Wonder Clips to the Rescue!

I've been up to my eyeballs in quilt sandwiches lately!  The fun part of quilting, for me, is always the piecing: I really enjoy planning the quilt, finding fabrics, and putting it together.  But I have this bad habit of piecing quilt tops and then sticking them in a storage container in my closet.  They aren't doing any good in there, and I've already made it a goal of mine to finish all quilt tops this year--back, quilt, and bind everything!

Because I love garment sewing so much as well, it's easy for me to finish a quilt top and then jump into making a dress or top.  However, I'm trying to practice more self-control, and also better awareness of time: the quilts I've made this year have all been gifts, and it'd be nice to get everything to the recipients well before they expect, so I'm not sending belated birthday cards or baby gifts on a first birthday.  This past weekend, I made it my mission to bind any quilt sandwiches in my sewing room!

I'm young--too young for arthritis--but binding kills my hands and arms, mostly because I never use pins and just grip the binding extra hard to keep it in place while hand-sewing it down.  I didn't think that was going to get me through my goals, so I bought a 50-pack of Wonder Clips on Amazon.  Have you ever used these?  They definitely   live up to their name!

The fifty-pack was the best choice for me; it takes fewer than 50 to bind a baby quilt!  After I sewed binding onto the front, I flipped it around to the back and clipped every couple of inches.  The clips stayed in place without any shifting or worry the binding would move.  Best of all, because I wasn't white-knuckling the binding, my hands didn't hurt as much by the end of the night.  I still stabbed myself with my needle (a lot), but that was going to happen with or without Wonder Clips.

I've heard of people using Wonder Clips for their other sewing projects too, such as the Amy Butler Weekender bag, which is on my 2013 to-do list.  If I can ever decide on fabric for it.

I'm pretty sure this was the best $11.32 ever spent--I wish my local Joann's carried them, because I would've started using them a long time ago.  I'm really happy with how they hold the binding in place, and even though this isn't my favorite part of quilting, it made it much more bearable.

Have you tried any new tools lately?  Do you have a tried-and-true favorite?  I'd love to know!

I was not compensated for this blog post.  I bought Wonder Clips with my own money from Amazon and wanted to tell the masses of their tremendous job!