This is an investment that you can't go wrong with. I also like a smaller pair of standard scissors, especially if they're padded because they have very, very sharp points. The blade, as you can see, there's a bevel there and it gives a nice tight cut and with the scissors being padded, they are a little more agronomic and these are wonderful for cutting out any kind of applique or detailed pieces that you might be adding onto your quilts. Speaking of applique, you absolutely need to have a pair of duckbill scissors. Once you have appliqued your fabric on, you can come up right next to it and this will lift the fabric up away from the stitching and then you can snip. And what this does is it prevents you from going too far and cutting into your applique or into your background fabric. There slightly curved as you can see so they sit up above the fabric when you're working with it and it gives you a nice ability to reach in and cut very, very closely to your applique so you don't have a lot of ravels. My next set of scissors, as you can see, I have them on the retractable cord. I have probably four or five of these, they're called snippies. Their by Havel. I have about four or five of these scattered throughout my sewing studio. I have one at every single machine, I have one on the long arm, I have one by the ironing board, one because I'm always reaching for them, and two, I invariably will lose them. The reason I like these snips so much is they have a very sharp point, which is wonderful for un-sewing when you make a mistake or as I call it, ripping, I like the old fashioned word because as you rip it rip it, it's basically called frogging. These scissors are wonderful for on the back of a quilt, after you quilted and you might have some carry threads that stretch across for being able to get underneath. As you can see, they literally lay nice and flat. These are just an incredible pair of scissor and with them being flat and being so tiny in here you can get right next to the thread and trim it, and not have any little nubbies left. These are another one, if you notice they are also curved so that they can sit down and you can reach up which is a little more agronomic. If you don't have the duckbills, these can work very well. Or even if you do have the duckbills, these can work very well for very, very fine applique, little tiny pieces that you might be doing. Ideally, what they are is a type of embroidery scissor for getting in and clipping the embroidery threads. Another embroidery scissors that is very nice to have are these curved, they have a very extreme curve and the theory is it will go on over the hoop and you can get in while the hoop is in the machine to trim your threads. I do do a lot of embroidery, I make quilt labels on the embroidery machine and a lot of times I will do some embroidery to put onto the quilt in the blocks, so I do like to have these scissors. So these are just a few of my very, very favorites and if you get a chance, go into your local quilt shop and give them a try. I think you'll be very pleased with the results.