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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Fuzzy Feet

I tried to get in a quilty mood yesterday.  I was sort of between projects, so I cleaned my quilt room, putting away all the "pulled" potential fabrics for past projects, rulers, cutters, etc.  I am never surprised by how disorganized things get, but it is fairly easy to straighten back up again.  Then I looked through the pile of UnStarted Projects and a few that I have underway and am just taking a break from, but nothing could interest me?!  What?  I hate when that happens.  It seems I really need a sharp "hook" to get me into a project these days and sometimes, nothing is fishing and other times there is so much I want to do that I just spin around until I settle on something.  It is so strange, I've never been like this before.  

I finally decided to layer a quilt to get ready to machine quilt it.  I use Sullivan's basting spray and I do it in the garage.  We had a storm moving in so it was a bit cooler than usual.  So I backed my car out of the garage, swept and then mopped the floor.  I always wonder what my neighbors might think of me when they see me mopping my garage floor!  I'm sure they think I'm some sort of neat freak or something...
Once the floor was ready, I donned my husband's Craftsman knee pads (I wonder if my nephews considered this use when they gave them to him for Christmas one year?) and started taping the backing down.  I've done this process many times, so it didn't take too long.  Once fastened down, I spread the batting out on top--just how I want it to be.  Then I fold back half of the batting, revealing the backing, and lightly spray the backing with the Sullivan's (after shaking it as per the directions).  I let it get tacky for a few minutes, then pick up the batting and "unfold" it back into place, ensuring first that it is back where I wanted it, with no creases.  You have forgiveness if you need to peel it back up to move it into place.  Then I pat it down firmly all over.  Next I repeat with the other half of the batting.  I repeat the whole process with the top of the quilt--placing it on top of the batting and pulling back and spraying half of the quilt at a time.  I always spray the "lower layer", never the "folded back" layer.  The problem with this technique is that the larger edges of the backing and batting will be a bit sticky, but I fold the edges over onto themselves, so it doesn't bother me.  Then I let it dry flat for a few hours.  I'm not sure if that is required, but I like to make sure.

Even though it was a bit cooler, it was still pretty stuffy in the garage.  I had taken off my shoes to make crawling around easier, plus I step on the quilt in the process of layering it.  What I didn't realize is I must have stepped in some "overspray."  After layering the quilt, I had to go across the street for a meeting.  I got home and slipped off my shoes and my feet felt "funny."  I looked at the bottoms and goodness! they were fuzzy!!  I think there was almost a quarter inch of carpet fiber, hair, etc. on the bottoms of my feet, stuck to the adhesive!  That has never happened before!  I went to the bath tap to wash them off, but the glue didn't want to come off, so finally, I had to lotion them up to grease up the glue and break the adhesiveness. 

I have two more quilts to layer today, since the floor is still clean, so hopefully I won't have fuzzy feet tonight! 

1 comment:

  1. i think a picture of your fuzzy feet would have been appropriate! that stuff is seriously sticky ... i've gotten it on my floor before and had to use clorox clean-up to get it off.

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