Creative Festival

Today I went to the Creative Festival in Toronto with one of my young quilty/sewy friends. She bought a lot - I bought nothing, except lunch.

I saw some neat things...

Giant cake

cake detail

cake detail

I liked this drunkards path layout. Can't remember the shop name.

made from sugar! check out www.cssainc.ca

sugar art

more sugar

The following are corsages made from sugar. They are orchids. They are stunning.

From the Markham Quilt Guild. This quilt has 30,000 squares in it! Each square finished at about 1/2"

Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in the show - again. It's neat that it's a creative mixture of crafts - sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, knitting, etc, but then it's also about a lot of things and so I didn't think there was a lot of specialty items. None of the fabric vendors had yardage - everything was fat quarters.  Nobody had what I was looking for. I like the spring show much better - and it's cheaper. I had an enjoyable day so it wasn't a lost day.

TTT - Padded Hangers

I have a little extra padding - I wish it was as easy to move around as this hanger padding.

I think I got this idea from pinterest - maybe not - I do know it's not an original idea. I love it though!

1. Go to your local home supply store - I went to Home Depot.

2. Find the foam insulation in tubes that goes around pipes. It's probably in the plumbing section. It's the insulation you put around the pipes of your hot water heater. It's dirt cheap - maybe $2 a piece.

3. Buy some.

4. Cut with scissors to the length of your hanger. This insulation has a sticky piece to close the tube - I left the plastic on there so it didn't get "sticky goop" all over my fabric.

These are great if you have heavy projects to hang or ones that will hand a long time. You don't get a bad crease in them from regular hangers.

Happy Quilting!

Happy Thanksgiving Dear Jane

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! I hope you had a wonderful day - we did here.

I got some more Dear Jane pieced today...

I7

J4

K13

L1

Back to Dear Jane and other sewing tidbits

It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend for family, relaxation, and sewing.

I'm back to my Dear Jane quilt - the class started up again. So far, here's what I've finished:

H9

G5

C11

E8

I haven't worked on these since the end of July - I forgot how tricky some of them can be. At least we started with C11, which was fairly straight forward.

I also finished a scarf I knitted for my cousin who lived abroad. She's been home for a visit and it's an early birthday present. The yarn is 100% bamboo and is divine.

the detail shot

the "artsy" shot

And finally, I need to stop sewing over pins

this beauty was created trying to hem a pair of yoga pants.

Tomorrow we are having Thanksgiving dinner at supper time so I hope to get some sewing in before I have to clean off the dining room table of my sewing gear so that we can eat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

TTT - Bendy Bright Light

Some weeks I think if it weren't for this weekly post I wouldn't get anywhere near my blog - and therefore, no where near the sewing machine.

I got this handy-dandy little light probably 4 or 5 years ago. I love it! Just after I got it, when I went to quilt classes, people would ask about it. I happily told them how much of a difference it made to my sewing. Finally, I could see much better than before.

So many of us sew in spaces that don't have great lighting. I'd love a second floor sewing room with tons of natural light - I should dream on, unless I win the lottery or marry a lot of money! Having great light is important so that we can see what we're doing, and sew into the wee hours of the night, if necessary.

This light attaches with sticky stuff to the side or top of your machine. You can remove the light - you press on the level that's at about 1:00 (in the above photo) and you can slip out the light and cord. I only do this when I take my machine in for servicing. The sticky stuff hasn't come unstuck in all the years I've had the machine. I've also seen replacement brackets - I'd get that if I was switching the light between machines.

The light is LED and should last thousands of hours. I think I paid around $40-$50 for the light - I do know I got it on sale, so I think around $50 is the going rate. It's totally worth it in my opinion.

light on

light off

The arm adjusts so that you can place the light wherever you want.

Happy sewing!

Finally, some sewing done

It's been another busy week in the I-have-to-work-for-a-salary-world. I got to a bit of sewing today and hemmed up this little scarf. The fabric is voile - which is pronounced to rhyme with "oil"; I thought is rhymed with "ull". I got it at Greenwood Quiltery earlier this week, on a whirlwind stop at the store. I want to pair it with a white t-shirt, khaki jacket, and dressy jeans.

The fabric came in a kit, about 18" x 60". I trimmed it down to 11" then put a double 3/8" hem on each edge. I'm happy with how it turned out.

TTT - Starch

Back again - the week goes around pretty quickly around here. The new blogger interface finally appeared on my blog - I've been avoiding installing it until I was forced to. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Today I want to talk about starch. I really like starch. It's changed my quilting life.

I pre-wash everything, probably because I started sewing clothing and there you have to pre-wash/pre-treat all your fabric. I also worry that colours will run - which has happened to me - thankfully in the pre-wash stage. I also like the fact that if there is going to be shrinkage in any way it happens before all the sewing work.

Anyway, when you/I pre-wash I take the sizing out of the fabric - that's the stuff the  manufacturer adds to fabric to make it sort of stiff and have body. I add some back in with starch because I prefer to sew with a little body in the fabric. After I've pre-washed and dried (in the dryer) I iron/press my fabric. If I'm using the fabric right away, I give it a light starch when pressing; if the fabric is going in the stash, I don't starch it until I use it.

Another great thing about starch is it helps relax the fabric a bit so you can get the wrinkles out. My Dear Jane blocks lay really flat partly because I starch them when I'm finished (and all the fabric has a light starching before sewing).

Mostly I use this starch which I get at my local grocery store (Loblaw's)

It was recommended to me by my local quilt shop owner when I made a lone star quilt for my cousin

which had a lot of bias edges and the starch would help to reduce stretching.

I like that's it's not too heavy, is very reasonably priced (under $4 a can), and is easy to find. It also flakes minimally.  I think this company makes a heavier starch in a purple can but I've never tried it.

Some people say moths are attracted to starch - I don't know. I have never had a moth problem.

In the spring I bought some of this at a quilt show

because it was on sale there. I got mixed reviews on it from other quilters but thought I'd try it. It has it's place in quilting - and since the bottle is nearly empty I've clearly used it - but I don't use it very often. I like that it's really light - almost too light for my taste. It's also pretty expensive at around $12 a bottle. It flakes now and then. The smell is kinda iffy - it's scented which bothers some people. It is a non-aerosol can.

I did some applique on my Dear Jane quilt and used the blue starch - it worked excellently for that type of job.

I think the most important thing to remember about starch is to not over do it.