Mole foam is available in the foot care department. It is a thick foam rubber product with a peel and stick back. Use an old rotary cutter blade and cut a strip 1/4" x 3" long. Peel and stick this strip exactly 1/4" to the right of your machine needle and toward the front to use as a guide to line up your patches as you machine piece.

A great portable pencil sharpener is specially designed to sharpen eyebrow pencils. Two sizes of sharpeners are included -- one for large pencils and one for small pencils. Either size should sharpen most sizes of quilting pencils. Place one in your quilting bag and another close to your sewing machine to sharpen pencils at a moments notice.

Office Supply Store

Chalkboard chalk comes in white and colors. Chalk can be sharpened with a pencil sharpener and will brush off easily after quilting. If using colors be sure to test on your particular fabric to make sure the colored chalk brushes off or washes out.

Permanent Metallic Gel Pens are really great for marking on fabric. These should be used only for tracing around templates for "selective" or "fussy" cutting. After tracing you would be cutting most of the line off. Any markings left would be in the seam allowance. Do not use gel pens to mark quilting lines as they are permanent and won't wash out.

Small stapler, staples, and staple remover -- This handy tool can be used in place of pins for layering several layers of freezer paper to cut appliqué patterns or English paper piecing patterns. Staple several sheets of copy paper together with the pattern on top. Stitch a foundation pattern or quilting design using an unthreaded sewing machine. Remove staples with the staple remover. You will have made several tear-away foundations or tear-away quilting patterns at one time.

Electric pencil sharpener -- You might want to purchase an inexpensive electric pencil sharpener especially for use in your quilt studio. The pencil sharpener with the electrical cord that plugs into a wall socket is more powerful than a battery operated model. There are two styles available - pencil is inserted from the top or from the front. Buy the type that fits your space and your budget. Either style would work well for sharpening marking pencils and regular lead pencils. The pencils are sharpened to a very fine point. Be sure to empty the shaving cup regularly or your sharpener will be less efficient.

Rubber finger tips -- Many machine quilters use these on their fingers to grip the quilt when machine quilting. They could also be used for gripping fabric when piecing. These finger tips are very inexpensive and come in several sizes.

Dry erase pens -- Dry erase pens are specially made to mark on white marking boards but work wonderful marking on acrylic rulers and tools. They come in assorted colors and can be seen on a clear ruler. I especially like to mark the cutting lines on my large square tool with cutting slots. That way I don't make a mistake and cut in the wrong slot -- resulting in cutting the wrong width of strip. After cutting your project, simply "erase" markings with a dry tissue or soft cloth.

Hardware store

Carriage bolts -- Carriage bolts are an aluminum piece of hardware that has a screw in one end. The ones I have are approximately two inches long and 3/16" in diameter. I unscrew the end and can place four bobbins on each one. This keeps the several colors of bobbins all in one place for a particular project. It is especially helpful in keeping the bobbins from rolling around on the floor.

Double sticky carpet tape -- this comes in a 1 1/2 inch width roll. Both sides are sticky but one side is covered with a protective paper to peel after applying the first side. Carpet tape is great for taping sandpaper to a board, taping paper templates to heavy cardboard or template plastic. For thicker templates use carpet tape to position two layers of template plastic.

Sandpaper board -- Sandpaper comes in 9" x 12" sheets. Purchase fine grit. Use double sticky carpet tape and place strips of tape on the reverse side of sandpaper. Peel protective paper and tape sandpaper sheet to a piece of heavy cardboard or a thin board. This makes an excellent board to draw around templates for "selective" or "fussy" cutting. The sandpaper keeps the fabric from slipping as you mark with pen or pencil. A larger board could be prepared the same way with additional sheets of sandpaper. Simply "butt" them together.

Clear packaging tape or self stick clear laminating roll -- Apply paper template to cardboard or template plastic with double sticky carpet tape. Then apply clear tape or clear laminating material to strengthen them and protect them from spills.

Metal Tape Measure -- get the retractable metal type that carpenters use. They don't stretch and they retract into their receptacle with a touch of a button. A lot of them are marked in metric and inches and have markings at foot increments and yard increments. A metal tape measure is a great tool to use in the quilting room.

Door peephole -- Do you ever want to stand back and look at a stack of new fabric, a block, or a portion of a quilt on the design wall but find your room is too small. The door peepholes are usually used to view through a solid door to the outside of a house or apartment. But if you use one for quilting it will make your project look farther away so you can get a perspective of distance without having a large room. There are several sizes. Purchase the largest one in your budget. Be sure to look through it before buying to be sure the lenses are clear and not scratched or distorted.