Newest Comfort Quilt

   This quilt package is ready to go tomorrow to a young mother receiving treatment. The quilt, the bag, the book and card ready for her. Thank you, Gerbie, again for this exploding squares pattern.

Anybody for Free Pattern Giveaways?

    I have collected a lot of quilt patterns. That I bought. That I never used or a couple I did. I would love to pass these on. What do you think of a Free Friday Giveaway for the next 10 weeks? All I would need is a comment and promise to pass my blog to another for looking to be eligible. I would post the pattern on Fridays, and mail it to the winner, free with free shipping. What do you think? Good idea or not? No sense in these patterns just piling up here.

One Pattern I did make, Split Decision from McCall's Magazine

The refinish job commences

    Ok, what I really wanted was a treadle to put a Singer 237 in. What I got is some pretty filthy irons and a cabinet, beautiful, but yucky finish. Today, since it was gorgeous, I decided to get dirty. I bought some GooGone for outdoor grills and ovens and sprayed it all up. Great stuff, no odor, nice clingy foam. I let it sit for almost an hour. Then I scrubbed with a new stiff plastic bristle brush and toothbrush. What a lot of thick, disgusting, dirty crud lifted off. I wore old clothes and gloves, but I was covered in yuck. I don't usually mind getting dirty or messes, but this was pretty nasty.

   I rinsed it all with blasts from my garden hose. I scrubbed a bit more. I can actually see gold paint on the decals. It took everything off down to the metal. Now, how much do I have to wire brush? Can I just lightly sand? How about it experts?

 

     Not satisfied with gook and mess, I started on the cabinet. I did parts of the top and one drawer. Below are photos so you can see the difference between cleaned and not. I used Formby's Refinisher. It kind of melts the finish, removes some and evens it out. I have to get some more muscle and bulk up or I won't finish this until 4th of July. This stuff stinks, so I have to do this in the garage which means when it is warm so I have to hustle.

     All I wanted was a treadle stand and a 237 to sew on...

Spa day and marker dyeing

    How is that for a random title? On Sunday, I gave all my machines that are out a spa day out of gratitude for their service. All got polished, oiled, de-inted, and examined. It was very satisfying to service these excellent machines and I know they will reward me. They are mostly the same age as I. I have to take the treadle out of the cabinet and service the varnishy gook on the metal pieces underneath. I sew with it, so I hate to have to take it out the cabinet.

Ready to do business

   

    I was talked into teaching a marker dyeing class on scarves at Enjoy the Journey Gallery on October 11th at 6:30. What I really want to do is teach quilting, but I have no takers. This is a sample of the piece I am using to show before and after with the markers. I will post pictures after the class on student projects.

"New" Treadle

   My wonderful husband picked up this treadle for me because I was working at the quilt show. I bought it from Craiglist. I really just wanted the irons and the cabinet. I am going to put a Singer 237 in it so I can treadle zig zag. I don't have the 237 yet. I was hoping the machine in it was in good shape so I could pass it on. But, it seems rather in bad shape. It is a Lotus Singer 66-1. If I knew someone wanted it for free, I would redo it. Right now, I have to refinish the cabinet and the irons and that is all I can handle. More photos are on my flickr site.  I think the cabinet is just a lovely piece of workmanship. I got the bug to do this at the CNYTOGA when I blissfully treadled a 237.

The beautiful, but needing refinishing, cabinet,
the center drawer was removed for moving

Look at that detail!

The dirty irons

The back

 

The front

2013 Quilt Show

 Well, it is in the rear view mirror now. The Kenmore Quilters Patch tri-annual quilt show is done. My guild only has about 40 members, yet they are the most dynamite ladies. Everyone chips in and cooperates to pull something like this off. It was gorgeous. We had more quilts than space. Everyone brought in mums, sewing related decor, and worked like crazy. It took 5 hours to set up. Due to a bridezilla on Saturday, we had to take the show down immediately, with all hands, it took about a half an hour. Many of the women are over 60 and they are energizer bunnies. When my son came with my granddaughter (1 1/2), they all loved her. 
  My son was surprised that so many "old women" did something like this. I told him, the bodies may be old, but they don't think old, but are always learning and doing instead of looking to be entertained or complaining. I was honored to be included. I did win second place for art quilts, and second in the challenge. All my quilts got hung open. My flicker site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artswansatcamp/sets/72157636228257686/  has more photos, but these are some below.
  Some highlights: our boutique with a lot of wonderful handmade items. Our stuff all the scraps you can in a baggie for $1, over 30 over the top baskets raffled, super vendors, talking about quilts for two day and techniques. The hundreds of quilts. The labels had the quilt story on them. Some made me cry, some laugh. 

Challenge quilts- a movie, had to have a star, and we had to guess the movie

Some of the art quilts, mine on the bottom with award

OMIGOSH, I want to learn how to do this!

Taming the beast- organizing fabric Part 1

    This is for you, Elizabeth. I am sharing what has worked for me right now. Tomorrow, I may get smarter or someone smarter may set me straight. How to organize fabric so that it can be found, easily put away and easy to go through during a project. I use no cardboard boxes. I guess I am still smarting from getting cited by the fire marshal when I was teaching for using cardboard boxes to store art supplies in. What I was to use was not revealed.
   I love plastic bins- I am always looking at every dollar store and housewares section for perfect plastic. My family rolls their eyes when I keep seeking out better plastic, the perfect solution, the elusive perfection. I keep all my batiks separate from my regular fabric. I use every scrap. So, I will post a number of things I do now in hopes that you will do even better and tell me.
   My batik fabric is all folded in plastic shoeboxes or something like it. By color. These are all on one shelving unit. I will talk about scraps later.

The whole unit, other one next time

Shelving unit top

Individual batik boxes on the shelves, easily removed, put back

Then the bottom of this shelving unit holds all the sewing machine attachments and parts behind the door.

Shelving unit bottom, I know, it needs to be better organized

The regular fabric is all in one cupboard, in plastic boxes, and also the flat scrap baskets.

Bottom two shelves have flat baskets at right hand side, one regular, one batik

The flat baskets have scraps by colors. I find using zip lock bags hard to use  and fill with scraps. The baskets let me sift through and thow in easily.

Baskets by colors, then stack inside each other. Batik works same way.

I am having a hard time sorting and saving the teeny, tiny scraps I use in my Batik collages. Those are in zip locks but I am on the quest for some squarish, boxish, shallow plastic boxes that stack. Like real big ice cube trays. Where can they be?

Projects that are in progress (lots of them), I put in plastic zip bags that I got from Quilt in a Day and keep them upright in a plastic bin. Everything I need for that project is in the bag, gets put back in the bag.

Individual Bag

Plastic bags stacked in plastic bins, baskets. I do a lot of projects at a time.

I keep all my rulers, etc. in wood blocks that my husband cut slots into. I never leave the rulers laying flat to get covered by my fabric mess.

Have 2 of these side by side

 

Next part, I will show sewing machine storage and the other shelving unit. I hope this is understandable, if not, comment. Thanks for viewing!