Sewing And A Solution...

Prairie Queen Block

In spite of a mandatory shopping trip and a thunder storm with lightning which requires that I shut down my sewing machine to avoid damage, I was able to make a few new blocks for my Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt yesterday.

The first new one I made is the Prairie Queen block. Half square triangle blocks and tiny four-patches combine to create this block. I really like it!

Railroad Block

Next, I tackled the Railroad block consisting of more four patches and half square triangles. Love it!

I have special memories of a train trip when I was about eleven years old.  A friend of our family worked for the Soo Line Railroad which regularly ran between Stevens Point, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. I'm not quite sure how it was arranged, but my parents allowed our friend to take my younger sister (he was her godfather) and me to the Brookfield Zoo during our summer vacation.

I remember seeing all the animal exhibits and purchasing coolie hats (like the little Chinese figures that adorned my Grandmother's living room tables wore) as our souvenirs! We spent the entire day at the zoo, and at the end of the day, we boarded the train again for our return trip to Fond du Lac. (The train always made regular stops there on the way back to Stevens Point).

My father was supposed to pick us up at the train station at 10 pm, but he didn't make it in time to take us off the train before it had to leave the station. (hmmm) Our friend said he wasn't going to leave us alone at the station at such a late hour, so we ended up going all the way to Stevens Point with him (where my Grandma lived). Once we arrived, he dropped us off at my grandparent's house, where my sister and I thanked him for a great day and then fell, exhausted, into the beds in the guest room. 

The next day, my father had to drive over two hours to pick us up in Stevens Point! I never did know exactly why he wasn't waiting for us at the station in Fond du Lac, but his punishment was about five hours of driving...and I suspect a tongue-lashing from my mother for not meeting our train.

As kids, we never thought about that part of the trip. Our adventure was our first train ride and a great day spent at the zoo!

Economy Block in Progress

By the end of the day, I'd also previewed and cut the fabrics for this Economy block. I'll sew it together today, and decide which ones are next on my list.  Then, I'll be cutting into the fabrics for my wedding quilt project. (I know. Can you see me juggling from where you're sitting? Whew!)

Photo courtesy of Home Depot

The recently deceased refrigerator has a replacement on its way. We chose this GE Profile side-by-side model in stainless steel. It's the same model that we replaced when we purchased the Amana french door model that just croaked. That fridge was moved into our garage where it's been faithfully chugging away in less than a climate-controlled environment. Never a complaint or problem. Why wouldn't I decide to go back to the same manufacturer after being so disappointed by its replacement?

Photo courtesy of Home Depot

I'd actually have brought that one back into the house, but there would probably be more money involved to "clean it up" than it's worth. So, it will stay where it is, and the new one will be delivered on Saturday. Now that that problem is resolved, I can concentrate on more enjoyable pursuits. Like sewing!

I'm so glad you enjoyed the post yesterday. Many of you said that your brains were churning with new ideas. I know exactly what you mean, and I'm so glad that I could pass on the inspiration. After I go back through all my notes, I'll share some more ideas that I learned at the meeting.

Sherry at Createology posted about her Farmer's Wife blocks today, too. You might want to stop by and see her blocks. Her quilt is going to be fabulous! Click here to visit her.   

I'll be posting more blocks in a day or so and will add more links so you can see more of the other women's blocks. In the meantime, you can always click on the Farmer's Wife QAL button in my left sidebar to go to our group Flickr album to see their progress.

One last thing, if you ask me a question and you're a "no comment blogger", please add your email address to your comment so that I can respond to you. Thanks! See you tomorrow.

An Evening of Inspiration...

Last night was our monthly quilt guild meeting and we were fortunate to have a sales rep from Sulky® as our featured guest. Eric actually lives right down the road from where we meet in Port Charlotte!

If you're a quilter or seamstress, I'm sure you've heard of Sulky® for their great thread selections and huge assortment of stabilizers for machine embroidery. Eric gave each one of us a folder containing flyers and samples of all the types and sizes of thread (including a huge color chart!).

What really got my attention was when he pulled out his samples created using some of the stabilizers, and explaining how their products might be used in non-conventional ways.

These openwork leaves were created on a regular sewing machine by stitching completely on a wash away stabilizer!

Erik also used stabilizer as his template for the waves on one of his underwater-themed quilts. He just drew his pattern on a piece of paper and then traced it (multiple times) onto one of Sulky's water soluble lightweight stabilizers. Then he used a quilters spray adhesive to hold the stabilizer in place while he stitched the pattern onto the block.

When he was finished with all the quilting, he just put the quilt into the washer and all the stabilizer disappeared.

He did the same thing here. The actual quilt has a Serengeti scene with dark fabric elephant appliques in the main block. Again, he traced the outline of a row of elephants with all their trunks joining onto stabilizer and used the same spray adhesive to affix the outline all the way around the outside border. Stitch and then soak. The design is left behind and the stabilizer is gone. I love this!

This scarf was created using Sulky's Ultra Solvy Washaway Stabilizer™. First, follow the grid lines as you sew down the length of the scarf, and then do the same for the width.

After that's finished, create your design over the top of the grid - including the fringe! - using a free motion setting on your sewing machine. When you're finished stitching to your heart's content, just wash away the stabilizer and you're left with a truly funky scarf. Eric told us that the woman who created this piece uses the large spools of thread on her long-arm machine, but it can easily be made on anyone's home sewing machine.

Finally, if you love English paper piecing, can you even imagine how much easier it would be to use Paper Solvy Wash Away Stabilizer™ for your projects? When everything is assembled, wash the piece and all the stabilizer disappears. No paper pieces to tear away!

Paper Solvy™ can even be run through a copy machine, ink jet or bubble jet printer avoiding all the tracing steps! It does use a lot of water to dissolve the paper, but what a great idea!

Well, you can see that I was inundated with mountains of inspiration last night, but it's time for me to get back to focusing on Farmer's Wife blocks and the Wedding Peacocks quilt. No time to play with stabilizers and threads right now. I'll have to save that for another time.

When I got home from the meeting, I found out that our refrigerator had died - but not before giving Handsome cause for concern over some serious smoke smells. Lucky someone was home because it was getting worse until he finally shut down the electricity to it. Looks like we're in for a change. I'll tell you all about it soon. (I hate that fridge!)

Happy Stitching, y'all. Do something fun today, ok?