Breaking Up is Actually Easy to Do

I’ve been frustrated with WordPress for a long time but things got even worse. Something as simple as changing a font or color must now be paid for.  While I respect their business model I also respect my right to change hosts.  I’ve gone ahead and migrated all of these posts to  a new blog which, while needing some tweaking, is going to work out well.

I did this over the past few days while trying to sort out my thoughts about the Boston Marathon.  Please visit the new Major Thoughts Blog as this one will no longer be updated.  I’ll get back to sewing and quilting and all good things over there.

Thanks – I hope you come along and continue the ride.

Historic Paper Piecing – Design Wall Monday

I’ve got a pretty broad range of fabrics in my stash and what I make reflects that spectrum.  I have an equal opportunity (and era) stash.  However, I do love hand sewing and since I love paper piecing hexagons I thought I’d give it a whirl with some different shapes and historic fabrics.

Oy vey.

I wasn’t prepared for all those ANGLES.  I can stitch hexagons in my sleep but the octagons and coffins (my word) were a new ball game. To make matters worse, I PAID FOR THE SCRAPS so I couldn’t ditch the project.  No, I am not insane – they are the gleanings from late 1800′s – early 1900′s quilts that have been rescued and conserved by loving professionals. In some cases, entire portions of the quilt had to be removed and the surrounding fabric was lovingly harvested and sold for around $8 a bag.  To a good home, you might say.

I bought a bag of the scraps just to touch them, to study up close and personal how those fabrics were made, the stunning colors and intricate designs.  They just breathed life.  I didn’t know what I would do with them until I hit on the idea of paper piecing a little something to go on my end table. (Okay, probably under glass, I spill a lot of coffee.) I felt compelled to gently hand wash them, let them air dry and used the survivors in this bit of piecing. I like the idea of giving those very old fabrics a very new life.  The gold connecting squares and the border fabric are not old, just reproduction fabrics in the same color family.  Even though from now on I will probably stick to hexagons, I really like this little bit of a thing and can’t wait to see it finished.

Multi-Tasking Sewing Notions

About three years ago I was at a quilt show in New Hampshire when I found this “new” kind of seam ripper.

The woman at the booth demonstrated how it worked and I thought it was pretty clever.  As I am chronically incapable of passing up a cool sewing thingie, I handed over about $5 (I think) and snapped it up.

Fast forward to yesterday when I was in one of those beauty supply shops looking for some super-serious ginormo hair clips.  (My plan to grow out my hair has had a head-on collision with summer heat.  If I don’t get it off my neck I’m going to shave my head.).  I was debating the purchase of a good pair of scissors (see paragraph above) when I saw these:

You guessed it.  Exactly the same thing.  This 3-pack was about the same as I paid for one of them in New Hampshire.  Who knew?  Now you ALL do.

PS – So these are facial razors?  I have no idea how this kind of thing would be used, am I missing something here? Come to think of it, 98%  of the stuff in those beauty supply stores looks like they require entirely too much work, effort and maintenance. However, when they can be pressed in to service as a quilting notion……