FT #28 - "COMING CLEAN" 

Susan, Oh my, your antique quilt top is such a treasure! I love everything about it from the wonderful fabrics (thank you for the close up) that looks so different from a distance. Love seeing the hand piecing and how some squares were made of a couple different fabrics.That one small green square in the center makes me smile. I like to imagine the person picking her fabrics and creating her lovely quilt top😊. I have done some natural dying in the past with black walnuts and other plant materials, so fun to see what colors they all produce! Thank you for sharing such great information with us again! Mary Snow and your doll quilt turned out beautiful! Congratulations on two finishes!!

Hi Susan! Congratulations on finishing Mary Snow! She looks beautiful all "cleaned" up! Thank you for sharing your technique to wash your cross stitch project after you have stitched it. I was taught to do the same thing, so the fabric could be free of all of the sizing chemicals used in the production process. It's funny that someone commented on "waste canvas" for stitching the letters on the mending sampler from your previous video. In the 90's, I used waste canvas to cross stitch a design on a t-shirt. The canvas was simply basted on top of the fabric you wanted to stitch on and when you were done, you simply wet the canvas and you could easily pull out the threads of this canvas grid that was used for making your stitches. It was fun to remember my early cross stitching days! It's so great to see you on your channel!

What an amazing quilt !! Such great information on cleaning a stitched piece. Always learning something new . Thank you for another wonderful FT.

Susan, Thank you so much for all your videos. ❤️🧵

Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge with use. We used to use waste canvas to stitch on clothing and such. 70’s 80’s?? God Bless.

Congratulations Susan on 2 years of great flosstubes. Look forward to seeing MARY SNOW finished. Where would one go to find curated 1840’s fabric?

So I have finally caught up, I started watching your channel in January, you have kept me company whilst I have redecorated my sitting room. Interesting and informative videos 😊

Hello Susan - I do know that Flax was grown in South Dakota as my Uncle grew flax every year when I was going up in the late 50’s and throughout the 60’s. But - if I remember right they grew it for the flax seed and not for linen. The seed was very soft and oily and fun to walk in - although one could easily sink in a truckload of seed and be suffocated, and therefore my Uncle never let me out of his reach when he let me walk in it. Flax has a lovely blue/lavender bloom in the spring and the sight of a big field blooming is absolutely beautiful . The flax seed was used to produce linseed oil.

Love the history of pattern

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed your video. Very good information.

Yes, flax was grown by almost every farmer until the cotton gin was common. Most farmers would grow a 1/4 of their acreage in flax. Early colonial settlers were required to grow it by law in order to reduce the colony’s reliance on England.

Your little doll quilt was amazing! Love, love the colors! And I just love how they used to use every smidgen of scraps in their quilts. Congrats to the winners on their wonderful treasures!

Brilliant! Thank you, Susan.

In an antique shop a few years ago I saw a paper pattern template that was used to teach stitching. The printed designs had needle holes (no thread left) and these were used to show the girls how to stitch, how to place the needle in the proper fabric hole. I think it was dated 1840-1850. I wish I could have bought it but it was expensive. I've seen these pattern books for sale on ebay. I don't know what girls used prior to this date other than copying what their teacher had available.

Congratulations on a beautiful finish of Mary Snow! I have never quilted and really enjoyed you showing some of the details of your antique quilt!!! Another great episode Susan!!

Another wonderful video, Susan--so full of interesting information. Congrats on finishing Mary Snow. She's beautiful and I look forward to seeing how you frame her. I can't believe it's been two years, since you started doing videos. Congrats on that milestone. Thank you for taking the time to make your videos.

Oh Susan your story about the quilt behind you is amazing. I want to collect small,pieces of fabrics now and patch them up. It’s like a crazy quilt right but tiny squares?

What a great and informitive post! I miss my mother in law, and this makes me think of her very mush. She would have loved this post plus others you’ve done. She was so smart. She would have loved to go to college but told me her father said she didn’t need college. That she was a woman and would get married. Well, she was self educated and possibly more knowledgeable than many college graduates. She loved so many things. Loved Egyptian history, British and Scottish history, geology. She started to learn how to quilt maybe when in her 50’s. She did some cross stitching, like P. Buckley Moss artwork. I don’t know who designed her artwork. I love her artwork and have some prints and also cross stitch my mother in law did of her work. My mother in law, Juanita, was born in 1923. I took pictures of your pens that you showed. I assume you do label writing with the black one? In the past, the micro pens were used. I used them but realize from your earlier episode, they are not great. I have quilts labeled with that pen. At our daughter’s wedding, guests wrote on muslin, which were surrounded with prints I used to make their wedding quilt. That won’t be overly washed probably. I’ll iron over the labels. Would that help the pen ink set? I haven’t sewn it yet. I think a popular quilter and fabric designer in the 1990’s, was Robin Pandolph. Beautiful fabric. The quilt is sewn by me by machine. Quilted by hand by two adorable Mennonite sisters when they were maybe in 80’s or early 90’s. I really appreciate your posts. You and my mother in law, Juanita, would have been fast friends! ❤️❤️❤️

