I'm sorry that I missed the September meeting, but I was not feeling well. Please forgive me!
Linda VanderKolk was nice enough to submit some notes regarding the meeting.
There was a small turnout on September 22, but it was a very productive night!
In theory there was some work done on the black and white fused composition study. Apparently no one brought the book (something we need to work on,...being organized. Personally "being organized" is against my religion!) I believe it was Cheryl who ran to pick up her copy of the book, but interest had waned by that time.
CALENDAR UPDATE: All but 2 items had been photographed. The committee will meet soon,
and order forms will be available in October. Don't forget, the more we order, I assume the
price goes down. I've been wrong before, and that has been pointed out many, many times!
I won't name names.
GRAPHIC BUTTON CHALLENGE: Due February 2009.
A bag of graphically interesting buttons was brought to the meeting. Each person selected one button. The design on the button will form the basis of the art item. Only challenge buttons may be used. (So don't get any bright ideas!) You can make anything, any size, but it must be recognizable as derived from the button. The button should be included on the art somewhere, even if it's on the back. More challenge buttons will be brought to the October Divas meeting or, if you can't wait to get started, contact Linda VanderKolk.
IDEA FOR A FUTURE CHALLENGE: Nine patch composition.
RUSTING FABRIC: There is an article in the August/September 1008 Quilting Arts Magazine written by Claire Waguespack Fenton called The Test of Time Rusting Fabric. I know there were some of you out there who were interested in Rust-Tex, etc, so thought this might be useful.
MEETINGS:
October: We hope to have a guest mystery speaker. Dorothy Larsen is working on that. Be sure to attend and bring an extra $5 to pay the speaker.
NOVEMBER: Ugly fabric exchange blocks. Everyone bring 3 different ugly fabrics,
12" x 12". These will be exchanged. A 4th fabric and a pattern for a block will be provided. The blocks will be combined into one quilt. Depending on how the quilt turns out, it could become a charity quilt, a raffle quilt, or maybe part of the Art
League's gallery display.
Also, plan to bring lots of show and tell in November.
DECEMBER: Dorothy, we need to discuss the date for this meeting, or if we will be skipping
it completely like we did last year. Ladies, the art league has their holiday sale going
on at that time and it would require meeting at a different location. With the busy
holidays, last year we skipped it (my executive decision). We'll talk.
FUTURE MEETINGS: We are hoping to arrange for at least 3 guest speakers in 2009. Your
ideas for future meetings are welcome. One idea is for the lady from Golden Products
to visit. This is a mystery to me, but it's supposed to be worth our while.
The following was a handout at the PAQA meeting. The woman had sent samples of her work for a workshop, they had been in a flood, and were cleaned by the women of that guild. This is the process that they used:
CLEANING FLOOD DAMAGED QUILTS by Debra Murphy
The information described here was collected from several places and combined to make a cleaning procedure that worked for us. Let us begin with important guidelines: wear rubber gloves when handling contaminated articles! If at all possible, try to keep the quilts damp.
It is important to get the river sludge rinsed out as soon as possible. To do this I laid the quilts out on the driveway, used the garden hose with a spray nozzle and hosed them out, many, many times with a sweeping motion, back and forth across the quilt. Hopefully you see the dirt lift out and spray away. I did turn the quilts over and spray the back clean, then rolled them to the front again to continue spraying until I felt they were as clean as I could manage.
The items MUST be bleached with just enough bleach to kill the bacteria and mold. Fill the washing machine, add the bleach. Two tablespoons bleach to a washing machine tub full of water is enough to do this and not enough to fade the quilts. The water can be cool. Agitate it for just a bit, then add the quilt. It doesn't need to run for a long time, just a few minutes, before draining the bleach water out. I rinsed the queen size quilt outside in a kiddy pool filled part way with cold water and added about 3 tablespoons bleach. I felt there was more water in the pool than the washing machine. I carefully submerged the quilt into the pool and went to work swishing and pushing it down through the water until I felt the quilt had enough bleach water through all the layers to kill the bacteria. I then took it to the washer to finish cleaning.
On one of the quilts I dipped my fingers into Tide and rubbed on the white background pieces to give them a little extra cleaning. I wanted them white again, if at all possible. And it worked!
Run a regular wash cycle and use Tide detergent. Rinse out twice. If it still seems to be a little sudsy, rinse again!
Do NOT put the quilts in the dryer. They must air dry. If you find spots that were missed, you have a better chance of removing the spots if they are not heat dried. I would try Oxy Clean on those spots and cleaned again.
If you are too busy to give the quilt attention right away - KEEP IT DAMP! Put the quilt in the freezer! Roll the quilt or item with a layer of plastic on the top surface (garbage bags will work), jelly roll style, to keep the damp fabric from toughing to help prevent any bleeding. Slide this in another bag and put in a freezer. When you have time to work on it, take out the freezer and thaw long enough to unroll and get right to the rest of the cleaning.
There was a little color running on a few items but I feel this occurred when they sat in the river water for awhile. After we bleached and cleaned, those few spots were hard to find.
I hope this helps someone. If you have a quilt that has been dried already, go ahead and try this. What have you got to loose!
