A Weeks Vacation Does a Body Good!

Well, Christmas has passed, and tonight is New years... Managed to get all my Chirstmas customers taken care of, and they seemed quite happy with their quilts.  Kids have gone home, Christmas decorations are put away. the house is clean, the STUDIO is clean, and I'm almost caught up on computer stuff.  Have to admit that I spent one whole day in my pajamas watching movies on the Hallmark channel.  Life is good.    Tomorrow, our Thursday Bee is having an all day sew-in at Ann's home.  Sounds like there are going to be 16 of there.  Ought to be cozy!

Speaking of the Thursday Bee, we had our Christmas party a couple of weeks ago and one of the gals made everyone (13 of us) handknit socks.   Here is a sampling of what Mariet created for us!  Our Bee is so giving, we also got handknit scarves, handknit washclothes (YES, this is a quilting Bee), pincushions, ornaments, homemade cookies and so on.  Such a generous, giving bunch of ladies.  When we meet tomorrow, we will decide final instructions for our next block swap which are sets of 2" x 4" Flying Geese - Positive and Negitive in contrasting Batiks.  

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting lately.  Right now, I'm working on a scarf for my daughter, I think the yarn I chose was a little too lumpy to see the actual pattern - but that might be to the good to cover any mistakes I might be making.  Almost done, then needs to be blocked.  This is the Cascade Jewel Hand Dyed yarn that I got at The Hen House awhile back.

I see the light - or I'm almost done!

First of all,  many thanks to all of you that have sent in your t-shirts to be turned into a treasured quilt.  Now, I'm not complaining, I am thrilled hat I've been so busy with customer orders, but  I only 1 T-shirt quilt and 2 custom quilts to finish for Christmas.  I'm hoping that for the most part that they will be done today.    Going to take a week or so off, then get started on the orders that have already come in for the new year.  I am blessed.  Here is a collage of some of the quilts finished up in the last week.

A cousin of mine sent some photos of my grandmother (Annie Scarlett) and her quilts.  This was taken back in the 70's.  My grandmother loved to make quilts, and this is a picture of her standing in front of a quilt that my great-grandmother pieced, then she quilted.    This is my favorite quilt. The 1/2" hexagons are all fussy cut  so that the flower or image all goes around the center hex.  One of my favorite memories was looking at the details when we would go visit as a child.  I still enjoy looking for certain blocks.   We hung this quilt in our "Old Fashined Quilt Bee" booth at Houston Quilt Festival this year.   I think it got more attention than our Raffle quilt!  oops!

Well, back to work, really do want to finish those last quilts up for the holidays!  Wish I would have had time to work on my stuff!
 

Back from Houston Quilt Market

Market actually ended last week, but I had to turn around and go back for Quilt Festival!  I love living in Houston, but trying to get to the GRB (George Brown Center) early in the morning is not the easiest thing to do, so we stay at the Holiday Inn Express, just south of the GRB. (Have to say they love having the quilters there and treat us right with cookies and milk and even a free Lasagne dinner on Friday night!).

Senses have in overload, but finally winding down.  Not sure about my sister-in-law from Cleveland who was a Festival Newbie this year.  She was pretty impressed even though she is more of a seamstress than a quilter.  We found plenty of yarn, fibers and 'bright shiny' things to grab her attention.  I didn't get much in the way of pictures, because my battery died shortly after we got there.

Sharon Schamberg - Closeup

Sharon Schamber won Best of Show for a third time.  Never been done before!  Glad it was her- she is a nice gal and does spectacualar work with her attention to detail.  Look at those tiny herringbone areas around the trapunto.  And using BLACK thread.  The edging is three dimensional as well and there were open cutwork areas in the quilt. 

One of my other 'favorite' quilts that I saw during Market was this one on the right.  It was one of the big winners as well.  check out the colors! I don't remember who made it, but it was awesome as well.

I didn't buy much in the way of fabric - what a shock!  Really did stick to my assumption that I should finish up some projects before starting more.  Of course that does NOT apply to yarn.We went The Hen House ( a local shop) several times as well as many other yarn places.  All had lucious fibers.  I think Laurie got hooked on the Free Form Knitting concept and had several ideas running through her mind.