Whoo hoo🤗🤗🤗. We are the lucky ones to have you in our stitch life for 2 years! Thank you! Enjoyed this video as always. I totally support your remarks about cleaning our stitched work and pre testing for color safeness. Jean Farish and I have shared conversations about this topic. I use Dawn clear dish washing liquid. A little goes a long way, but it is a terrific oil and grease remover. An excercise I used in teaching was to have a mirror on the table and have the student put her fingertips on it….needless to say the point got across, those finger prints are on your fabric and threads. Over time that oil breaks down fiber, it can accelerate color fade, it is food that will attract bugs and dust. Interesting how different thoughts and opinions are passed on; shared, like you spoke of, like a recipe, a pattern or a home remedy. Have a great weekend Susan. I am assisting in a Pineapple Log Cabin workshop at the library tomorrow. It is National Quilt month! We have 6 area libraries participating all month in the 2 nd annual Library Quilt Hop here in West Michigan. Fun🤗🌷

Sorry…newspaper was from 1827 (view my previous comment).

Hi Susan, Fantastic informative video. My question is storage of linen fabric, silk threads and our quilting fabric. If you have covered in a previous video just let me know. I have not watched all your videos yet. But my concern is the plastic we use to store a lot of our expensive supplies in. Not only totes but vinyl in project bags. I am going away from using vinyl. I have been doing some research on my own into textile preservation and adjusting my storage based on it. I would love to know your thoughts. Thanks again for making these wonderful videos. Hugs to you my friend! Teresa

Thank you for another very informative video. I was so interested to see that you washed Mary Snow! She is so beautiful! Back in the day in the 80’s and 90’s, before the advent of hand dyed floss and linen, we were told to ALWAYS wash our projects - But since I returned to cross stitch in 2019, I haven’t been washing projects. I do wash and iron my linen before I start stitching- I can’t stand the creases!

Great update video - looking forward seeing the rest of Mary Snow’s journey to framing. As usual, lovely quilt drop back.

I found your video a real treat! Beautiful finish and loved the information on your quilt top! Valuable history! Thank you!

I watched your video this morning, then found interesting-and related-info this evening while researching a local sampler. In the LeRoy Gazette (a western New York State newspaper) from 1826, a store advertised a variety of seeds for sale, including flax. I thought flax was grown around here, but there’s the proof!

What will you be stitching Hannah Lancaster on? A friend and I are planning to start together, but our start date has been fluid!😅. I will be stitching Hannah on a 40 count piece of flax? Linen using dmc. Now I have to double check on the linen colour I believe that it is the choice I made. I don’t have much choice in my stash, so that will do.

Another great informative video! I adore your doll quilt!!! I think it would be so cool to make a stitching mat based around a doll quilt. Congratulations on Mary Snow... I really appreciate you taking time to talk about your cleaning process. I used to do it quite a-lot and got away from it when I started using overdyes and hand dyed linen. Your strategy for testing is spot on... see what I did there? LOL. I love talk about old quilts. I wonder if you could talk about whether to display or not. I have one that is practically in shreds and I don't know what to do with it. I guess I should just hang it on my ladder because the damage is done. Happy stitching my friend!

Your videos are so interesting. I always learn something. I love any kind of needlework, handwork etc. I’ve been sewing for 61 years and still can’t get enough! Thank you!!

FYI Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery has a couple charts based on designs of Bernhard Jobin. He mentioned Bernhard in one of his Flosstubes (I can’t remember which one) and if one searches on Bernhard on the MFE website, the two charts are found. A bird and a lion I think. Fascinating history!

What will you be stitching Hannah Lancaster on? A friend and I are planning to start together, but our start date has been fluid!😅. I will be stitching Hannah on a 40 count piece of flax? Linen using dmc. Now I have to double check on the linen colour I believe that it is the choice I made. I don’t have much choice in my stash, so that will do.

“The fabrics of course.” Yes! It’s about the fabric and the overall look. Love the quilt. The fabrics and colors give me the warm feelings. Quilters request is the lower loft. Love it for handquilting. Here in the south the finer quilts would have carded cotton swept on the quilt back and then layered and quilted. The everyday quilts would have heavier layer of cotton. Most the utility quilts are gone as families would use the worn quilts to cover the tobacco on the way to market and would end up in threads. This of course makes me sad as I think all the old quilts should be loved but that was then and they did what they had to do. Love your lesson on cleaning fibers. Love all you share. Thank you.