If I'm doing lots of appliqué by the "back, clip and turn" method (one I
think is as sturdy as you get), I like to put a strip of batting in my lap.
All the little snips and clips cling to it instead of me and the floor. If
an occasion calls for lots of tidying up of threads, I put a little square
of batting on my shoulder and just brush the clipped threads on the batt.
And - just one more - I keep the carrying handle of my SM raised up. I have
a strip of batting wrapped around it and held firmly with a rubber band.
It's a good place to keep my poker (a corsage pin), a couple of straight
pins and still leaves room for more thread clippings.
Our vacuum cleaner gets really cranky with threads snaking around the
floor brushes and I try to catch all of them that I can. Polly