See you next year !

©2009 Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved (I just had to do that, one last time ; )

In preparation for shooting the video for the 2010 Online West of Baltimore Block of the Month, I thought it might be a good idea to prewash my Cherrywood Hand-dyes.

The West of Baltimore was made completely with Cherrywood fabrics on Kona Black solid.

Cherrywood dyed fabric is the most sumptuous fabric I know of — the finish looks like suede and the “hand” of the fabric is great to work with, whether you’re doing pieced work or applique.

I recently made a large quilt with Cherrywoods that I didn’t even think to prewash – now I’m concerned. The instructions that come with the fabric clearly state that they recommend prewashing… so why didn’t I listen? (Probably had some other not-so-important stuff rattling around in my head)

Ok, so I divided the fabrics by color and by lightness/darkness, found the bottle of Synthrapol and a measuring teaspoon and headed for the washer. Luckily, I had a box of Color Catchers – little washer sheets that trap the excess dye in the water so it doesn’t migrate to other fabrics. These were made for laundry loads, but leave it to us creative types to find other uses for these nifty sheets!

Here is a photo of fabrics that just came out of the dryer and have the Color Catcher sheets on top of the piles:

The light green sheet almost looks white with the other colors, but can you find the rust one? It’s so dark that it blends in with the fabrics — that were primarily orange and peach, so the darker Rust is the one that released the dye the most.

That’s what Synthrapol does — it releases excess dye, while Retayne keeps the fabric from releasing more dye. Synthrapol didn’t lighten any of the colors of my beautiful Cherrywoods, by the way.

Here is a photo of the Color Catchers after the prewash loads were done:

Aren’t the colors vivid?!

I’m going to keep these and cut them up to use for little art quilts and doing collage books. They are a fiber (of some kind) and they are STRONG. I think they’ll cut into shapes beautifully. I can iron them, stitch on them — probably stamp on them, and they’ll be good.

Now I wish I had kept all of the Color Catchers that I have used in the past – I’d have a pretty good stash of them now. If I had thought about keeping them when I finished my first batch, I would have thrown in 2 sheets!

Here’s the deal though, our printed and solid fabrics don’t bleed like they used to when I first started quilting. Usually, my Color Catcher sheet comes out of the washer as white as it went in! But I have this one RED blouse that rubs red onto my underclothing no matter how many times it’s washed.

I’m going to pay attention in the future with the Color Catchers… who knows, I think I’ve created a new stash.  …don’t tell my husband!…

©2009  Annie Smith  All Rights Reserved

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Running time: 00:18:25 Size: 17 MB

In this episode:

Product Reviews

Websites to visit

3 Tips for better quilting

Holiday Craft workshop in the Quilting Stash Classroom

Visit Ricky Tims’ Christmas in a Small Town to share your Christmas memories and find out more about the CD. Make sure to look at the video of Ricky at 21 months old, coveting his cousin’s piano — it’s priceless!

Christmas in the BIG Apple — if you’re going to New York for Christmas, make sure to wander to Times Square to see the gigantic quilts on the Astrovision screen – 28′ x 38′ – in all of their quilty splendor. Thanks to The City Quilter whose quilts are displayed. And don’t miss the opportunity to visit that faboo store while you’re there, but not on Mondays, when they’re closed.

The current issue of Quilter’s Home magazine (January 2010) has an article by me, “Ditch the Fear” about the fears that are so common with quilting.

Marie Bostwick — sequel to her short story “A High-kicking Christmas”, can be foudn in Fern Michael’s new book, “Snow Angels”.

Champlain Valley Quilt Guild website

A visit with Noah

and an interview update coming soon!  (Yes, that is a miniature paper-pieced quilt with Noah’s prize ribbons!)

Speaking of small, Priscilla decided that she wanted to make her Fabric Choices blocks (usually 12″) in miniature, paper-pieced — which was a REAL challenge, but she did it:

Quilting Gallery has a cook book for quilters of quick and easy recipes so we can get back to quilting.

There’s a brand new online quilt shop, created by a mom and daughter, Kathy and Jo Thomas — Suppose Quilt Boutique.

Meet the newest member of the Smith family:

Aren’t they beautiful? And doesn’t Karen look great after the delivery?!

Last but not least, because you were a part of it:

Eagle Scout Candidate, Robin, delivering quilts to the Pediatrics department at the community hospital. (These are only a portion – 75 quilts were delivered, they couldn’t hold them all ; )

Thank you SO much for your contributions that made Robin’s project happen!!!

Look for me on Facebook — QuiltingStash, not Annie Smith.

Happy Quilting — and Ho Ho Ho!

©2009  Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let you know that the classes for the first quarter of 2010 are now posted.

The Holiday Craft Workshop is also now available online. Please come and check it out by clicking HERE.

Check back in tomorrow for a new Podcast/Vidcast episode (#179!!)

Happy Quilting!

Annie