FriXion Erasable Gel Pen Freezer Test

FriXion erasable gel pens are designed to completely erase with the heat of ironing, never to reappear; however, internet rumors abound that the ink reappears if the fabric gets cold enough.  After receiving a set of these pens at the last Christmas bee, I promised my fellow quilters that I would put them to the test.

I wrote the name of each color:  black, purple, pink, orange, brown, blue, and red upon a piece of plain white muslin.  No problems there, the pens were terrific at marking.  

I immediately ironed the muslin and all the marks (and I mean everything) completely disappeared as advertised.  Now I just had a scrap of white muslin, identical to every other scrap of white muslin in my sewing room, so I thought I had better mark it or it would end up in my Dear Jane by accident.  I wrote "test piece" on it with a Pigma Pen, because marks from those pens are forever.

The scrap of muslin then got washed in the washing machine with warm water, then put in the freezer for a few weeks.  Here is the result:

This is a fairly accurate picture.  All the colors came back at about 5-20% of their original intensity.  Pink did the best, you can barely make out the 'K' in "PINK" above "ORANGE".  

Now, most people would say, "Well, I am never going to put my quilts in the freezer!" and they are right, of course.  But my family, like thousands of others up in Wisconsin, have a cottage on a lake out in the middle of the north woods.  A cottage which remains unheated for most of the winter, a very cold cottage! Christmas presents kept in car trunks in Green Bay can get bitterly cold too. (No one runs out of freezer space over the holidays when you can say things like "Get the ham out of the Buick.")

I like FriXion pens; in fact, I like them a lot, but I would not use them on the top of my Dear Jane, or on any quilt I ever plan to send to the great white north.  Something to consider.

Happy quilting,
Susan in Texas

Great Links from the Houston Festival Vendors

I didn't buy too much in Houston last weekend, but I picked up lots of information on merchandise that intrigued me. I've been checking out their websites since I got home and here are some of the best ones:

Laga Handbags & Travel Bags - I seriously LOVED these. Each Laga handbag is handmade by, and sustains, a tsunami survivor. Their website is awesome; be sure to check out the video. I'm considering getting a travel bag and a purse. They would also make wonderful Christmas gifts. Get this, they're made on foot-powered sewing machines.

Great Ruler - I wanted to buy one of these, but we couldn't find the booth the next day when we went back. There were SO many vendors and all the rows looked pretty much alike. lol I think I'll get one on-line.

Joy's Fabrics & Quilts - My favorite purveyor of great hand-dyed fabrics. She's a local (Godley, TX) so I see her at every show. I never fail to buy something. Her pastel fat quarter collection is the greatest! I branched out into her Earthy Greens/Golds FQs this time, 8 for $20. Not bad!

High Fashion Fabrics - I finally broke down and bought a yard of that naughty shirtless cowboy fabric. (It's getting hard to find!). I think there's a very special pillowcase in my future. Also a great source for cuddly velour.

Splinters & Threads - Great redwork embroidery for my Bernina. I'm thinking about doing a BOM Christmas quilt next year (from last month's shop hop) with embroidery blocks mixed in.

Pincushion Boutique - Excellent source of fat quarter collections called "Sweet Treats". I bought the "Freshly Fallen Snow" collection of 8 FQs for next year's Christmas quilt for $21.95. It's 8 white on whites, no two alike. I may need more 8-).

DbarJ Quilts etc - Cool source for a square up ruler that really caught my eye.

Dutch Quilter - I had never heard of hot ribbon before. It's a no-sew technique that provides a very nice finish for rough edged applique. Sweet!

French Connections - Great source for french and african fabric and baskets.

Meg Hannan Rag Sky Art Studio - Very interesting fabric "jewels". I had never seen anything like this before. Pretty cool.

Pin Peddlers - OK, I just love pins. And they make great little gifts too. Very nice website.

Sewing Machine Cases - Bags to fit every possible sewing machine; accessory bags too.


And would you believe these people don't have websites yet? Come on, people, it's almost 2010 already!

Sew Steady Portable Tables - I really liked their portable sewing tables with the bendable light. Nice looking, solid acrylic. Supposedly you order by the model number of your machine (from Featherweights on up, sergers too.) The biggest one is 2 feet square.
Email: dream@dreamworld-inc.com, phone: 1-800-837-3261 Ext. 5.

Make your Own Quilt Labels - I watched this woman make the prettiest label for several minutes. I believe you purchase a book of traceable patterns, which you transfer to your label material, then finish off with Pigma Pen painting. Very delicate and lovely. Almost bought the book. Would have, but nearly all my quilts are donated to the USO and don't need a personalized label. 8(
Email: kchurbuck@aol.com, phone (563) 324-8128

Favorite Spray Adhesives

Gail asked me on Friday what basting spray I use and I couldn't remember the name of it, so I thought I would post pictures of the two sprays I've been using. For quilt basting I use June Taylor Quilt Basting Spray in the big pale blue bottle. This size bottle will spray baste 3 queen sized quilts. You're supposed to open the windows and protect the floors when using it; I open the windows, but I've been lazy about covering the carpet and I've gotten away with it so far. 8-) I really like it for stippling because it makes the surface of the quilt very flat and firm, yet completely washes out in one wash cycle.





























