Feline Friday and The REAL Studio Tour#1

Sew don't tell but Momma almost forgot TRST started today. Ackckck! For anyone that is new here, WELCOME!! Today is Feline Friday and my name is Midgie - I'll be your host today. Be sure to come back every Friday to see what my sissy, half-brother and I are up to.

Today is the first installment of  The REAL Studio Tour being hosted by Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber. Vicki was a little dismayed by the way magazines always portray studios and wondered how/if people actually work in them. They were always spotless in the magazines and didn't look the least bit used so Vicki wanted to see our real, used (really used?!) studios and planned a three week tour for December.

Now let me tell you, Momma really uses her studio and I've had to climb my way over some pretty big piles in order to beg for snackies. Recently tho she's been picking up. She knows she wasn't supposed to pick up for this tour but when she is gonna host a party in just 2 more days, she kinda had to. Don't worry tho, knowing Momma, when she gets back in to sewing (10 minutes after the party is over!) it will be messy again just in time for the final studio tour post.

Without further delay...Today's theme is a favorite non-traditional tool. Ever the indecisive, Momma had some problems with this one but I think she came up with some goodies.

This is Momma's ironing board - it's really plywood covered in batting, that silvery stuff and green duck cloth, providing a nice firm ironing surface. You can tell by how dirty it is that she uses it all the time. It's about the only place I am not allowed to sit at the cutting table cuz it stays hot. Well yeah, I know that!
You can also see Momma uses a water bottle and funnel to fill the iron so no spilling!
What is hard to see in the background are the 2 jars of candy. That girl likes her choco!

This cute birdie thing holds 10 antique thimbles. You might say that these are quilting related but not really for the way that Momma uses them. When she has to count lots of Bonnie's mysterious parts she sets one thimble on the shelf for every 10 pieces. She lays a thimble on it's side for 5 if she has to stop and feed me or something.

As some of you might just be aware, Momma likes her hexies.
Not sure what she likes more, hexies or choco. I'm serious!!
This box of micro-binder clips from the office department at WallyWorld holds her fabric to the papers and makes it easier to stitch or even stop if she has to give me more snackies.
The bigger binder clip is usually clipped to the end of a stack of fabric strips to make it easier to pull the stack away from the mysterious subcut pieces. Kinda silly to me but it makes Momma happy.

Momma's last favorite tool is kinda her library card. See the stack of audiobooks next to her stereo? She listens to books while she quilts. Something about 2 birdies with 1 stone but I haven't seen any birdies other than that birdie thing with the thimbles. Come to think of it, no stones either.

Now then, get ye over to The REAL Studio Tour and check out every else's fav non-traditional tools but then don't forget to get ye back HERE to link up your favorite felines.




Momma here - Midgie didn't mention that she and her sister are my favorite tools for keeping me company in my studio :^)

Iron versus hard water

I like my iron a lot - it's a GE that I picked up at Walmart a couple years ago. The black looks nice, it's got some heft to it, there are a lot of steam vents (yeh, send in the quilt police) and the 6 foot cord is quite helpful at times. It does have auto shutoff but it heats up so quickly that I don't care and it's nice to know that if I get sidetracked elsewhere that it WILL shut off on it's own.

Unfortunately, the water here is very hard. The directions that came with the iron said to alternate distilled and tap water. I did for the longest time but there were some calcium deposits that would come out the steam vents when I shook the iron or pressed the extra steam button. I could deal but decided to just use distilled for a while to see if it helped.

Last night I ran out of distilled, needed my steam and filled it with tap water. It had just turned off so I pressed the power button to reheat it and all the sudden I heard steam while I watched water and brown gunk/calcium dribbling out the bottom steam vents. It made a mess of my iron board cover but it also made a mess of the sole plate. Any ideas how to clean the calcium out? Vinegar works on other items but what about in an iron? Anyone else have problems with hard water? I would love to hear what you do...