Who Doesn't Love Magic?

First, I want to say that I have not been paid to write this.  I know this with all certainty because there is no money in my bank account, my wallet, my pocket, or any other unmentionable places I can think of.  And believe me, I have checked.  With that caveat, I want to say that I think Oxi-Magic is the best thing to come along since cats.

Last night I started putting the crystals on my "Winter Wonderland" quilt (which, by the way, will be revealed during the Christmas Quilt Festival at the end of the month).

Here's what happened.  The Winter Wonderland quilt, as you may or may not know, is blue and white.  Lots of white.  Snow white.  I was putting crystals on some of the snowflakes using my mini craft iron. 

(This is the only useful purpose for the mini craft iron as far as I can tell--and its usefulness for this purpose is about to be called into question.)  I have used the mini craft iron many times for putting crystals on a quilt.  So I had it set on high, and I was working merrily away on the crystals from left to right on the quilt.  When I got to the right side, I placed the iron against the fabric and the crystal, and counted for six seconds, as I've done at least fifty times before.  This time, however, the iron was too hot and it scorched the fabric.  It was about this time that I exclaimed, "Crap!!"  And it was about this time that I noticed what looked suspiciously like chocolate in one of the other white patches.  (I'm not in the habit of eating chocolate or drinking red wine while working with white, and so I have no idea how it got there.  George, maybe.  I have been known to eat chocolate and drink red wine at other times, however.)

So this was more than mildly disturbing, but what's a quilter to do?  What was done, was done.  I turned down the heat on the mini-iron to medium, and then continued on with the crystals.  I began to wonder, however, what would a little dab of Oxi-Magic do?  I consulted the house chemist/engineer/all-other-things-I-want-to-know-expert, Mike, and asked him if he thought Oxi-Magic would take it out.  Having only just the night before removed a stain from his own rugby shirt, he allowed as how he thought it might work.  He suggested pouring a little into a small dish and dabbing it on with a Q-Tip (which is another one of the more useful inventions of all time).  So I tried it.

It was hard to tell at first because the fabric was noticeably wet where said dabbing had occurred.  But when I returned about an hour later, the dark triangular scorch mark and the suspiciously chocolate-in-appearance stain had disappeared.  It's magic, I'm telling you.  It's magic in the same way that FAX machines are magic.  (That gives you some idea where my brain gave up on trying to figure out "new" technology.)

So today, I'm a much happier camper, even if yesterday's flu shot did make me feel crummy.  It's not as bad as the flu, however, and so I'm still glad I got the shot.

Now . . . aside from putting crystals on my quilt yesterday, I also made a swap block for my monthly swap block partner.  My partner this month asked for a bright star on a cream or white background.  This is what I came up with.  It's called a "Spinning Star."  (I just love knowing the names of blocks.)

You may recognize these fabrics from the "Sunshine on my Shoulders" quilt I just finished.  (Don't you love it when you can use scraps?)  I hope my swap partner likes it.

If you follow the Quilting Board, then you know that they just changed the user interface, and oh my.  What a lot of unhappy users, including me.  It is not at all intuitive as the old board was, and there is no "help" other than the blind leading the blind.  I asked about adding a help feature and I was told that it would have to be built from the ground up.  This seemed more than a little bass-ackwards to me . . . putting up a new interface before building the help . . . but that's just me.  I only mention it because my November Doll Quilt partner seems to have given up within the first hour of the new board, and so I have no swap partner for my November Doll Quilt.  Oh well.  It's not as if I don't have enough to do.  Still, I had lots of ideas for the November Doll Quilt, and now they'll just fill my head and spill out of my ears.  If you happen to be walking around downtown Portland and notice an idea for a doll quilt lying on the ground, you'll know where it came from.