Maybe It's The Pins

A tad off I was on some of my DJs. A friend noticing A7 in progress on my last post remarked, “Those pins are big, maybe too big to line the seams up correctly!” Hmmmm I thought…. PINS. I literally have thousands of them,… thousands. I’ve got two large cookie tins of bent safeties for sandwiching, and then there are my clover flat heads and Bohin short appliqué plus the two overflowing magnet dishes of pearl heads and THE TIN, the tin, my mom’s tin. My parents are buried 600 miles away in New York State and I do visit their graves from time to time on Google earth but it’s the objects t I took from their house that keep the memories for me. For my mom it’s her pins. The red scotch tape tin was in her possession for as long I knew her. I was in my 50s when she died. It was never in the closed position, always at the ready for all kinds of calamities. People would bring their fabric/garment dilemmas to my mom, and if she got up to get her pins, or asked one of us to bring her her pins we knew the problem was not only solvable, but that she would solve it. Symbolically, I closed the lid and packed them away with some of her other sewing paraphernalia after her death. I rarely open them, but now I was curious to see if there was a difference with size. No not really, but it was nice to remember.

PS I did manage a slight correction on the red checked block.

Dear Jane

How did you do it without freezer paper? (Because even with it, and an "add a 1/4 ruler" I am still off a tad.)

A Minimalism I'm Not

So after all the busy wallpaper of 19 years came down,and the entire interior of our house was painted Benjamin Moore Putnam Ivory I started seeing places to put little quilts like this adaptation of a free pattern for an appliqué matryoshka doll at http://www.ottobredesign.com/

Piercing Question of the Day

Piercing Question of the Day
Exactly what machine is finessing your latest creation? I’m a relative newbie to quilting, it became my salvation back in 2003 when my first, second and third loves, cross stitch, crochet and needlework became too painful because of hand problems. I joined a quilting guild, and it just seems more and more people either have longarms, or send their work out to be longarmed. As you can see, I don’t even have a computerized machine. Somewhere deep in my psyche I have an aversion to them. Sure I use computers for everything. I work in a computer lab, but there is just something solidly reassuring about a good old fashion all metal machine. If I dig even deeper that film “Red Dawn” lurks. Hey, if there’s ever a power outage can’t I still be among the select few who can still sew. I'd find a belt and foot throttle somewhere. Okay sarcasm aside what machine do you use? I have been following 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs and noticed that she uses a Juki. Hmmmmm all metal parts, larger opening..... Bernina are you listening? I know you've spent 7 years or so developing the new 830.... I love my old 840 and 830 by the way. But how about an all metal machine work horse with needle down (I covet that) just to do machine quilting? And for all you non longarms out there, what do you use???

I just thought Tuesday needed a piercing question of the day.

April Block & Spring Break 2010

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Many of my friends and coworkers are rambling around in warmer climates; some are even wandering Parisian streets in search of the perfect macaroon.

But let’s face it,

I’ll wager not a ONE of them have completed their April Block yet.

Stop the Bleed

First, second and Third line of Defense

Have you tried a product called Color Catchers by Johnson and Johnson? I was given material from France. I washed it once with Vinegar, then again with Retayne and it still bled a little. When the quilt was completed with white borders no less, I threw caution to the wind and put it on warm /cold with a sheet of Color Catchers. The quilt came out beautifully, the Color Catcher sheet turned red, but the quilt was fine. Hope that helps someone.

Schooled by the batik police

In a previous post I provided personal information about a certain failure to pre-wash said batik.  Everything now is copacetic, all 60 swatches have been washed, ironed and sorted by color.  

My March block is complete....