What was lost is now found!

We had a great UFO session in the morning! More details on that later this week.

After the group left, I made my lunch and went out to sit in the gazebo. I know - that was the kiss of death for me.

I abandoned all plans to do some work inside. It was so nice - I was outside in a T-shirt and I was warm. I couldn't let that opportunity pass me by. I was going to work on my laptop but I didn't.

Instead, I plugged in my audiobook and grabbed my chair. But not before I grabbed this as well.

So this is a quilt top that I made in my early twenties. All the roses are done with liquid embroidery. The cotton on the painted squares isn't that great of quality and there is a lot of deterioration on the hand embroidered squares.  I believe the blue fabric is polyester.

I took out all the quilting when we were on our road trip to Nashville. But the top has sat around since then. So I got out my trusty seam ripper and I was off to the gazebo.

Quilt top being disassembled

Why am I taking it apart? It's a queen sized quilt and I used to have it on my bed. I know I had a picture around here somewhere and my dog at the time used to sit on it so he could look out the window. Check out this blog post where I talk about ripping the quilt apart and check the date!!!  There's also a picture of the dog sitting on the quilt.

I'm going to salvage the good squares. They will be reinforced with a thin stabilizer on the back and the quilt will be put back together again. This time with cotton and hopefully I can get a lap quilt out of it. I think those squares are worth saving. They are a style of quilting that we did back then and well - I want it!!

But the moment I put it on the floor of the gazebo to take a picture, guess what happened? I had helpers. Instantly! Now how do they know that?

Thanks, Mom!!!

Yep - dirty feet and all!

And when I tried to get her off without dragging her off and damaging the quilt more - this is the sass that I got.

Ah no - I'm not getting off and not sharing!

Silly girl!! I did manage to get her off and shoo both of them out of the gazebo, but let's just say that they are Mom's girls.

I managed to get all the rows taken apart. There is more ripping to do, but that's all I got done and I'm pretty happy with my progress. Hopefully, the next part won't take that long. Then the squares will be soaked to clean them up - well those that I rescue. Then to find some new fabric and sew it back together again.

Needless to say, it won't be assembled the same way that I originally sewed it together. Actually, now that I think of it - this quilt did see a repair job a while back. I'm not sure when that happened or why. The dog probably ate a hole in it or something.

I must have used the shortest stitch length on the machine (or so it seemed) and all the seams were pressed open. ACK!!! It wasn't fun to rip that apart.

Seams pressed open

While I was in the gazebo, I checked my e-mail and oh shoot, someone sent me a reminder of something they wanted to look at. Instead of waiting, I popped downstairs to get the tool immediately as I knew that I would forget.

I wasn't a 100% sure where it was, but I looked in the logical spot and there it was. But before I found the tool, I was looking deep into this corner.

The pegboard with tools

OH MY GOD --- look what I found!!!!  There are my TWO STUFFING FORKS. I was pretty darn sure that I had bought those - I remember the diamonds on the packaging and the handles. But I had no idea where they were. Now I know!! I still have a couple of geckos to stuff and I want to try them out!

Stuffing forks

Yahoo!!!!  So while I didn't get any work done that I was supposed to be doing, I did get something accomplished. And yes - I finished the audiobook, but it was in the wee hours of the night when I couldn't sleep.

I'm blogging this week on QUILTsocial. It's all about machine quilting this week. Loads of great tips.

It's Monday sewing and I'm excited although I can't stay long today as I have a couple of commitments. And I'm hoping to order the new floor for the basement today. Yeah!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!

Good tools are important

There should be NO question about this statement. If you're going to quilt, you need good tools. PERIOD!

I get it that there are new quilters who have no idea what's available. I'm OK with that. My first quilt fabrics were purchased from a chain store because I had no idea that quilt stores existed. But for those that have been around for a while - you need good tools. And good habits.

