Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thimbles


I love my thimbles! Almost 30 years ago, when I first started quilting, I bought a $5 thimble by mail. We were living in London at the time and I couldn't find a thimble to save my life. When we got home, I went thimble-shopping and found that they actually come in sizes. And styles. 






















I even found a really large topless one that I bought just because. It wasn't til later I found out it was a tailor's thimble for my thumb. How weird.  So I bought it.



















Then one year when I was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, I took a handquilting class from DeeDee McElroy of Roxanne's Thimbles. That's when I discovered that thimbles not only come in sizes, they can be pretty, and ergonomically correct! I'll take two!
















A few years later, same place, different handquilting class. This time I took Liuxin Newman's class (The Thimblelady) and found a totally new style of thimble where you push with the strongest part of your finger, instead of the tip.
The one on the left goes on your index or middle finger and the one on the right is for your thumb.
I'll take two of those, too, plea$e! 


So now I have my original mishmash of thimbles and that giant tailor's 'topless thumble'  and my 2 beautiful Roxanne ones and the 2 silver Liuxin Newman ones.
You can tell by the gold-plated Roxanne's thimble that that's the one I use most, but The Thimblelady's silver ones are effortless to use.

I even found a teensy book with a thimble bookmark!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Just thought I'd chime in and let you know, tailors' thimbles go on the middle finger and are open-ended for better comfort from the sweat that occurs during the strenuous stitching process. :) Love the site, looks great.