Thursday, April 8, 2010

Over the hump... it's already Thursday... YEAH!!! I have been so busy this week, but right now I can't tell you a single thing I have done. Yesterday I managed to sew for about ... hmmmm ... let me think... 2 minutes! I tried a technique for adjusting the Dual feed on my
Bernina 820 (did I tell you I just got one of those... tee hee). I got 12 leaves ready for a new applique quilt I am doing, but I think there are about 300 leaves in the quilt so, I am not excited about that yet. And the Blue Jays beat Texas last night and that got about 25 LITTLE grandmothers flower garden pieces made. (I think the template is 1/2", maybe smaller). I was excited about that... (the Blue Jays not the flower garden... million more of those little babies to make!)



Today if I have time I would like to start marking out my white on white trapunto quilt that I would like to make my daughter as a wedding present. I have to plan it first which always seems to be the problem, because I can never justify the time it takes to sit still and do it. But maybe I will have to make a commitment like this one to work on it for an hour every day until it is done... Now where did I put that extra hour I have each day? I will have to look.


Today, I have an exciting tool to talk about. It's my Rotary Cutters favorite tool. The Tri-sharp Rotary Blade Sharpener. I love my blade sharpener. I bet it has saved me $100 dollars in the last 5 years on Rotary Blades ( now that's almost a whole quilts worth of fabric). I have had mine since they were green, probably 15 years or more and it's not as sharp as it used to be, but it has paid its way.
I tell everyone, don't eat, drink or sleep on your mat...or pin, glue, paint, colour, or cut paper. I have separate mats for each or any of those purposes and an old rotary cutter that just gets used on paper.
Ever wondered why there are "Craft" mats and Quilters mats (Omnigrid, Olfa, June Taylor, Fiskers and more) and why there is such a big price difference... (I have a nice little cheep craft mat close to my GOOD Expensive quilters mat, I do all my crafting on it and save my good mat for cutting fabric).
Because, the better the mat the longer your blade will cut through your fabric properly, and the sharper your blade stays, the longer your mat will stay usable. Dull blades will tear up your mats, and your fabric, so once a month I like to pull out my sharpener and fine tune my blade(s). After they are all nice and sharp, I drop a little drop of oil on them and put them back in my cutter. And just as long as you don't invite your good friend over for a sew day, (you know, the one who throws pins everywhere)you won't get nicks in your blade and it will last a long, long time.
Another use for that Blade sharpener... run a ragged pin or needle over it and an irritating burr will disappear. ( I bought a tool once to get rid of burrs on needles and pins but unless I start a blog called the 30 tools I wasted my money on... you won't be reading about it here.)

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