Stabilisers, Glue and all sorts of STUFF!

I just opened a couple of drawers in my sewing room, and they are stuffed full of 'stuff''! It's stuff I have bought, or been given by generous and well meaning friends and it all LOOKS the same - like paper or vilene or plastic, but all white and generally fibrous. So what is it all and what does it do? 

Well it seems to fall into four categories: 

• Things you use to strengthen or support fabric

This includes vilene in various thicknesses, which stays in place in the finished article, and can be a real boost for applique shapes, especially if you don't want to quilt over them, as they will be quite stiff. Stitch and Tear is a more paper-like product that also supports fabric, but is removed after sewing, leaving fabric unadulterated.

Also in this category is freezer paper. Ideal for a range of jobs, but my main use is as a template, to cut out shapes that can't be done easily with a rotary cutter, especially for art quilt projects. As well as conventional freezer paper I have some 'Heat Seal Paper' This works just the same as freezer paper in the sense that it has a heat activated glue on one side allowing you to iron it on to fabric temporarily, and peel it off when you have finished, but it is very much thinner, so you can trace designs onto it and also sew through it. I have used it to print quick piecing templates on for sewing and cutting basic patchwork pieces:     Click HERE to see how I did this 

• Things that dissolve, or 'disappear' 

I love using dissolvables - whether it's a thread that washes away so I don't have to unpick it, or as a stabiliser, or for transferring a pattern - so I'm going to do the next blog all about that.

• Things that you apply to the fabric surface to make it look good

This is a heap of stuff like angelina, or embossing metallics etc - mostly given to me but not really my style. There's also some tyvek envelopes I've squirrelled away but never used.....

• Things that stick to other things

This is mostly transfer adhesives - bondaweb and heat'n'bond for example, and also steam-a-seam, misty fuse and meltable thread. They are all heat activated glues but each one has different characteristics.

Alongside all this are various things that protect my iron and ironing board when I'm working - such as teflon sheets and silicon kitchen paper.

The trouble is lots of the things look the same....how do I distinguish between dissolvable paper and steam a seam? Ok, testing with water now.....

All Change in a couple of Weeks

Turn your back for a couple of weeks and the bluebells have been and gone and the bracken has taken over.

 

Foxgloves also in full bloom:

 

 

This upturned tree root caught my eye, although Jess's eye was only caught by rabbits, real or imaginary, which led her a merry dance through the undergrowth. 

And here are the wood anemones from last time:



Violet Time

Just a quick local walk along the Coach Path to Fatherford, and up the East Ockment Valley with Jess, reveals the violets are now in bloom, and the wood anemones are growing everywhere, even along this fallen tree trunk.

 

 

You may well ask 'where are the anemones?' I will take a close up and post next time . Meantime feast your eyes on these lovely trees...........

 

........and the massive rocks in the East Ockment which are a favourite picnic site in summer, but a raging torrent after heavy rain.

 

Eclipse

Eclipse, what eclipse?

Marvin, totally unimpressed by the unfolding astronomical event, had to wait while Jess was chased by a pony hardly bigger than her. Fortunately it gave up while all her bones were still intact.

Our walk took us up on to East Hill, just south of Okehampton, an area of open access land, which promised a good view, or rather experience, of the eclipse, since I did not have the requisite glasses or pin hole camera to view it. A brief period of grey light was pretty much the whole of it, so we headed back down the hill. The bracken had all been cleared  leaving large areas of rough ground littered with those delights for dogs, rabbit droppings, sheep poo....

We came across this holly tree, surrounded on three sides with such high and dense gorse it looked more like a cave. The dense gorse prevents much  growing underneath, leaving a forest of woody stems. The view across the town was great though.

 

 

Here's a design from the gorse stems: