Five Things Friday #1

Amanda at Gypsy Moon Quilts opened up her Friday theme of Five Things to be happy about last week. This week I’m joining up as well.

The shire government in my area is running an Instagram contest with cash prizes at the moment (photos with the most likes win – not a hint or anything but instagram love is always gratefully received), so I’ve been out and about snapping photos. Here’s a select few.

Afternoon sun through the vine leaves. It’s just ticked over into winter here; I love the backlit autumn leaves.

There’s a railway history in this area, in fact the suburb I work in was named for the Midland Railway company not vice versa as you may imagine. Back in the ‘90s the railway workshops closed down and since then there’s been a project on to redevelop the area. As a nod to this history there are a number of these metal figures dotted around that represent the workers.

And there’s also a very vibrant organised youth centre that obviously contain some talented graffiti artists because there’s a big number of these graffiti walls in town. This one sits on the back of the parcel sorting depot.

I needed a laugh by the end of last week and this provided it. The automatic door at work malfunctioned and so a post it note was left on it…

And someone obliged J

How to Hang a Quilt on an Outdoor Wall

Ever wondered how to hang a quilt on an outdoor wall? Then wonder no more, have I got the tip for you! This is what I use

It’s heavy duty stick on Velcro that I bought from my local Bunnings store* (our local hardware warehouse) for an odd job round the house (try down the back near the nails and screws). I’d tried several different tapes without success but I was wary of this; would it stick too strongly I wondered? Anyway, I gave it a test with a mini quilt… and it worked!

Time for the next test, would it hold a larger quilt? This one is 45 by 62 inches and I tested it on the wall of my house. If it will stick to this wall it will stick to anything, the bricks are very rough and gritty in a kind of rustic faux-handmade way. And it worked! There were only 3 squarish pieces of Velcro used along the top and that’s all! Happy dance!!!! 

I feel confident that you could hang even larger quilts using this stuff if you use enough of it and I intend to try it out. In the interests of faster test results though, if you do try it on a larger quilt let me know if it was successful. I’ll be glad to update and add any extra information you can provide.

The absolute best thing for the shy quilt photographer is that you can prep before you head out to your perfect photo spot. And it’s re-usable. Mostly. I did have some trouble getting the release sheet off the sticky stuff on some the second time round. For” trouble” read “couldn’t get it off at all”.

A couple of extra bits in the bottom corners will save you from the dreaded wind factor.

That’s the end of my tips and I look forward to hearing any you can add. Happy snapping!

*I have a feeling I may have seen something like it at Spotlight, the giant haberdashery, fabric, Manchester all–round craft supplies warehouse here in Australia. You could try somewhere like that too.

FAQS ANSWERED

·         Will it take off paint?

I haven’t had any trouble with it on the walls I’ve used, I haven’t been very game in my experimentation though. I’ve thought it through in terms of the strength of the bond the paint would have with the surface. For example, brick, because it is porous, will have a stronger bond with the paint than metal. I’m not game to try it on painted metal unless it has been industrially coated nor on my painted plaster internal walls. If you’re unsure it would be worth trying it in an inconspicuous area.

·         Does it leave a residue?

The reason I have this product in my house in the first place is that it’s used to attach pelmets to the tops of my venetian blinds (professional installation not dodgy diy ;-) ). One pelmet gets knocked a fair bit and the Velcro needs replacing every 4 years or so. It leaves a residue on the metal surface after this length of time but over short periods there’s no problem.

·         Does it damage the fabric?

Not at all. I was a bit worried that it might but there was no sign of any roughing up or anything.

·         Is this the right stuff?

Packaging varies around the world. Amanda from This Mom Quilts has kindly let me use her photo of what it looks like in the North American market.

Plus: A Pincushion

I noticed recently that my pins were getting blunt and you know what happens then – you put it back in the pin container and pick up a new sharper one. And then the next pin you pick up is that same pesky blunt one you picked up before. So blunt pins – is there a way to sharpen them? Off to ask Google.

There are pincushions about that are filled with metal filings that will sharpen your pins and I found a tutorial to make a pin sharpening pincushion using steel wool. Problem was I couldn’t find any steel wool without soap. The next best option seemed to be to use crushed walnut shells as a filling. Internet wisdom is that you can buy this at pet shops but no pet shop near here had any and seemed surprised to be asked. Back to Google and a search on-line settling on Aussie BBQ Smoke. I’m now the proud owner of a 1kg bag of crushed walnut shells!

Did you know that Perth is the third windiest capital city in the world? So says Life on Perth anyway. And wind means dust, especially in summer, so a pincushion needs to be washable. I decided to make a pincushion insert, just like a normal everyday cushion insert with a couple of interchangeable covers. I made two covers from the scraps of the Bravery Plus quilt, using an envelope back to keep it simple. And do they sharpen pins? So far so good. J

Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday