Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!  Happy Birthday to Me!  Imagine this being sung...

Several years ago member Linda Zimmerman suggested that, instead of all of us bringing our usual fat quarters for our birthday remembrances, we celebrate the way they do in Spain (I think it was Spain).  We each bring the others gifts for our own birthdays.

The winning point about this scheme is that one only has to remember one birthday, your own.  Should be pretty simple, right...then we never forget ;^).

The end of this month is my birthday, and, as the meeting was at my house today, I gave everyone my birthday gift to them today.  What fun!

Picture here are Janine Anderson-Bays, Robin Wolek, Gail Kotowski, Yvette Howard, Ruth Anne Olson and Carol Ludington in their vintage kimonos.  They each got to choose one from the stack.  I fell heir to them this past year and saved them for this occasion.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Using Press-Away Topping - Unorthodox Instructions

Quite some time ago, I had prepared a bottom layer of cheese cloth on which I had placed ribbons, threads, roving and small pieces of fabric.  To protect this delicate item until I could quilt it,  I placed it between two styrofoam boards.  I did not want to heavily quilt such a small piece, as I wished to preserve its delicate, lacy and airy look.  Further, the piece needed to retain its vibrant colors which a tulle cover might ruin.  So I had purchased some Press-Away Topping to achieve all these goals.  I felt this product would prevent the whole project from finding its way into the bobbin case when I would start quilting it and keep it bright and light.

With the new year came the desire to finish this quilt.  So I carefully flipped my little project onto a piece of Press-Away Topping to be used on the bottom of the piece. Then I added another piece on top and started to quilt my piece.  

The instructions for the Press-Away Topping suggest using only one layer on top of a project.  I was a little bit concerned about how I would get rid of my two layers of topping.  And it was a challenge to remove all the gunk ... but in the end, I used boiling water over the whole thing. This helped remove a lot of the topping and then I used the iron to get rid of the rest (No such thing as a dry iron as the instructions recommend, as everything was wet through.)  

In the process I gained a special effect on one side (melted ribbon,) which I tried to duplicate in a controlled manner on the other side, without success.  

Now you can't tell what all this little quilt had to go through to survive, and I just love it.  Hope you will too!