Scrappy Shenanigans!

So much of THIS!

Just tell me how a girl is supposed to get ANY kind of quilting done – or even take photos when Lola steals the show with “downward cat” right in the middle of what is going on?

This little girl has come into her own now that Dresden has crossed the rainbow bridge.

I never really realized what a back seat she had taken – and how much of the Alpha Cat he was.

Now she is all about the affection and the love – giving and receiving – and just has to be in the middle of everything, whether it is on the cutting table where I am trying to audition blocks – or the bin of strings, or the sorting piles on the floor that was also yesterday’s chore!

Does this ever happen where you are?

I received a rather large bag of scraps from a friend, and I couldn’t wait to dig in.

The first thing I do is sort pieces by color family – this allows me to pick up each piece and determine whether it is a big enough chunk to be cut into Scrap User’s System sizes, or if they will go into the string bins by color family – or the current rainbow bin of strings where things end up when you really can’t determine what color that fabric is.

All of those smaller hunks, chunks and triangles?  Into the on-going Snails Trail project. 

So much fun!

Several of the “new to me” small pieces ended up in these blocks yesterday afternoon.  That sunglasses print cracks me up.  LOL!

I love fabric combinations that just do not make sense.  It’s kind of representative of my life!

And the truth of the matter is, I should have been working on something ELSE yesterday, but I just couldn’t make myself.  I’m happy I made even THIS MUCH progress.

As I was sewing, Lola was behind my back on my sewing chair, purring away, nearly giving me a vibrating chair massage while I sewed.

Silly girl!

Oh – the other amazing thing? And I wished I had taken photos of the process, but I didn’t.

I had a really gunky iron.  Someone at some time over the past few retreats (And I have no idea who) used fusible, and evidently ironed something fusible side up leaving me with an iron with a gunky black and burned soleplate.

THIS – in spite of there being notifications up on the wall that if you intend on using fusible, you need to cover the ironing surface and use your own iron.  This information is also given to everyone BEFORE coming to retreat, so they know.

Anyway – MUCH BLACK BURNED GUNK. (And I found a strip of the fusible on the floor while cleaning!)

The first method I tried to remove the gunk worked fairly well.

I placed an old towel in the bottom of a box lid and used course salt on top of the towel with the iron on hot (no steam) to remove most of the burnt on gunk. I rubbed back and forth and in circles - and it took a bit of pressure for the salt to do its trick.

The box lid kept the salt contained so it didn't go off onto the floor, and it protected my ironing board.

This was an older Black & Decker iron with an aluminum face plate – not stainless.

There were some spots that didn’t want to come off – that black gunk was on there but good.

So I turned to Google to see what I could find. 

11 Ways to Clean Your Iron.

This surprised me!

But what did I have to lose?

I was unsure if the pills needed to be the capsule kind or the white solid kind – and all I had was the generic brand white solid ones!

I placed a couple of the pills on top of the salt and just started ironing over them – the pills sort of melted, and then disintegrated, and when I looked – all the black was off of the iron.  Seriously.

After much elbow grease for a good 20 minutes with the salt – I wished I had known this first.

Tylenol?  Who knew!?  And the best part?  NO FUMES.  Of any kind.

Now, my irons are not the best or most expensive for this reason – I know things will happen.  I can dump and demolish an iron from the ironing board to the floor, killing that expensive iron in nothing flat.  My irons are picked up at thrift shops for somewhere around $3.99.

Accidents happen – and if this had not come clean I would have just pitched it and found a replacement the next time I’m in a thrift shop.

The salt and Tylenol experiment saved the day with this iron.

But please – NO MORE FUSIBLE with the retreat irons!

How about some of this for your sewing time today?

Another Quilt & Tell Podcast!

It had been several months since we last chatted, and this is a follow up after 4 months of being home due to Covid.

Laughter is the best medicine – give a listen by clicking the link above or also available through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today – Is it really Thursday already?

There is some errand running happening to get me ready for the weekend ahead.  I try to do that kind of thing mid-week away from the weekend shopping warriors.

It’s a beautiful, hot July day in Virginia – and my focus for today is accepting things as they are and moving forward through what IS.

Quiltville Quote of the Day

Just something I needed reminding of this morning.

Lozenges was our Leader & Ender challenge several years back. Free pattern from the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.

Have a wonderful Thursday!