To Wash or Not To Wash

 OK, I admit. I NEVER prewash fabrics - Except ... Ok, there are always exceptions, but for the most part - NO, I don't wash them. Now, for those exceptions.  

• Scraps and fabrics from unknown origins
• Cheap Fabric (i.e. from Wally World)
• Recycled fabrics from clothing
• Smelly fabrics

 You have probably read lots of articles that say not to wash your quilt in a washing machine - to lay it in a bathtub and soak it. Right, ain't gonna happen with my back. But, there is a TRICK to washing scraps, ANY sized yardage or a quilt in the washing machine.

It's easy to eliminate nearly all of the strings on yardage. Just clip off a little triangular section from each corner of fabrics before you wash them. Try about 1/2" or a little less. You'll still see a bit of fraying, but not enough to create bunches of knots. 
DO NOT AGITATE... DO NOT AGITATE... DO NOT AGITATE 
Fill the tub-style washing machine with lukewarm water and a tiny bit of detergent* (2 Tablespoons for a full machine).

  

Load the machine with scraps and/or yardage

KEEP THE MACHINE LID OPEN, to keep it from **accidentally** agitating.

With your hand, or a large spoon, swish the fabrics around in the tub.

Some dyes do not release right away; so try to leave fabrics in the water for at least 20 minutes.   Continue swishing the fabric periodically for the 20 minutes.

Drain/spin.

Refill tub... and KEEP THE MACHINE LID OPEN.

Swish with your hand.

Drain/spin.

No fabric ropes; no fraying.

DO NOT AGITATE... DO NOT AGITATE... DO NOT AGITATE

*Use a very gentle soap like Orvus Soap. Orvus Soap contains so phosphates or chemicals that can damage your quilt. You can find Orvus Soap at your local quilt shop.

Drying the Fabric

I'm sure everyone has thrown raw edge fabric in the dryer and ended up with lots of knots and twisted fabrics. What a mess.

You might try laying the fabric on one of those folding racks - or even outside on the clothesline. (Many days in Houston, I must admit that it might take days to dry with all the humidity!). You can dry smaller scraps by ironing them (turn the steam off).

What I have noticed is that the tighter the weave of the fabric, the better they turn out in the dryer. Homespuns are a very loose weave (compared to batiks) and you can pretty much bet that those are going to shrink up in the dryer.

One time, after I completed arranging inherited squares into 25-patches in an intentional and complicated color-pattern on my design wall, I realized that the pre-cut 2-1/2-inch squares had not been washed; lots of bleeders; darks, reds, turquoises.

I had been making a T-shirt quilt, so I took the plain backs of the T-shirts that would have been thrown away, and transferred the 25-patch blocks to the T-shirt fabric, and pinned them on with basting/safety pins.

I ran these through a **DO NOT AGITATE** wash cycle (see above), and they all came out perfectly... and in their original order.

If you have lots of fat quarters or yardage in the SAME COLOR FAMILIES, safety-pin 3 or 4 fat quarters together in the corners. Wash them as a unit. Really cuts down on the wrinkles and twisting.

For larger cuts of fabric, pin the folded fabric in the corners and along the sides. I've pinned as many as eight layers... It can be difficult to pin through, but don't skimp on the safety pins. The more yardage... the larger the folded-over pieces need to be... maybe as large as a beach towel or bath sheet.

Only pin the eight EDGES to keep the fabric from bunching and wrinkling; the center will remain unpinned so that the water can still freely pass through the fabric to remove dyes and chemicals. Fewer layers are preferred, but 8-yard cuts will require more layers.

The pinning requires more TIME... but they do well in the washer AND dryer. When you un-pin the fabric, just smooth it out by hand, and fold; you just don't get the wrinkles like when opening up the fabric completely. 

Pin smaller scraps together. With their combined weight, they will be less likely to get sucked into the washer drain or the dryer screen like individual small pieces could.

Try washing King-size bed sheets by pinning them into quarters; it keeps them from balling up in the dryer.