To Save or Not To Save!!

I have to show you the funniest thing that happened to me....

This was with the Bulloch Hall Quilters in Alpharetta, GA! I was in the middle of my trunkshow explaining what Leaders & Enders are. I get to the point where I ask people what they can do with folded over thread covered scraps that they have been using as "thread bunnies" or "Sew-betweens" and pointing out that they most often just end up in the trash anyway. My total justification of why Leaders & Enders are a great idea and that you can build quilt units in between the lines of chain piecing instead of having thread covered scraps everywhere.

One lady said she SAVES them!! And here is proof! *LOL*

Now, I did ask her what she plans to do with them...and she said she isn't sure yet, but I suppose she could zig zag them all together and make a thread decorated bag or something, but I found it so funny that she actually had a whole zip loc baggie of these things! And even funnier that she would bring that bag of thread covered scraps to the workshop the next day. Oh, it was such GOOD fun, and they are great sports!

So...I wanna know...do YOU save thread bunnies? Have you MADE anything with them? Because I'd rather be building quilt units in between than trying to figure out what I could make with these little do-dads!

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Those Indigos..Clarification

In the comments on the last post there were questions raised on whether I pre-washed the chocolate and blue indigos. Yes. Of course!! They are stiff as a board before washing, I don't think anyone would want to piece with them that way, and then there is the bleeding factor.

I washed them more than once, maybe three times or so to be sure they were extra soft. I dried them in the dryer on high heat, wanting to shrink them as much as possible.

What it all boils down to is THREAD COUNT and the thickness of the thread. The thread that makes up this fabric is fairly course, and there are not as many threads per inch. It ends up with a feeling much like feed sack. So small even hand quilting stitches are harder to achieve when the fabric is thicker than regular quilting cotton. That is all I was saying.

I still love the history of the fabric, and the designs they are printed with...I'll just use what other pieces I have in things that will be machine quilted, not hand quilted. Unless you've quilted both very soft "regular" quilting cottons and this indigo together, you might not think there would be much difference, but there is.

We watched "Angels & Demons" tonight with Tom Hanks...and I quilted through the whole thing. We'd seen it in the theater, and this time we rented it from netflix to be able to see the "extra" bits. I love Dan Brown's books! What a great story teller...

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Needles & Threads....

I didn't get much time to stitch on the hexagon medallion, so I'm still piecing on the 6th "satellite" to be added to this round of the "mother ship." Each guild meeting that I attend (There are 5 guild meetings in Sept that I am visiting, plus the quilt show in Jacksonville FL toward the end of the month!) is an opportunity for adding a few more hexies to their units. Really, small bites of time DO add up, so if you aren't taking a hand project of some sort with you to guild meetings, doctor/dentist visits, kids ball games, etc....you are missing out on a handwork opportunity! Besides, just a few pulls of the thread through the fabric is an INSTANT blood pressure lowering activity for me.

I did kit up some pieces parts for machine piecing, and I got to work on those at Charlotte's house over the weekend when I went to visit my son Jason and his sweetie Kim. Want to know what 800+ half square triangle units look like all chained together? Here you go!!



This is the whole pile...all in one long chain, on the ironing board!

Retreat type sewing, or at least sewing with a good friend is a great way to get the job done when it is a monotonous one, and you can talk and laugh and visit, and NOT be bored with repetition! These are all now pressed, de-dog-earred, and ready to move on to the next step. I know it doesn't look like much...but I spent Saturday Evening, Most of Sunday, and part of Monday morning on these guys. >_< There is something like 850 of them, all blue and neutrals. It would have killed me to have to do them all assembly line style at home with no one to talk to!

I decided that this was going to be a slow down week, and it is now cool enough in the mornings to not swelter and sweat underneath the weight of a heavy hand quilting project! I've pulled out my "In The Pink", the storm at sea variation that uses the Jane Stickle blocks in between the star point units.

I now remember why this got to be such a big UFO. That chocolate indigo fabric from South Africa? It's a HEAVY BEAST! And the hand quilting is just moving slow. It feels like I'm quilting through canvas...and though I love these indigos, I do NOT love the fabric they are printed on. So I want to make a note to myself to find a way to use up the rest of the blues and browns that I've got....and make it PLEASE be a machine quilting project so I can enjoy them without cursing them out!

Because the fabric is heavy...I'm shooting for EVEN stitches, not small ones. But it is still slow going. Here you can see the completed fans in the brown border. It wasn't easy to get the light right...but they are there.

