OH MY GOSH ---- I remember Satin Moon Quilt Shop in Victoria. I believe I was there several times. BUT I never scrimped on having a cutting mat. However, in that person's defense, it was and still is very common for women to skimp on the tools of the trade regardless of the hobby. Don't skimp on the tools!!!! You are worth it!!!
OK—I have a surprise for someone, and once they see the item, they will know who it's for.
After the story about the rotary blades, I needed to change the blade on my cutter. So I went to the drawer (yes, an entire drawer) devoted to rotary cutting supplies. Sigh.......
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| My drawer of rotary cutting supplies |
There are extra cutters and blades in there, and thankfully, it's not overflowing. I also have a cutter on the cutting table, one in my retreat bag, and I think there's a small one on the cutting table. Oh wait -- there's one on the paper peicing table as well.
But look what I found!!!!
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| A purple rotary cutter! |
This is about as purple as you are going to get with the cutters. It's also an Olfa. I'm willing to part with it if that certain someone wants it! You know who you are!!!
I found old packaging from every rotary cutter I ever owned, or so it seemed. I don't need to keep this, but the packaging made me realize years ago that Olfa cutters are guaranteed for life. Perhaps I should keep one that says that!!!
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| Old packaging that needs to go! |
But at this point in my quilting career, if a cutter wears out, I'm just going to use a new one. So I put all the packaging in the recycling. Here's the thing about keeping written information. It gets dated, and everything is available online. If our online dies? We're screwed, but I suspect we'll have other issues to contend with and won't be looking for information on a rotary cutter!
And there's my box of blades. I have a cutter with a wavy blade on it, and there are two other fancy blades in the box - one for cutting perforations, and I don't remember the other one. I have blades in all sizes - 18mm, 28mm, 45mm, and 60mm. I have containers for the old ones, as well as packages of new ones. As mentioned yesterday, at the rate I change blades, I'm set for the next 7 years or so.
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| Rotary cutter blades |
Speaking of changing the blades, I did change the blade, but you know the blades are oiled, so you can separate them. I swear I have two blades stuck together, but the blade is very dry and sticky, and lint from cutting is accumulating on it. Perhaps a little squirt of sewing machine oil might do the trick. I'll try that later today. Remember to take good care of your blade. Do NOT over-tighten the screw; the blade should roll freely as you cut. It's a ROTARY cutter after all, not a stationary blade!
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| The date the blade was changed. |
Now that I had a new blade, it was time to cut. I needed some teal fabric, so I pulled down the scrap box from the shelf. OH MY --- there are the leftovers of that fabric that I recently added to a quilt as borders. I'm using the same fabric for the binding and was missing about 12 inches. I kept two pieces so I can make enough binding to finish that quilt. Have I found the rest of the yardage yet? Nope—but these scraps will do.
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| Leftover border fabric that I'll use to finish the binding! |
I also needed to dig through the pink yardage basket, and guess what I found?
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| Burgundy eyelash fabric |
Yes—it's the burgundy eyelash fabric from Jinny Beyer. I swear I had a lighter version too, but I didn't spot it yesterday. I have bought yards and yards of the black, but I don't think I have any left. It was a good blender!
OH—and I had chatted about free swag that's really useless for the most part, EXCEPT this.
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| An excellent pen that is often given as swag! |
There is something about this pen style that is amazing. It just feels right in your hand, and the quality is amazing. I am not the only one who covets these pens. I had one run out a while back, and someone suggested that I get a refill. I don't need a refill - I have many of the pens, and I'll just use a new one. Landfill issue? Yes - but seriously - they will end up there anyway when my house gets downsized, so I'm going to enjoy using ALL the pens and not go and buy more ink, which involves MORE packaging and an ink refill that will go in the landfill!
At some point, you have to accept that most of our garbage and thrift store donations, recycling, etc. end up in the landfill. Sad but true. I'm over worrying about it. But that doesn't mean I'm not trying to do my part.
