Saturday's Smile!!

Is Better Late Than Never . . .

still true??  I hope so, because I just finished and delivered Charlotte's April (2013) birthday present to her!!  It's for her new diningroom table and it looks wonderful!!

Well, one UFO down and ???? to go!!

Slow Stitchin' Sunday!!

Every Tuesday night I go down to the local yarn shop here in Logan and sit with a bunch of ladies, old and young, and work on knitting or crocheting projects.  Like my fabric stash, I also have a yarn stash - some of it as old as 40 years - and so I am trying to use some of it up.

I saw a darling crocheted bowl on a blog last week and thought how cute!  So, here is my version ~

Now what to put in it!!  :-))

I also finished a couple of flowers for my January Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap partner, Sandra ~

She had no preferences, so I just had fun!!  I love Slow Stitchin' Sundays!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Quilt for the Children's Justice Center . . .

here in Logan, Utah.  I have had this nasty flu that is going around and I have not had a whole lot of time to sew, but I have been working on this fun quilt for the the Center's annual Charity Dinner and Auction.

This is disappearing nine patch with a bit of a twist.  I am going to use the fabric on the bolt as the border and backing and then my friend, Sue, is going to donate the quilting.

This is the second year we have donated a quilt and I am hoping this one brings more money than last year's!!  :-))

When it is all finished, I'll post another picture!!

Saturday's Smile!!

What is a Gardening Glove . . .

doing on my blog??

Well, it's because I was having problems keeping a straight 1/4" seam while sewing the strips together on some of my Strippity-do-dah quilts.  Sometimes the fabric or my hand was too slick to hold the fabric in place as I zipped through the strips.

A few days ago I was rummaging though some drawers and I had a

Web Image

go off in my head when I saw the lone gardening glove with little rubber knobs on the fingers!!

I immediately put the glove on my left hand, sat down at my machine and starting sewing - fast and accuately because the glove gripped the fabric and my slippery problem was gone!!  Whoo!  Hoo!!

Now, if you don't have a lone gardening glove with little knobs on the fingers sitting around your house, you could use commerical gloves used to free motion quilt ~

like these commercial ones or you can make your own fun ones like these ~

Click on picture to go to a tuorial to make these gloves

Hope this fun idea is beneficial to your love of quilting - making life easier one idea at a time!!:-))

Someone Had Pinned This Great Idea . . .

and it ended up on my Pinterest Board - "Great Stuff".  I thought I would share it with all of you.  Click on the picture to see the interesting idea!!

I'm going to try it and see if it does work.  In the event you may not know, I googled Synthrapol and here is a definition that came up ~

synthrapol

Web definitions

1. this is a detergent that helps suspend loose dye particles.  It is optional in most of the dyeing classes and should be used with caution and always with gloves.  There is a new alternative which is apparently less toxic sold by Dharma Trading Company called Professional Textile Detergent. ...
   http://www.quiltuniversity.com/supply_glossary.htm

Let me know if anyone has tried this and if it does work.  It will be a lot less money!!

UPDATE!!

I would like to thank Sherrill for the link she shared with us in her comment.  I looked at the article by Vicki Welch over at Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art and she recommends Dawn Pure Essentials as opposed to the blue Darn Ultra we usually see.  Click on her link and you can see more!!  Now I really have to try this!!  

Raspberry Rabbits and Fun!!

Click on the button above and check out what Shell over at Raspberry Rabbits has in store for this year!!  Her innovative Wool Fusion designs are so fun and a little different from what most of us quilters usually do!!  Try it, you just might LOVE it!!

You also have to see the cute Valentine's Day Post Cards she has designed!!

Saturday's Smile!!