What are your sewing quirks?

The sewing saucer, in all it's glory!

A dear friend of mine dropped around the other day just as I was finishing up some sewing. “You don’t mind if I go ahead and complete this, do you?” I asked, to which she said “Sure”, and then proceeded to investigate the contents of my fridge.

Once she found some sustenance, she sat and watched me. After a few minutes she declared “Do you know what – you are a really weird sewer”

“Whaaa-hey?” I asked, puzzled. I am never particularly articulate when confronted with such bald statements. Plus I had a mouthful of pins.

“Well”, she said, “You have all these strange sewing quirks. Like the saucer. What is that all about?”

I got slightly defensive as I answered “I like to sit a saucer next to the sewing machine. It’s the perfect place to put thread ends, and any bits I’ve snipped off, without scattering them all over the floor, or getting up every two minutes to pop something in the bin."

“Allright”, she said. “I’ll pay that one. Anything that saves sweeping up is fine by me. But what about ironing your patterns before you use them? I thought only sad old grandmas did that sort of thing.”

“But it makes sense!”, I cried earnestly. “I’m usually ironing the fabric nice and flat before I cut out the pattern anyhow, so I iron the pattern pieces too. It makes it all nice and straight, and makes it easier to cut the pieces out accurately, rather than dodging all the wrinkles and stuff.”

“Ok, ok!”, she said laughing. “Your quirks have merit, I’ll concede. But face it – they’re still weird!”

We both chuckled, then I somewhat selfconsciously got up and emptied my saucer of threads and scraps into the bin. But it did get me wondering… am I weird? Actually, scratch that – I know for a fact that I am a little bit strange! But what I really wanted to know is if any of you guys have any sewing quirks that seem perfectly natural and common-sensical to you, but distinctly dotty to others. C’mon, spill the beans!