On Tuesday, I had made an appointment to get the tires changed on the car. There was some mix-up with the appointment - I booked online, and the appointment showed up in my calendar, but it didn't get registered with the dealer. Seriously?? But they took the car anyway. It was a very warm day, and I went for a long walk. On the walk, I spotted this. Seriously??? Isn't it a bit early to put up the Christmas decorations?
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| Christmas decorations? Already? |
And for all the Bob Ross fans out there, Bob will never die.
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| Bob Rose bobblehead |
The other day, when I was walking the girls, a city employee was out trying to blow the leaves off the path in the forest.
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| Blowing the leaves off the forest path |
I get that they want to try and keep the path somewhat clear so it doesn't become a huge icy mess in the winter, but guess what? It becomes a huge icy mess in the spring!
But the path looked nice and clear.
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| The path is relatively free of leaves. |
But by the time we got to the end of the path, new leaves were already falling.
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| The leaves have started falling back onto the path. |
And yesterday, it looked like the leaves had never been blown away. We had a lot of wind yesterday, and most of the leaves are gone - I'm sure the path is completely covered over again!
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| Didn't they just blow the leaves away? |
And you know how people are always saying, " You need to go north to see the fall colors." Well, I beg to differ. There is so much color in the forest every year - we need to appreciate what we have in our backyard. For me, that is literally in my backyard!
The squirrels this year are getting a bit much. Let's not forget the chipmunks. They are everywhere, and there are hundreds (more likely thousands) of them, all having one huge pile of fun. I call it a squirrel convention. I need a slingshot for the backyard!
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| A squirrel posing on a tree before he scampered away |
I didn't quite get all the packing done that I needed to, so that is on the agenda for today. But I had to open the binding demo box.
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| The binding box |
Sigh—so much in that box is no longer needed. My problem is that I identify all these spots that need decluttering, but I can't get to everything at once. I need to FOCUS, and right now, it's the magazines.
I had a few extra minutes this morning, and I went through another magazine and took a few pictures. So much interesting stuff.
But look what I found, and this is from a magazine from 1994. Click the picture to enlarge it if you need to.
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| How to twirl seams in 1994 |
They are twirling the seams --- this is NOT new. But what is different is that they didn't sew all the way to the end of the seam. We no longer do that. I learned the technique from Eleanor Burns in the early 2000's.
What drives me mad is that many of the newer quilters today can't press worth a darn. And if the designers include pressing instructions, they tell people to press the seams OPEN! Why? You can reduce bulk without pressing open and keep the integrity of the quilt. Pressing seams open is so slow, and you can burn your fingers. My recommendation? Learn to press properly!!!! OK—that statement made me sound like my mother!
I had a good chuckle over this paragraph in a book I'm reading. By the way, the last three or four books I've read have been PHYSICAL books, not ebooks! Imagine that! I had borrowed a few from the library and needed to get them out of the house.
This one is a book a friend lent me a few years back, and I need to return it to her. It's a memoir book from World War II. As many books as I've read about those terrible times, I will never get over how badly people were treated. Thousands were rounded up and murdered. Why? Because someone said so! It's appalling that humans can't respect each other!
This is a story of how a Lithuanian Jew survived the war. He was trained as a machinist, blacksmith, locksmith, and many other trades. One of the things they were asked to repair most often was sewing machines. And they wanted SINGER machines. If it was a different brand, like a PFAFF, they painted over the logo!! Can you imagine?
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| That's one way to switch brands!!!! |
It reminds me so much of my dad, who, when you can't find a part, you pull from somewhere else, or you make it! People back in the day were resourceful. We are resourceful, but not in the same way. I wonder why Singer was so coveted? And they didn't want the PFAFFs because they were German-made?
OK—it's time to talk about the findings in the Quiltmaker magazines. I have never liked the way magazines showed people how to do the binding.
But in this 1987 issue, they had a special, detailed article on how to put the binding on. In later issues, they ignored much of the information in this article and went back to something simpler that fit the space.
