Oh, Geneva that is hilarious! Now if I'd get a vacation, y hat is a good idea to send the machine in for spa treatment while I'm gone.

Carrie, I love your quilt! Beautiful!!! I like both... controlled or not. I've done both and will be doing more scrapping as I haven't made a dent yet.

I took a Bonnie Hunter workshop last month. Spent several hours today finishing the top. This is Cathedral Stars, with different colors as well as smaller than hers. I have some older tops that need to be quilted, so this is going in a drawer for a while.

I'm more into controlled scrappy than completely scrappy.

Good thinking Geneva! Who knows what kind of trouble she could get into while you're gone.

Hello everyone,

I took Sybil in to spend some quality time with Mr Fix it last week. We are traveling and I don't like to leave Sybil alone as she might encourage the other appliances to revolt. What a mess that would be!

I'll be back at the end of April.

Hold down the fort while I'm gone!

Geneva

Hi Annis, fun to hear what's happening your way. Sounds like you've been busy, I think pinked edge give-a-ways sound perfect even if you cut a 1" waste every strip, I bet you'll find a use for the 1" wasted strips.

Interesting to hear your thoughts regarding the cutting mats. I agree 1/8" marks on every line would be distracting I prefer measurement markings on the outside line only.

Barb

I cut all of my leftover red and white fabrics into 6" x 21" strips, getting ready to use my Studio 2 fabric cutter this weekend to cut them into 5" pinked squares for some giveaways at an Open House for my retreat center that I hope to have next month. This will be my first time to use the cutter that I've had since last September. I hope I like it. I feel kind of wasteful as 1" of every strip will be wasted (that's 6" out of every yard of fabric!) and I could probably cut them almost as fast with a rotary cutter, but I want the pinked edges and the pinked rotary cutter blade from my past experience doesn't cut through many layers, gets dull quickly, and damages the edge of the ruler.

I used the 24" x 36" Quilter's Select cutting mat and it still looks good after cutting all of those strips. I wanted to say I liked everything about it, but that's not the case. It seems all of those 1/8" markings on all of the lines are very distracting. Kind of like when you are trying to read a news article and a video is talking at the same time. And the numbers are quite small. I would prefer they were larger so I would spend less time looking for the one I need. It did cut nicely though and when cutting batting it didn't leave fuzz in the cuts as some mats do. I will save it for my retreaters to try and get a different one for my upstairs sewing room. The gray doesn't look that good in the room so I will probably go with white. I'm leaning toward the Big-Mat by Sew Easy Products. Still trying to make up my mind. In the meantime I have a green one that's still in good shape.

Heather your mini quilts are special. Lovely idea

I have stabilized silk dupioni with a lightweight fusible interfacing. Maybe I missed it that you are using this for appliqué, hence the need for steam a seam.

Oh dear Heather, your mini quilts turned out great!! I don't know the guidelines for what you started to do but I'm glad you did this anyway. Great idea to frame them for your sewing area!!

I'm using Pellon 931TD. I also bought the next heavier up from that for other projects. But the 931TD is perfect. Just enough body but not stiff at all. I use a medium warm iron and my Goddess sheet. When I sew little pieces together, I don't get clumps of fabric/stabilizer that won't lay flat.

Thanks Nancy, I will stabilize the Dupioni just like I did the kimono silks.

geneva

Thanks, Cindy....Nancy...I will try the tricot...but haven't had the best luck with the fabric types...trouble with them
separating unevenly later after construction ! looked bad ! Sample, sample sample !

Hi Marilyn,
I have three stabilizers that I like working with, depending on what type project I'm working on. For a raw edge appliqued picture type project I love Steam A Seam, (not the lite). If I want a lighter hand I will use Wonder Under or Misty Fuse, especially on delicate fabrics.

I haven't pieced my silks yet. I've just done wholecloths, which I've zigzagged the edges rather than stabilizing. But when I do get around to piecing my silks. I'll probably try something lightweight like a fusible tricot.

Question...What stabilizer works best?? Have a little project down the road !