assorted stuff

 

We've spent a lot of mornings picking strawberries these last two weeks.  And we've been eating  a steady diet of  and giving away pies. We've had an enormous amount of rain these past few days and more to come so I'm not sure when we can go again, but we NEED to go for Tuesday evening's dinner with friends who I promised a pie to.  I can't believe the inches of rain we've been seeing is going to be good for berries.

Something is wrong with my camera or the ability of the computer to take the photos from my camera and put them in my computer file.  I don't know yet which way to turn - the computer or the camera but something needs to be done.  I get much, much nicer shots with the camera than I do the phone. 

 

                                                           Like this for instance

 

I had a step-great grandma who lived in Kentucky.  She was born in 1865 and died just about a month short of her 101st birthday.  She was a quilter.  I have her Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and after she died my brother and sister-in-law were given four others.  They used to be smokers and the quilts hung on a quilt rack for a lot of years.  A week or so ago they gave the quilts to me.  I was, obviously, thrilled to get them.  But the smoke took its toll.  You can see how they were folded for years and smoke stained, and to be honest I couldn't have them in a room because of the stale odor. 

This really old one was particularly badly stained and the binding was just a turn over edging. 

You can see along the crease the yellowing on this one

And this one is particularly bad, too.  Well, I couldn't store them, show them or keep them folded unless I cleaned them.  Now, I'm going to tell you what I did to one of them and I am saying right now it's probably going to make you cringe but it's what I did and it worked.  No critics, please.

I took the quilt in the middle picture and worked that one first because it was smaller. I put a sheet in the bathtub.  I put the quilt on the sheet and put lukewarm water in the tub.  You could see the smoke stain leeching out like I was brewing tea.  I lifted it by the sheet's four corners, thus not putting pressure on the stitches or the fabric of the quilt with the weight of the water.  I lifted the quilt, watched the absolutely dark yellow run out.  Emptied the tub, refilled it with clean water, put the quilt back down, and it took six changes of water before the water appeared clean.  Then PH and I picked up the sheet with quilt in it, put it in a blue IKEA bag and took it outside.  I laid the sheet on the ground, straightened the quilt and let it drain.  After a few hours I took the sheet away and let the quilt stay on the grass in the shade awhile longer.  I brought it in for the night when it was barely damp and put it folded on a drying rack, laying flat.  It looks SO much better but I can't show you because I took the photos with the camera and I can't get them off the camera and onto the computer. And I can't retake a photo with the phone because it won't stop raining.  Because it hasn't stopped raining or we haven't been home long enough to work with the other quilts, I haven't taken them on yet but I will soon.  

Now, really, if this procedure made you cringe I don't want to hear it.  I did what I did the way that I did it and that's what I did.  And the quilt is much happier.