I've been teaching some new quilters/sewists in the last couple of weeks and tried to instill in them that they need good tools. Small snips for clipping thread and USE THEM ALL THE TIME. It drives me crazy when I see a project with tons of threads hanging off of it. Looks messy and who wants to spend all that time at the end clipping threads? NO ONE. So make sure you get a pair of snips and snip, snip, snip!!

The other tool that is essential is the seam ripper. I know - as much as I'd like to say I never need one, I use it every day. Well, at least every time I sew. I used to be a big fan of the Clover seam ripper. But I got the use of this one the other day and I'm LOVING it. Surprisingly, this one is from Unique. What do I love about it? It's large so it fits easily into my hand. Let's face it, as we get older, our hands just don't work the same way they used to. Second, all that blue is a sort of rubber material which means that the darn thing won't roll off the table. Another important thing so you're not scrambling under the table trying to pick it up. And there's nothing like a NEW SHARP seam ripper for ripping out seams. That thing just rips through stitches like they were butter.

UNIQUE seam ripper

I'm not sure where you can buy this, but if you see one, I'd snag it. I love it. And I might just be retiring the Clover ones that I have.

The other mistake made by MANY new sewists is their NEED to sew with crazy fabrics. I had a student the other day who was trying to make a cushion cover out of three different fabrics - one had a nap (so the fibres are like waves and shift when you sew), one was a loose weave, so it also shifted and frayed, and the third one was a Japanese print - frayed like crazy and slippery as an eel. No idea how her sewing machine worked or how the bobbin went in. That took me a few minutes to figure out - no manual.

M is going to start and do some sewing. ACK - I want to be close, but at the same time, it might be a good thing I'm not. Here's her little stash of tools that I sent with the sewing machine.

M's set up for sewing

I have a toolbox for all that stuff and I'll be sending her a care package along with some more goodies once I'm back from the retreat!!!!  I can't wait to put it together.

I had a crazy day yesterday. I don't think I've ever appliqued so much in one day. The good news - the project is finished - the applique that is. Now to get it quilted. If I wouldn't have been in such a rush, I may have done it differently. I really MUST set myself a false deadline for some of these projects. I'll share it with you later on this summer. It's OK for a rush job. Not a prize winner by any means, but an experiment so therefore it was successful.

Here's something else that I got done yesterday. One more customer quilt - DONE and ready for delivery today.

Customer quilt - DONE

 The last of the magazine submissions went out the door very early this morning. Technically it was due yesterday, but they won't even be in the office yet so I'm sure it's going to be OK. I really like this design and if they don't take it, I'm still going to make it.  There are NO MORE outstanding submissions, but there's still a couple of quilts in me. I'm going to continue designing and submitting and maybe one or two of those will get picked up. If not, I should design and write the patterns for sale. And I really should design a sew along, but there are so many out there already. Who needs another sew along?  I do NOT part take of them as I have no time. Even if I did, I've done my time with this kind of project, but people seem to LOVE them. I'm over them.

After I got the applique done, I decided to fix my magnetic pincushion. Those are pretty powerful magnets, but after a bit of study, I figured out how the magnets fit (there are two magnets and one metal plate in the pincushion) so that the two parts snap back in place. So while it's together, there's a big crack in the side.

The magnetic pincushion is back together

Can you see? Right in front - there's a big crack. That means, it'll never snap back as tight as it did originally. That must have been from the fall the first time. I've got time to wait for a sale or if I'm out and about this summer, that item can be on my shopping list.

On that note, I'm off to Monday sewing. It's weird to not have to do anything but grab that bag and go. I prepped it last Monday when I got home. And when I say prepped, it's prepped. If I could only get that way with all my projects. I'm getting there - things like my book list and my Monday bag. Super organized. The rest will come. I just have a few more urgent things on my plate before I leave for the sewing retreat this week. So some of that stuff will have to wait. I may have to take one urgent thing with me to the retreat and ship it from there. Otherwise, I think I'm good and that means when I'm back, I can focus on paperwork in the morning and sewing in the afternoon which will be very welcome!!!!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!