Here is the detailed article on binding. I love what they say above: that a completed quilt is only as good as its binding. I remember Gail, owner of The Hobby Horse quilt shop, telling me that a quilt isn't finished until the binding is HAND-stitched in place. And I lived by that philosophy for many years. Until I worked for a fabric company and had ZERO time to stitch the binding in place by hand. So I learned how to do it by machine. I think The Hobby Horse does their bindings by machine now, too! It's all about time and the quilt's purpose.
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| An article on binding from 1987 |
The magazine always used a single-fold binding. The strips were cut 1½" wide so the resulting binding would be 3/8" wide. Yikes—there is zero leeway to account for the thickness of the quilt.
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| Very skinny strips for binding |
But here is something interesting. A friend of mine brought this to my attention a couple of months ago. I have used this technique when I want to avoid cutting off points at the edge of a quilt with pieced triangles. But I would never do this otherwise.
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| Trimming batting and backing BEYOND the quilt top |
So technically, they're trimming the batting and backing 1/8" beyond the edge of the quilt. They use a 3/8" seam allowance, which lets any diagonal seam (like HSTs) keep its points without getting chopped off in the binding seam.
Now what's interesting is this is the magazine my friend referred to, and I happened to have it on hand.
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| Issue 61 August 97 |
They also had a flashy spread on how to make binding with real pictures!!!
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| Quilting Today's version of applying binding |
They recommended trimming the backing and batting ¼" beyond the quilt top and using a ½" seam.
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| Same concept to trim beyond the quilt top - different measurement |
There are so many ways to do this. The bottom line is that you have to adjust the size of the binding strip, but more importantly, you NEED to adjust the seam allowance. I don't know how many times I've seen people sew a binding on using a ¼" seam allowance, which is just silly! Because the binding will not be the same width on both sides of the quilt, or the binding will be filled with air, not quilt!!!!
This magazine recommended cutting the binding strips at 2½" for ½" wide binding. This is how I was taught, and I will adjust if I deem it necessary.
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| My preferred measurements for binding |
Then there is the mystery of how to join the ends of the binding. And I thought this was hilarious. There was no information on how to make this happen - just join the ends of the binding strips!!!
But so many magazines and thus quilt teachers do the final join like this, and it drives me mad!!!!
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| I would NEVER do the final binding join this way. |
There is a very simple little trick to get the join sewn together, as in the second picture above. How many people have designed a gadget to do that? No gadget needed—there's a simple procedure, and the binding is perfect every time. Not twisted, not larger or smaller, but PERFECT every time!!!
OMG -- check out this photo - they have you turn the starting edge under without the diagonal. That's a lumpy join!!! But everyone gets the mitered corners right!!!
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| Another not great way to start the end of the binding |
And I found this note if you want to add a 1" border and binding as one.
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| Binding and border as one |
We had a quilter in a local guild who quilted quilts for people. I think she did her binding like this, and she was very "vocal" that people needed to do things HER way or she wouldn't quilt their quilts for them. Things like matching the print on the backing. Yep—I've heard stories where she refused to quilt if the backing pattern didn't match. Seriously?? What business is it of hers? As long as the backing is large enough, that's all that's necessary.
There is only one instance I spotted of basting around the edges of the quilt to help hold things together before you put the binding on! Yeah!!!! Of course, if your quilt has been quilted to the edges, then there is no need to baste.
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| BASTE if the quilting doesn't go all the way to the edge of your quilt |
Here is Miss Murphy, happy to lie on the floor and chew her bone. But she does get into the raised bed as well and seems to be doing a great job at alerting us if ANYONE with a dog walks by. The other day two cats walked by, and she went MAD!!!! She hates cats with a vengeance!!!!
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| Mom - I'm doing OK!!! |
Oh shoot—no time for the cell phone story, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
I'm busy working on samples and trying to finish the homework for next weekend, since next week is going to be an insane week with fun stuff happening but not much free time.
If you want to mark your calendars, there will be a Facebook Live on November 11.
Have a super day!!!
