1/14/18

A Night on the Town

We arrived in Tallahassee just about lunch time yesterday...lunch time, which was an hour later for us. We drove back into Eastern Time on our journey. Looks like we're not done with it yet.


Sorry for the blur...sometimes I can get those signs in sharp focus...sometimes not. And you gotta shoot quick, so you only get one chance. The kitties are bummed this RV park isn't a better walking around and window hunting place. We keep telling them we're just here for a couple of nights and then we'll move on to greener pastures.


As fast as Mike could get the hose hooked up, I started doing laundry. It takes a lot of loads with our small washer, and I'm tempted to take the jeans to the park laundry to do those. It would save some time and some wrinkles...on the jeans, I mean.

Mike had to go fill up with diesel and wash the truck after our journey down Mud Road the other day. While he was gone, I finished up the third of the Snow Globes blocks. These are small blocks, and so they stitch up fast. I was in a particular hurry to finish this one because my tracing onto fabric was so light. Some part of me thought the lines would disappear altogether if I didn't get them covered in floss quickly.


It seems I should correct a misunderstanding from my last post (I think) about my misgivings regarding Frixion pens. My misgivings aren't about the pens, or having the ink come back in the cold, or anything like that. There is a question in my mind about whether the ink is safe for fabric in the long term, but it isn't anything I'm going to lose sleep about.

My real concern comes from my use of iron-on stabilizer on the backs of my pieces. The stabilizer prevents stray threads from showing through to the front. I'm not ashamed to say that am a messy embroiderer...my backs don't look like my fronts...not even close, and so I need to back them with something. Often, I'll use muslin and 505 basting spray. I've also used Pellon SF-101 Stay-Flex, which is used for making t-shirt quilts. That is also an iron-on product. For this piece, I'm using the stabilizer I use most often, Pellon 931TD.

So, knowing that my stabilizer is iron-on, do you see the problem? I first have to trace the design onto the fabric, then fuse the stabilizer to the back. The problem is that once I touch a hot iron to the fabric, the tracing lines are going to disappear. The solution I've come up with for this is to simply iron around the design to fuse the stabilizer to the outer edges of the background fabric. I'll leave the part under the design loose. Once it's hooped and I start stitching, it won't really matter. That should work, but I won't know until I try it.

For now, I'm moving onto my next piece, and the Pigma Micron pen works just fine on this fabric. The next piece is the third block for the Heart & Home quilt. This one is called "A,B,C's."


As soon as I finish here, I'll get a start on it. These take a little longer than the ones I've been working on for the past week or so.

Have you noticed the pace has slowed down significantly over the past week? We're here in Tallahassee for one more night, and then we'll move south to Ochlockonee River State Park for a bit. Last night we went on a date! We wanted to see the new movie "The Post" with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep and a host of other well-known stars. First, we went out for dinner. We were in the mood for Thai, and this seemed a likely place. What do you think?


After that, we saw the movie, and it was so good! I highly recommend it. It's a very interesting story based on real events...and fairly timely, given the state of things here in the USA.

Today we're going to visit The Tallahassee Automobile and Collectibles Museum which is walking distance from the RV park. We're told we can see a Tucker there, and also, three Batmobiles. Now don't you know there's someone in our party of two who will enjoy that? And then there's laundry...plenty of laundry. It's a pretty good agenda, and still pretty slow.

12 comments:

Shirley said...

Hi Barbara, I’ve got a solution for the disappearing lines of the Friction pen, just put the fabric (covered with cling foil to protect it from moist) in the freezer and the lines will reappear. It takes just a few minutes, I’ve test-tried it with a cool pack wrapped around the fabric. And if you don’t have a freezer and there’s no snow or night frost, you might take it along with you to the supermarket and use their freezer. I love your stories, they’re the first I read at breakfast. Love Shirley

Kate said...

I love your snow globe stitcheries. Those are so pretty. Hope you get to do your sight seeing today. I had heard the Florida was in for more cold and wet. Hopefully you are in the part of the state where it's warmer.

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

Ahh--my poor fur babies--you will just have to have a 'play date' with them to keep them entertained!!! I only use pencil--mechanical ones from Bic with the white erasers--to trace all my embroidery patterns--then if I draw a line wrong or too wiggly, I can easily erase it--and the thread that I am using to embroider the design up covers the pencil markings well--if now--just erase it --that is why I make sure the erasers are white--and the pencil markings do not smear as you are stitching on the cloth( the colored erasers leave a bit of the color on the cloth--also make sure to clean the eraser head before using it so you don't smear the cloth with old lead --) I have never used the frixion pens--I don't trust them--at all!! this is my story and I am sticking to it!!
enjoy your outing today--di

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I had wondered about the frixion pens and the need to iron your stabalizer. I worry about the ink return as well as how it will later affect the fabrics and threads - so I don't use them. Heck, I still use my gr. gran's method of marking with a sliver of soap - such an old poop!

quiltzyx said...

Sara & were talking about The Post last night & wanting to see it. We'd also both like to see The Greatest Showman. Glad you had a good Date Night!

WoolenSails said...

Sounds like a nice night, we haven't done a date in ? years, lol. IN the beginning we went out, but with my diet, not worth it, so usually just for our anniversary. Hoping your weather is nice down there, we have rain and light snow coming in again.

Debbie

piecefulwendy said...

You're the first I've heard that has seen the movie. I'm curious about it, since it keeps popping up on my IG feed (which is annoying). I hope you do get to see a Tucker, a pretty cool old gem. As to the laundry, well, it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it! Enjoy your day!

Auntiepatch said...

So, I'm almost afraid to ask..........how was the Thai food?

VickiT said...

That must be tough on the body to zig zag between time zones like you did. LOL

I'll be anxious to see your report of the museum. There is an auto museum a very short distance from my home. Believe it or not; first, I only learned of this about 4-5 yrs ago, and second, I still have never been there. There are a lot of vehicles there as well, and clothing and actual furniture from the White House. There are some very interesting exhibits and many can be seen on their website, but I'd assume they will have much more than what is shown on the website. They too have a Batman, and a lot of other Movie vehicles. Check their website out here and you can compare to what you saw at the museum you're visiting.
http://www.historicautoattractions.com/m/exhibits.asp

Robin said...

I iron on my lightweight fusible interfacing then copy my designs. If I'm copying through a sunny window, lightbox or sometimes just on the table-it works for me.

Robin said...

I iron on my lightweight visible interfacing then copy my design. I've never had a problem.

Brown Family said...

I have thought about suing Frixion pens, but have the same issue as you have! I will be glad to see how ironing the edges works. Tonight, I could take the piece outside and the lines would reappear. it is down to 13 now and it is not the coldest part of the night. It is colder here than it is in Anchorage!