Iron frustration

My iron started leaking. First it was leaking on the steam setting now it is leaking on the dry iron setting. It is only a few years old and is a Panasonic NI E 300TR. It was recommended by someone online that does a lot of fusing because the glue does not stick to the plate. Well that is certainly true, but now it is dripping water on my ironing board and my fabric. The only way to prevent this is to empty out the water.

It was not an expensive iron. My old iron was a Rowenta and it occasionally dripped water when I did not wait long enough for it to heat up. I got a lot of fusible web on it and it was hard to clean. I donated this iron and now I am sorry that I did.





Now I have to buy a new iron. What a task! Seems most irons do not get good reviews. Not sure what to buy. I guess for now I will be using this one dry. Tried to call Panasonic customer service and they are not there on Saturdays even though online it says they are.

Any suggestions?

Chris

Listening to the Eagles and sewing

It has been a crazy few weeks with rock stars dying....David Bowie, Glen Frey from the Eagles, and Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane. And some of these guys are not much older than I am.

I was an Eagles fan from early on. As soon as I heard Take it Easy and Peaceful Easy Feeling I was hooked on them. I remember hearing them on a radio that was in the kitchen of the restaurant that I worked in after my first year in college. I went to see them when they were the backup band for Todd Rundgren of all people. I did not like him, but I did really enjoy the Eagles. Of course this was back when concert tickets were cheap compared to today's standards.

The night my first boyfriend and I broke up back in the late 70's we had gone to a concert with the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt in Arizona. I think the song Best of my Love was playing when I realized it was really over with this guy. This boyfriend dragged me out to Arizona to go to school and then broke up with me not much after we got there! Oh well his loss. Interestingly enough he contacted me via a card and letter about 5 years ago. He basically apologized for treating me so badly. I guess he wanted to see me. I was actually a bit freaked out since he had to go online and track me down. I showed my husband the note, but never responded to it.

I saw the Eagles again with my husband a few years ago. So I was sad to see that Glen Frey died. I plan on watching the documentary on the Eagles that is on tomorrow night on CNN.

So what have I been sewing? I now have nearly 3 panels worth of black overlay pieces of my blue abstract sewn down. The hand applique is not going as slowly as I thought it would.

I have already decided (at least I think so) how I am going to quilt this. I guess that is a good thing since I could be basting this one before long.







Do you like the Eagles?

Thanks for reading. Linking to Nina-Marie.
Chris

Progress on blue abstact quilt

I did make some changes suggested by Sheila from her comments in my last blog. I have also made some progress hand sewing the black pieces in place. I always looks so much better when the pins are removed and the pieces are actually attached to the quilt.

 My sewing closet is finished and loaded with my stuff. I had no problems getting all of my fabric and books as well as art and dyeing supplies into the closet. The only thing I don't like about the wire racks is that some of the plastic boxes have "feet" on them and do not sit flat on the shelves.

Sheila, you might be able to see your padfolio in this photo.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Lesson learned

Linking to Nina Marie Off the wall Friday's.

I wonder. What she has to say about being organized this week.


Do not use Kona Cotton for applique.... Bonnie commented on my last post about how it is difficult to work with for applique and should not be used. She is right. It was pretty much impossible to do the sharp points that some of the pieces had even with needle turn applique. I am no expert, but the fabric did not want to cooperate at the point.

So I decided rather than have really crappy points to just make them not as sharp. I was able to turn under the edges including the adjusted point. So why did I use the Kona black cotton? I needed the really dark black that it offered. I did not even think or know that it is not good for applique. Other than the points I thought it was easy to work with.

So now all the applique pieces are pinned to the sections. I will let this sit for a day to see if I need to edit anything.

How do you think it looks?

I had to laugh about the white pinheads you can easily see in the abstract blue quilt. In 2014 when I took the master class with EB she made a comment about my white pinheads looking like eyes in this quilt! EB hates pinheads showing on a blocked quilt.




I will have my sewing closet soon. The horizontal bar and the vertical supports are mounted. Now we just need the shelf brackets and the wire shelves and I will be finally able to organize my sewing room!!!! I have been waiting for this since mid August last year. I am thrilled.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Moving along on blue abstract quilt

My next big decision on this abstract blue quilt was to determine how to do the black applique overlays.

 In case you are a new follower or forgot this is my sketch for the quilt

I debated about fusing and even tried that out in a small sample and found that the black kona cotton really frayed a lot when the edges were stitched with invisible thread. I used steam a seam 2 lite. The only reason I thought this might work is that I had considered stitching with King Tut thread over the entire quilt with closely spaced vertical lines. Not sure that is how I want to quilt it now.

At any rate this does not work at all.

That means that I have to turn under the edges of the black Kona cotton. So I started to do that and have made some progress. This is my design wall this morning. It is dark and gloomy today in central PA so the lighting is not great. The pieces I dread are the ones with the sharp points. I think the only way I can pull them off is with needle turn applique. And I am not a big fan of needle turn applique so I will only do it for the sharp points.

My method of doing the rest of the applique pieces was shown in this blog. It was something I came up with when I made my cathedral quilt called "Spiritual Sanctuary."


Now I have to head out to the local quilt store and get some more Mary Ellen spray starch since I am nearly out.











Thanks for reading and for your input on my last blog. It is appreciated.

Chris

Progress on " Change of Plans."

I finally got motivated to start sewing my blue abstract quilt. Besides sewing I have drawn out the overlay pieces and have been thinking about a title. Since my blue Cherrywood fabrics turned out not as bright as my original planning sketch I thought that maybe that "Change of Plans" was a good title. I also thought about the following titles:

• Mist and shadows
• Passing time
• A moment lost
• The world we knew
• Too many misconceptions
• Somewhere beyond the mist
• Maze of moments
• Midwinter's night

What do you think?

It always amazes me how much blocks shrink up when you sew them together with a 1/4 inch seam. I guess I should not be surprised at this point about that since I have been quilting for more than 30 years.

My pattern pieces for the overlay are all sketched out for each section. So the next step will be to create the black overlay pieces and machine applique them down.









Linking to Nina-Marie a day early. I wonder how much progress she made on her quilt kit.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Onto a new year

Hard to believe that 2015 is already gone.

I got some great art gifts for Christmas.

Inktense pencils, fountain pen and ink refills, small sketchbook, batik fabrics, book on dyeing and painting fabric, graphite pencil, and a view window. I also got a kindle book called "Artistic Photo Quilts" by Charlotte Zeibarth. This is a great book with good ideas on creating artistic photos to print on fabric. It uses Photoshop elements to edit photos. I have Photoshop, but did not know about all the different things she uses to create interesting artistic photos. I have been learning a lot. I also got some new perfume and some bath and body stuff.

I nabbed this tin from my parents house when I was there visiting my dad. Not sure how I will use it yet, but I love the colorful Allsorts candies on the top of it. Haven't had those since I was a kid. My husband hates licorice.

I made a quilted bookmark for my pen pal. I have had a 3rd grade pen pal since October. He has a wiener dog named Bailey and a black cat named Lucky. In his last letter he told me his favorite class was gym! I hope the bookmark will inspire him to read.




Seems that this is the time of the year when people choose a word for the year. I think I will choose the word ART for 2016. I chose it for several reasons.

• I want to work on several art quilts this year. 
• I want to sketch and paint in my sketchbooks.
• I want to visit some art museums and art shows.
• I want to read the book about Van Gogh. (Van Gogh: the Life) He is one of my favorite artists.
• I want to eat, breathe and think ART this year.

Well now it it time to venture out into the cold and walk. I guess I will think about art while I walk!

Thanks for reading.
Chris