Quilty Goodies

First of all, I am happy to report success with removing these dark thick pencil lines from the "heritage" quilt I am finishing for my sister-in-law. Her grandmother was a hand quilter, and apparently planned to quilt these roses and leaves in the two largest white areas on the quilt. Not only is this not exactly a machine-quilting pattern, but the lines were thick, dark, and smudged, and the stencil did not fill the huge block space.

Many thanks to those who contacted me with pencil removal ideas. I started with Suzanne Kistler's recipe that she located in an old guild newsletter.

3 ounces rubbing alcohol
1 ounce water
4 DROPS liquid dish washing soap (Bette Beebe used Palmolive)

Directions: Dip a CLEAN toothbrush in the solution and brush onto the fabric. Blot dry.

After using up two recipes worth, the marks were indeed faded to a very light silvery gray. Then I decided to try my Old Faithful stain remover, Sew Clean, which is a citrus-based all-purpose cleaner. I sprayed LOTS of it on, brushed a little more, and the marks were totally gone when it dried! Yippee, a blank canvas!

I heard about Sew Clean from one of the Pam Clarke long-arm quilting videos. She uses it to remove any excess chalk dust when using the Pounce stencil powder. I have never seen it in the stores, but you can order it from Pam's website .

Now. on to the quilty goodies...

You may recall that I entered a quilt in Sew Cal Gal's Virtual Christmas Quilt Show, and won a lovely door prize from Cozy Quilt Shop in El Cajon, California. Well, that's not all I won. In fact, it is almost an embarrassment of riches!

I received a lovely big package from Sew Cal Gal herself, loaded with nice prizes!

I have been buying myself a Quilting Arts calendar for about the last ten years, but this year I gave my copy to a bee member for our Christmas gift exchange. I am so happy to have one included in this prize package! Lots of yummy fruits and other "fresh-picked" quilts.

A beautiful selection of "quilty" stationery...
and an adorable pink purse...

an embroidered muslin towel...

a selection of 2010 one-page calendars with quilt designs...

and four yards of fabric! I can see these being turned into more charity quilts for my guild...or perhaps something cute for my little granddaughter!

Many thanks to Sew Cal Gal for sponsoring the fun event, and for all the great stuff!

Gingerbread House Quilt

I decided it was time to take a break from my Christmas party tasks today, and join in the fun of the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show from Sew Cal Gal's blog. I have made quite a few Christmas quilts over the years, but will share a special one for this post.

Back in the nineties, I was the lucky winner of the December Block Party blocks at the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh. The pattern was a simple house with a chimney design, that we were encouraged to embellish as desired.

They were all really cute!

If you glance to the left upper sky section, you will see Santa and his sleigh...

How about a candy house? Lots going on here!
One of my favorites...Santa's boot is just disappearing down the chimney. And I love the lace work to make the gingerbread trim!

My own house block was plain and simple...

Not this one...lots going on in this candy house!

I put all the houses in a nine-patch design, and bordered them with Gingerbread Men from a Debbie Mumm design. Many of the ginger people were embellished with trinkets or fused novelty fabrics that represented our hobbies and interests.

I was teaching elementary school at the time...

I love flowers and gardening...

And my husband had just gotten his Private Pilot's license.

There is a little quilter girl holding scissors and a quilt block next to the house block that I made.

This was so much fun to embellish! Now the grandkids want to know which one is "them." Hmm, I need to add one eating fruit loops and another wearing a pink dress. And a few eyes need to be tacked back down. But this little wall quilt still has a strong appeal to me!