BRITEX FABRICS

I'm getting num with all the sales that clutter my e-mail. Yes, I know I can block them, but sometimes I do want a coupon from Jo-Ann's and others.
One sale entry I don't want to miss is from Britex. Not that I ever could afford any of their fabrics, but just to sit and dream is worth it.
We went to San Francisco last August and while my husband took a simulated stage coach ride at Wells Fargo Museum, I feasted my eyes on the many shelves of fabric at Britex Fabrics.
We had a fixed time when we going to meet up again, of course all to soon. I only got three photos.
But I get the e-mails and the blog and this week they even have a blurp about a quilt show in Washington state.
Well, maybe one day I'll buy a yard of wool felt or Italian silk from this fabulous store.

PS. I have added a photo of the ceiling at the San Francisco Mission, one day somebody will make a quilt with that pattern.

Mercury and The Mad Hatter

So what's a mercury spill have to do with fabric.
Well, it's a stretch, but since I was a chemistry teacher in a former life, I feel for the poor guy, who managed to get his middle school closed for a week, and this the week before the scheduled spring break.
What happened was, that a bottle of the stuff fell from a shelf and broke, and then the kids tracked the small silvery droplets all over the school. Next EPA, worried parents, nightly news etc.
 So what's it to do with me? Well this week at the guild meeting we tried to encourage more people to take the challenge for June's meeting: 'Alice Through the Looking glass'.
Even if in that story Lewis Carroll only once introduces the Mad Hatter, he is such a familiar figure in connection with Alice from the previous  'Alice in Wonderland' that I always think of him when she is mentioned.
And I think of his predicament which has to do with mercury,
He spent all day making leather top hats which were in fashion then. The leather used for these hats had been treated with mercury, a tanning agent.
So there is your connection.

 And we don't want everybody out there going mad, do we? Even if we all loved it, when a thermometer broke and we could play with the quicksilver, mercury's common name.

Quilters' Reply Girl

No, this is not U-tube and even if I'll show wavy lines, those are on a quilt.

But because the same pattern is posted on Pipkinhouse.blogspot.com  I thought
I could make you look at that much lovelier quilt and compare.

I finally got my quilt finished and with it hanging out there on my deck with the redbud trees flowering
I guess all my troubles over that quilt have evaporated. Let's hope the quilt will carry that notion with it
to the person who receives it.  For it wasn't all fun!
Whoever stands up at Show and Tell and says "This was a fun quilt to make", either sewed all their seven daughters'  dresses  for years, or they read instructions VERY CAREFULLY, or  they have a warped sense of fun, two of which isn't me.
So when the instructions said: SEW ALL THE WHITE STRIPS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE WEDGES what did I do? - exactly that, but the previous line had told me to turn the wedges to face each other before doing it, which I did not.
 By the time I discovered my mistake and in addition had squared everything, I found I didn't have enough white on white to finish the quilt.
 So off on a shopping trip to Jasper with Mary which costs us both dearly. Next my sewing machine got hiccups and well as I said I FINALLY finished the quilt yesterday in time for the March meeting, when it has to be turned in.
 I'm so glad others have enjoyed making these waves more than I. I hope I don't make waves for the cuddle quilt committee, who spend hours cutting fabric and preparing these kits for us to take - all ready made.

RETREAT

   

The Birmingham Quilters Guild  held its February retreat last week. 
Sheryl, one of our new members quickly fitted into the 

VERY  ORGANIZED CHAOS group of quilters.

And for those of you who took part in the UGLY FABRIC game and might not have believed that the yard I left behind would have taken the prize, here it is.
Poor Lincoln cut down to the size of a dwarf, with withered arms.
I dared not post it yesterday, on Presidents Day.

Grommets

TEN GREEN FIR TREES HANGING ON A BRANCH!  and if one green fir tree should...

.... Sing on!

Make yourself merry by using eyelets and grommets on your Christmas presents.

I did

I really love grommets. There is something elegant about that a brass enclosed opening.

So I made a  Christmas tree with 24 grommet holes. It was a bit of a challenge though, to

figure out how to fasten each present on the back, when its ribbon had been strung through the brass opening. So tree number two was done differently. One of the 24 presents was small a set tree decorations.

Feel free to copy; that is, if you have the snap tool or the grommet tool.

Visit Harbor Freight for a the grommets. They  also have gloves which are perfect for quilting.
With hundreds of small rubber dots.
And much much more to go on your list for Christmas.

Knitting

It being Thanksgiving weekend I fell behind my weekly schedule. A shame, since I had intended to thank Pia publicly Thursday for repairing the sleeves of my sweater. Well, I'm sure she has been too busy using her French cooking skills to prepare Thanksgivings dinner, so here are my delayed thanks.
Let me explain why Pia's good deed is of special significance.
The sweater is a work of art - in my opinion - by my sister Esther. She died in 2003 and I was given the sweater by her husband.
I wear it every winter, as soon as it starts to get cold, hence the red border on the edges of the sleeves began to 'undo' themselves.
My knitting skills are next to nothing, so who else to turn to than  my neighbor and friend, fiber artist, weaver, sheep farmer, and fellow Scandinavian. And she was so pleased that she had the correct color yarn, and she had it done in no time and I got the sweater back almost as new.
But this is not the end of the story, because I began to wonder if 'knitting' should even have a place on this blog, for it's not a fabric, or is it?
Wikipedia says:
"Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth"
and "Knit, knitted or knitting may also refer to knitted fabric"
So there you have it, but no, my sweater is definitely not made of a fabric. Maybe the distinction is between machine knitted and hand knitted?
 Reading on I became aware of a very interesting fact and I quote: " Within the 1940's  English knitting rose in popularity while Continental knitting fell. This is due to the fact that Continental knitting originated within Germany and was spread by immigrants, During WW II Continental knitting fell out of style due to its relationship with Germany." Here is definitely a subject for a Ph.D. thesis for  a graduate student of textile arts. By the way it reminds me of something during a former crisis, oh, not eating French fries. When was that and why?? I've forgotten.
The brit Elizabeth Zimmerman reintroduced Continental style into this country, and her motto was: 
"Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises"

A Common Thread?

A program called "Common Thread" linked the quilters from Gees Bend, a West Alabama community,
to African mud painters from the West African country Mali, was held this entire week at the Alys B.Stephens Center, at UAB.

The black color is created, when the mud painted cotton fabric is washed in rivers containing large amount of iron. The iron acts as a mordant.

 Laverne from the guild volunteering with the community  quilt.

 Inspired by the plant and mud dyers, I went home and dug up some plant died cotton fabric from my stash.The green is parsley, the brown and dark yellow onion, the bright yellow goldenrod, and the beige, I believe is pokeweed berries, which strangely enough doesn't yield much color.
 Something local for the community quilt. They are still looking for more 10 x10  blocks.

The previous day, last Tuesday to be correct, in another part of town, 15 women from the guild, lead by Kathy created 15 very different purses, all from the same pattern. Mine, by sheer coincidence, took up the African theme of my week.