Creative Homemaker

As a professional longarm quilter, in my opinion, it is my duty to make you look good.  I've discussed this with several longarmers.  They complain incessantly about how this client brought a quilt that has loose ends, threads, or a bit of animal fuzz.  I look at it this way; your bit of lint, or thread isn't any worse than my studio. We have a dog.  He's not a dirty dog by any means, but he does shed.  I use my lint roller constantly to remove fuzz from any quilt that get's quilted at Mary's Custom Quilting.  Loading your quilt on my Tin Lizzie is my job.  Getting the edges straight is my job.  Rolling the lint roller over your quilt to remove loose threads and lint is my job! And I'm darn good at it.  Most of my customers are extremely tidy, and seams are pressed the correct way.  One quilter even presses them all open so there is no bulk at the seams.  Her quilts are a joy to finish! But honestly, if pressin...

My cousin asked me today if people still really do this, well, yes, I still do. My hubby regularly rips holes in knees and so do my four boys.  Buying new jeans is just not an option for us. I have even been known to pick some up at the thrift store and repair them as well.  Boys size 10-12 jeans are hard to come by so I'll take what I can get.   Here's a little tutorial on how I accomplish this task without the use of those yucky iron-on patches. First of all, I keep any lower pant legs that I cut off from making denim shorts out of the "too-bad-to-mend" pairs.  This is my "patch" material. Step one: Open up the leg seam about 8 inches past the seam on both sides.  Give yourself plenty of room to get into the leg area. Step two: Cut your patch about 1-2 inches bigger than the size of the hole. Make it a nice square or rectangle in proportion with the hole. Step three: Turn your pant leg inside out and stick a large ruler inside or a p...