BACK TO BUSINESS

Life at the CCRC continues to keep up busy and catching up with some thing. At the moment the switch from TWC to campus cable feed and WiFi is causing havoc. Isn't that always the way with new tech set ups?

My purpose in writing today is two fold. Lately discovered tips I've found that make quilting life easier.

The first was discovered this past week when trying to fuse adhesive web (major brand) to fabric for the purpose of making cut our applique shapes. Of course I got the adhesive guck+gunk on the tip of the iron. Bummer. But wait - I was using a Teflon-coated iron and unlike my old iron-Iron (sp?) could not scrub the plate with a steel wool pad. Double Bummer.

Google to the Rescue. Found a comment advising to iron over a dryer sheet (another major brand). I have been string-piecing on dryer sheets for many years but here's a new one for me. Hot iron + a couple of dryer sheets (new, unused), and voila! A clean, smooth gliding iron like new. Who knew? Well, not me.

Second, who's zipper-challenged. Every time I hear a guild quilter mention putting in a zipper the moans begin. Since I was a 4-Her back in the day; many sewing lessons later I mastered zipper installations but that seems to be a major stumbling block for younger sewers. Unless you cheat.

How to make pillow covers and avoid the needed zipper? Check this out. Using a man's shirt (thrift shop find), for the back of the pillow keep the button/buttonhole pieces together and cut large enough to   make a self-binding for the edges.

Of course for the pillow front you can go scrappy or any piecing style you desire. I did some scrappy strip-piecing and added a few 'Prairie Points" for interest.  Prairie Points are simply 4" squares of fabric folded diagonally once and then again. The point is totally folded fabric and the raw edge is sewn into the seam. 

The same technique can be used to edge around an entire quilt but beware. You will be cutting a lot of 4" fabric squares!

Back to the major point; the pillow case can be opened easily with the button shirt strip and can just as easily be removed to launder. How big a pillow can be made depends on the size of the shirt, the one shown was a Large (with breast pocket removed), but I have used an XL size for an 18" x 18" square pillow as well.  Maybe a 20 / 20 would work but bigger than that you would have to add piecing. 

Off to the Triangle Guild meeting this afternoon. Guess what "Show & Tell" will be?  The pillow but I am also taking scissors and the outlined-fused back-fabric to cut out the leaf shapes. Stay tuned for the rest of that story.