The small bottle is what I use for everything else. Sulky KK 2000 is absolutely wonderful to use with Thangles. I'm also going to try it the next time I have something to applique; I think it will work very well at that too. No fumes and no overspray worries at all. It only lasts a few hours, then it's completely gone. I covered my work surface with paper, and initially the paper was a bit sticky, but in a few hours the stickiness was gone, no residue at all. Neat stuff!

Fantasy Pony Top Complete

I like the way this quilt turned out. It's nice and big and square! I used as many of the Sally Collins Precision Piecing tools and techniques as I could, and I have to say they helped a great deal. This is by far the most accurate strip bordered quilt I've ever made. Even the inset squares on the outer corners came out nicely. Doing it her way was a little slower, but I avoided all the angst by catching my errors when they were still small as she suggests. I was worried that I had made the green cactus inner strip too wide (I was trying to make the quilt bigger, while still avoiding that extra fourth border fabric.)
I had to jump through some hoops to make the small turquoise border show up at all between the cactus border and the inner panel. I should have purchased six squares (length) of inner panel instead of five. That would have given me additional turquoise all around the inner panel, which would have been nice. I wasn't thinking so I came up a little short, but it came out all right in the end. I'll remember next time and buy 2 rows more of the inner panel than I'm going to use.

Now I just have to figure out how to quilt it; I'll have to see if I can set up a poll with my options. I've never done that before.

More Tools and One Slightly Wrecked Car

I know, I know, when are you actually going to make something, Susan? Soon, soon, I promise! I've even got the Fantasy Pony fabric all pre-washed and ironed and ready to go.

I watched the Sally Collins dvd again and decided to buy an Ott Lite (40% off Hobby Lobby coupon). I replaced my Tacky Glue too. My last bottle must have been 10 years old. When I tried to use it, the inside had congealed into a moist blubbery mass. I got two more Omnigrid rules too (4x4 and 3x8), a craft knife for cutting templates, a 1/16" hole punch, and a nice metal sewing gauge, just like Gramma used to have, to replace my plastic one.
It's been a crazy week. Larry and I got rear-ended Wednesday night. No biggie (no one hurt, both cars driveable - just a bump). But the lovely young (very young) woman who smushed us was anxious to pay cash and avoid an insurance claim. I think she also was eager to put off telling her Dad! We really wanted to file a claim, especially when the dealership couldn't rule out hidden $$$ internal damage. We also really wanted to talk to a parent, or at least someone who wasn't actively weeping.
Fortunately, by last night, she was much calmer, and had been instructed by her Dad to call her insurance agent; so all is well. Poor thing. What was a minor annoyance for us, was a superhugebigdeal to her. With age comes perspective, I guess. I felt sorry for her. While Larry was copying down her insurance info, I tried to console her as she sped through all five stages of grief in about 45 seconds.

I Dream of Precision Piecing 2 - New Tools

Much of what Sally Collins had to say in her dvd made lots of practical sense. I've always had trouble with the fabric slipping apart on the last inch of sewing. She demonstrated using a stiletto on those last little bits, so I bought one. She recommended using an Omnigrid ruler, with sandpaper dots to hold it steady on slippery fabric, so I bought some of those too. She also recommended using the Machine Seam Gauge & Adhesive Guide. I was a little more doubtful about this gadget. As I recall, she showed how to use it, but then said she depended on her 1/4 inch foot (which I have already) and we never saw the MSG&AG again. I bought it, but I may just use it to verify that my quarter inch foot is actually accurate. I had only gone to JoAnn's today to get the red, white & blue fabric for my Thunderbirds quilt, but then I got sucked into the notions aisle and my priorities shifted. It's probably a good thing I couldn't remember the exact type of extra-fine pins she recommended, or I would have bought those too, despite being positively awash in pins already. I'm a real sucker for notions that are going to improve my entire life! lol

I Dream of Precision Piecing

I mentioned a while back that I bought "Sally Collins' Teaches You Precision Piecing" dvd in Albuquerque. I saw it for sale and thought to myself, "I want to do precision piecing! Yes, Yes, Yes! This will show me just what I'm doing wrong!" I might as well have added, "This is the magic I am waiting for!" When will I ever learn? Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful dvd, filled with lots of good tips that are sure to help me improve my piecing, but the basic premise of the dvd is as follows:

"Slow down; verify the precision of your work after each step; redo anything that is imprecise before continuing."

Oh man! Why is it that something that is so fun to do the first time, is so NOT FUN to do the second time, or, god forbid, for the third time? I mean, seam ripping is not all that hard, or even that time-consuming. What is it then? The consciousness of one's own failure? The fear of failing again? The irritation of losing time and forward progress? What? This is a hobby, something we presumably enjoy doing, so why is rework so punishing? Sally says it shouldn't be. She tries her best to be accurate, but is never hard on herself when her work doesn't measure up (literally); she just rips it out and does it again (and presumably hopes for a better outcome.) She says we should not be measuring ourselves by how much we can accomplish, but by the excellence of our work. She doesn't have any easy answers, but for the perfectionists among us, her attitude certainly deserves consideration. Her serenity about her work is certainly something I could strive for. (Plus she has a really cool way of pinning to match seams that should solve all my problems!)