Tip Tuesday! - Needles

Tip Tuesday! - Needles 

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!"

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give credit where credit is due whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

Over the past few weeks, I've been asked a number of questions about the needles I use for piecing and quilting. 

What brand do I use? What size do I use and how do I know what size to use? How often do I change the needle? What do the colors on some needles mean and why do some brands have colors and others don't? 

These are all good questions so I got busy pulling information and sorting through it to write up a Tip Tuesday! post. 

It didn't take long before I realized that I would simply be reinventing the wheel and actually doing a disservice to try and compile a truly comprehensive post regarding needles. There are a couple of really well-written and organized websites that I use as references when I have questions, so I'm going to share them with you.

The first website I REALLY like is from Superior Threads. 

http://www.superiorthreads.com/education/

Not only does it have information about needles (general information and not just about their own needles), but they have a pretty extensive Education area that covers needles, threads, tension, etc. There are also some well-produced videos to view. 

http://www.superiorthreads.com/videos/

The second website I like is from Schmetz Needles.

http://www.schmetzneedles.com/all-about-needles/

This site does a nice job with explaining why a specific needles works well with specific fabrics. It also explains their color coding system. There are also a couple of videos you might find interesting.

http://www.schmetzneedles.com/online-sewing-needle-videos/

Take some time and learn about one of the most important tools we as quilters use. For those of you who only change your needle when it breaks, I hope this changes your thinking on that. :-)