Valdez

Where did August go?? My mother and I are teaching at a quilting festival in Valdez September 11-14. That's only 2 weeks away! I'm getting nervous. When I used to teach this class there was a lot of prep work, but now everything is right in the book. I keep thinking "I have to do a million things to get ready!" but really I don't- the instructions are in the book, the sample quilts are done. This is the first time trying to teach it as a condensed class though- 14 hours over 2 days (and we are hoping the classroom is free in the evening so I can work late with the night owls & my mom has volunteered to wake up and work with the early birds) I really hope that the ladies can go home with finished quilts.

Birthday Presents

Audrey's birthday is coming up soon and I happened to stumble upon this website: Born In September It's a charity organization that builds wells in Ethiopia and they're taking donations in the name of people with birthdays in September. I think it sounds like a great alternative to excessive amounts of gifts that are usually forgotten about the next week. So if you were thinking of buying a birthday present for Audrey or you are just interested in helping a charity that provides clean drinking water for people that didn't have any visit Audrey's page and make a donation in her name.

Testing Organic Fabric & Thread

I ordered this blue fabric to use on the back of a project I'm working on. It's organic cotton sateen by Harmony Art and I was a little nervous about how it would hold up to my decorative stitching. I am used to the sateen fabric that they usually have in quilt shops- super fine (practically see through) and very silky, so I was worried that the fabric might shred and I thought the satin stitches would be entirely out of the question. How wrong I was! The fabric is much thicker than the sateens I've seen before (the thread count on this stuff is 233, I believe the thread count on quilting fabrics is usually 120-160) and it worked so nicely with my decorative stitches that I even tried my satin stitches and the fabric held up beautifully! I also tried the organic thread on this project- it's the white stitching going through the middle of the square. It stitched up very nicely and I didn't have any breaking or shredding so I'm pretty much in love with it. But I will say that it is a fuzzy thread (I'm talking even fuzzier than the coats & clark star thread that comes on that cardboard like spool). I haven't checked my machine yet but I'm sure I will need to clean it out more often when I'm using this thread. It's also a bit thicker than I expected (my best guess is somewhere in the 20-30wt. range) but I've never let that stop me from using a thread =)

Organic Thread

I just received the organic cotton thread I ordered, and right in time for a project I'm working on. It's made in a collaboration between YLI and Fiberactive Organics. I ordered the 40 TEX on the 3000 yard cone- 3 spools of white, 3 of natural and 3 of black. They also make a TEX 60 which is supposed to be more like the heavy jeans stitch thread- sounds great for regular quilting, but too thick for my decorative stitches. I'll post again in a couple of days and let you know how it stitches.