Oh, and I hit the jackpot for the ziploc bags at the Dollar Tree. The Large size are 15X15 with built in handles, and they are 3 for $1.00. the Ex-Large size are 20.5" X 17" and there is 2 in a package for $1.00. I'm bound and determined to get better organized yet!

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Hello!

Yeah, I know! It's been a week! A whole WEEK since I left home last Tuesday morning and headed SW toward the Atlanta, GA area.

I hadn't taken a car trip in quite a while! And I remembered how much I love it. I love the freedom of being able to stop where I want....See this little map with the stars? Those are the locations of ABBOTT FARMS peach stands and stores! Guess what has been in season the past couple weeks? Sweet, Juicy, Sticky, Sweet PEACHES! I know peaches are thought of as a Georgia thing, but did you know that more peaches are actually grown in South Carolina than Georgia? TRUE!

So I pulled off at one of the Abbott Farms stores after reading all the bill boards about the free samples, and made my way down the aisle of chutneys, chowchows, jams, jellies and other condiments. Take it from me..you do not WANT to even THINK about trying the HOT HOT CHOW CHOW.....I love love hot and spicy, but this one was SO hot my mouth and throat and belly were burning. It took 4 glasses of the "free" peach cider (also delicious) to get my mouth somewhat back to normal.

It wasn't a total waste though, I brought home some peach/pecan preserves...YUMMMMM!!! And a jar of no-sugar-added peach jam too. I also enjoyed some delicious fresh peaches. I love peach season!

And if you want to take a peek, there are some great peach recipes HERE!

I had a great time with the Georgia Friendship guild, and the ladies with the Bulloch Hall Quilt guild.

I even got a chance to tour Bulloch Hall, in Roswell, GA...which is the childhood home of Theodore Roosevelt's mother, Middy. She was married there in the dining room at Bulloch Hall. If you have a chance to check it out, please do! It was built in the early 1800s, and amazingly missed being burned down after the civil war. It has a fascinating history.

We even enjoyed a few quilt sightings!



Of course I loved the old treadle sewing machine shown here in the upstairs...right by the window so there would be lots of natural light!



And isn't this a beauty?!? I was lucky enough to get close enough to get a good shot of the applique block. I was at Siobhan's house (of Scraps & Threadtales fame!) on Friday night, showed it to her, and she called it "Crossed Tulips" And has also seen it in another antique quilt from the Maryland area, in a quilt known as the Mary Manakee Quilt (pardon me if I mispell the name) and it makes sense, because the Bullochs came down to Georgia from the North East in the 1830s? So it fit the time frame. Exciting, yes? I also love how the colors have faded on this one....was that tan originally red?! Who knows?

In getting Siobhan's blog link to include it above, I also saw she posted pics of the trunkshow I did for her guild, Pieceful Hearts in North Augusta, SC on Saturday. The pot-luck buffet lunch was not to be missed of course! We both KNEW someone would bring the pimiento cheese sandwhiches (on white wonder bread with crusts removed) and we were not disappointed! Those ladies can sure lay out a spread of good eats!



But this humble little servant's quilt was my favorite of all....simple 9 patches in a configuration of 5, set on point, simply sashed. Look at the cornerstones! they are little rail blocks too. This is just adorable, and of course I loved the scrappiness of it, and the cheddar goes without explaining ;c)

It was just a WONDERFUL time to be in the Atlanta area, but let me tell you, it was a booger to get out of town on Friday afternoon! I'm talking stand still traffic after 3pm that was mind boggling. Yes, I knew it was a holiday weekend, but even trying to re-route my GPS to keep me off the interstate until I was past Stone Mountain did NOTHING to help. it took me 4.5 hours to get to Augusta from Atlanta! What a zoo. I just kept telling myself that if Rhett & Scarlett could make it with a sick Mellie in the back of the wagon, while all of Atlanta was burning, that I'd eventually get through it too.

I'm home for 9 days! And I'm making the most of them. I'm sewing some, I'm cleaning some, I'm organizing some, and knocking "must do's" off my list. At quite a leisurely pace and that feels wonderful. It's been cool enough at night to sleep with windows open in NC! Contrast that to the 98 degrees in Atlanta when I was leaving town, and I am so relieved to be just "THAT MUCH" more north than I used to be! This is when I really love being a NC girl...beautiful indian summer days, cooler nights with windows open to enjoy the sounds of crickets and peepers and cicadas....

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