Hi and happy new year to all of you! In my first blog post of this year, I'm happy to have one good new lesson to pass on to you, as well as some updates on products that have arrived at my studio. First, the new lesson... I was quilting this quilt over the holidays... its a new one that I call "State of Flow". It uses the Quick Curve Ruler and is modelled on a quilt I saw at Sisters this past summer. Irene and Susan helped me pick the fabrics for the quilt and that's why it is so beautiful.  While I was quilting this section, I immediately contacted Mary and now have the pattern for sale... it costs $16.50 and is one size fits all. I was using a 12 weight cotton Aurifil thread I'd purchased from Carola when she was stopping selling it. I selected an appropriately large needle and adjusted tension accordingly, but what ever I did, the thread kept breaking. At least by now I have learned that once the thread breaks once, I stop work on my real quilt and work only on a practice piece until I have the problem solved (so I don't have to keep burying threads after 20" of quilting!). But no matter what I tried to adjust, the thread kept breaking so I concluded that the thread had become dry and brittle, which can happen to cotton thread. I checked the web for possible solutions I hadn't yet tried and here's where the lesson comes... there was a chain of comments on one blog about putting the thread in the freezer overnight to rehydrate it. Some comments were made insisting this could not work because everyone knows freezers dehydrate things, but most comments said they'd tried it and it worked... So, I tried it and my thread came out icy, moist and, once I wiped the ice off it, my thread did not break again!!!!! So, how great is that????? We can recover old, dry, brittle thread by putting it in the freezer overnight. I was so excited with my discovery, it prompted me to write this blog post which I haven't done for quite a while:-). Some New Products... Great Apron pattern Susan made me this apron with a Mary Mulari pattern recently and I love it... It is slip on, reversible, and has great pockets...    Grunge's 30 best-selling colours now in... There was a bit of a backlog in orders at my distributor, but all 30 of the most beloved Grunge colours are now in stock...  I was not a Grunge fan before, but since having them in the studio I've discovered that sometimes when no other line offers the colour blending that I want, there will be a grunge that works perfectly. I'm happy to have these as an addition to my stock. Mid-arm, Long-arm needles now in... I finally realized that more than a few of my customers are now working with mid-arms and some with long-arms. So I've stocked a wide range of sizes of needles for these machines. I'm selling the Groz-Beckert line which is designed specifically for multi directional quilting. Here's what my distributor has to say about these needles, which are what I've been using and am very satisfied with.
Finally, preparations are underway for my WINTER SALE... Get your projects organized! Sale day is Saturday February 2nd... 10 - 5. Everything in the studio will be on sale. So start thinking about what you might be needing. More to follow! |
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