Life continues to be very hectic and I have not had much time to focus on quilting this week. So today I thought I’d share two quick sewing room cleaning tips using items you very likely have on hand already!
Two Quick Sewing Room Cleaning Tips: Scrap Batting and Lint Roller
Dusting Tip
I keep ALL of my scrap batting. The larger pieces get saved for potential future projects (from mini mini quilts to being pieced together into frankenbatting for larger quilts). The small scraps are PERFECT for doing quick dusting. I like to dust around my sewing machine after I piece each quilt top and after I finish quilting a project. Sewing and quilting can quickly create a lot of lint and dust, and I find that those pieces of small scrap batting are just the thing to get everything tidied up.
Cutting Mat Care Tip
When you are working on a project that requires a lot of trimming (units like half-square triangles, square-in-a-square blocks, flying geese, half-rectangle triangles, etc.), keep your lint roller near at hand. Rotary blade cutting mats (like my 24″ x 36″ OLFA true blue mat shown in the photo above) are expensive, and I know we all want them to last as long as possible. One of the biggest ways to quickly age your mat is to cut in the same location repeatedly and drive fabric fibers down into grooves in the mat. By keeping my lint roller by me, I’ve trained myself to trim and move the large scraps to a waste bin and then I run the lint roller over the mat before making my next cuts. By keeping the small lint accumulation to a minimum, it really can help extend the life of your cutting mat.
Do you have any quick sewing room cleaning tips or hacks that you recommend? Share them with us in the comments!
I hope you have a great weekend.
Thank you! You enjoy a great weekend also!
Barb
No great cleaning tips from this quilter – I struggle to keep the sewing room organized and the thing that works best for me is just to try to stay ahead of things. Right now I have a bag of scraps that need to be dealt with. I think I need to cut them to usable squares.
I do use smaller batting scraps for cleaning and I think I picked this up from you a while back. I don’t remember the conversation but you had mentioned it at some point. The batting works quite well for this!
I keep a small wastebasket close to my sewing/cutting table . All of my fabric scraps , and thread clippings, even my bits of yarn from my crochet projects go into that basket. When it is full , I dump it into a pillowcase, and when it is full , I sew the end closed . Instant dog or cat bed . Free to donate to my local animal shelter . They are always so happy to get them .
I’m a quilt batt duster, too–been doing that for ages, so I’m glad you posted it here. I hadn’t thought a bit about getting the lint off the cutting mat, so thank you for that tip.
It’s always great to see how other quilters do their work!
I do that with batting scraps as dusters too! The only time I’ve used a lint roller on my cutting mat though, was to pick up the Minky fibres so I will try this next time when I’m cutting cotton. I do make sure I move to various areas of my mat so I don’t wear the same place out. I also have used scraps of batting as a duster on my mat which works great too.
Frankenbatting! I’m still laughing! I create Frankenbatting that all the time, it’s very thrifty.
Batting bits are also very good for wiping up any spilled oil drops after lubricating a machine.
I also love using batting scraps for dusting. I have used the lint roller on my mat when cutting minky. I will have to give it a try when trimming things up too. Another tool I like to use is the pink rectangular school erasers on my mat. They are great for getting batting or minky fibers out of the mat. Just make sure to wipe up or vacuum the little eraser bits that break off. One more thing I have used for cleaning my mat is the clear packing tape. If I have minky or other fibers stuck in the cutting groove I put the tape over it and rub. Then when I pull up the tape the fibers come with it. I have to clean up after minky a lot.
Great tips! I second the batting as dusting rags, it attracts the cat hair so well 🙂
Excellent ideas! I really like the lint roller tip. I wind two bobbins at a time and clean/oil my machine when I wind new bobbins. I keep my Aurifil in a plastic stacking box, to keep it dust free.
Funny, I just cleaned my mat with that lint roller the other day. The only other thing I do is, I use a microfiber cloth on my longarm table and rails. Helps keep the dust down, but I imagine batting will do it too. Oddly, I also put threads on my shirt sometime, then put them in the trash when I am done. It works.
Those are great tips, Yvonne. No, I have not used them before but consider me armed with information (and lint roller) now 🙂 Wishing you loads of sewing time soon.
I always finish my day of sewing with a magnet sweep of my floor.
Good Evening, I was just going through daily evening Google stories and the article sent me reading, I am interested in starting to quilt, but I don’t know where and how to start, please if you don’t mind, could you please give me a simple basic first time quit rundown for the beginner, TY and have a wonderful night
Hello Kimberly,
Here are a few YouTube videos about beginning to quilt. Perhaps one of them will speak to you and help you get started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe37aSedgTY&ab_channel=LoveCrafts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq3koiH4B8M&ab_channel=MADEEveryday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGr_6lZeWms&ab_channel=OnWilliamsStreet
Enjoy the journey!
Yvonne
I do that too! My sewing room is a dust magnet. I’ve never heard of the trick with the lint roller. Thanks.