I love gadgets, especially quilting gadgets.
My favorite so far is the Bendable Bright light.
It is a small LED light with a flexable arm that sticks to your machine. It really adds so much light. It is great for working on darker fabrics and helps you to see your marking or hera lines.
I have also been using the finger tips from Playtex Living gloves to machine quilt, just cut to the size of your fingers. They work as well as quilting gloves and they don't make your hands as hot.

I am now finishing up my "Big Red" quilt. I am trying a new set up in my sewing lair.
I set up a table behind my sewing cabinet. This gives me more room to lay out my quilt and helps reduce the drag and weight as I machine quilt. The ironing board behind the chair also provides support for the quilt.
I don't always roll my quilt up, sometimes I puddle or pool it to allow for movement. But my "Big Red", is really big.

Tyler's quilt is finally finished. I am really pleased with it. Happy Birthday Tyler!
I quilted the outer border in a kind of wave and water design.

Almost finished! Machine quilting this quilt has been a challange for me because I am used to quilting feminine designs. I am striving to make this a "manly" man quilt.
I usually don't mark my quilts before quilting, basically because I am lazy. But I decided to mark the straight lines on my borders.
I tried two methods. First I use a Hera marker, it is a plastic tracing spatula, that leaves a crease and a faint white line that can be rubbed out. It works well if you have good light.  I use a Bendable Bright Light (more on this later). Next I tried a Sewline Fabric Pencil, which also worked well, but I had to erase the pencil line.
My preference was the Hera marker, it made a nice visible line without having to erase.

It doesn't snow much in Raleigh. But the month of February brought us a couple of snow storms and cold temps. Perfect for completing some of those unfinished projects..
I have been working on a quilt for my favorite nephew Tyler, his is turning the big "18" at the end of the month. He loves surfing so I used batiks that had a water feel. I had a hard time deciding what to machine quilt on it, I settled for a water meander, and straight lines on the inner border. I will wait to see what inspires me for the outer border.