Cleaning your cutting mat, Quilting Retreat and Fabric sales!!

It's officially summer and schools are officially out!! What a perfect time of the year to come down and visit this adorable village of Pawling! The Farmer's Market has begun on Saturday Mornings down by the train tracks and will continue through the middle of September.  I personally look forward to picking up some fresh produce on Saturday mornings.

Now that school is out the library is also apparently a very popular place to be.  Carter and I go to Story Time every Thursday morning at the Pawling library and have never had a problem signing up, until now.  Turns out the toddler sessions are all full and we have been put on the wait list. This does make us sad, but I may sneak down there on Thursdays mornings and see if Ms. Karen will let us in if some of the children don't show up.  Fingers crossed!!

My mother-in-law came for a visit the end of May to help celebrate Carter's 2nd birthday party.  We live in a ranch style home and we have 2 bedrooms on the north side and 2 bedrooms on the south side of our house.  We use the 2 bedrooms on the north side of my house as my sewing room and our guest bedroom.  Because of this we have a child gate blocking Carter from going down that hallway and we keep our kitty litter box down there.  You may be wondering why I am sharing all of this useless information with you, but wait.... a story is coming!!

While my mother-in-law was visiting, I put the kitty litter box in my sewing room so it wasn't in her way and because I knew I would be too busy that week to work on any of my "works in progress." Now that Carter's week is over and my mother-in-law has gone home, I am back to quilting in my sewing room and the kitty litter is back in its normal position in the hallway near the guest bathroom. However, my cutting mat is on the floor in my sewing room and even though it has been vacuumed and wiped off, I can tell it still has a gritty layer from the kitty litter that must have been kicked out of the box.  Finding this extremely annoying as well as unsanitary to the clean freak I am, I investigated "how to clean a rotary cutting board."  I thought this might be fun information to share with you in case you ever needed to clean yours.  I also learned that it is recommended that we clean our boards periodically to help with the "self healing," which in turn will help your rotary blades from dulling as quickly. 

Here are the directions in case you are interested in trying this. I know what I am going to do when I get home tonight.  I'm sure Carter will love to help me since water and bath time are favorite activities of his.

Fill your bathtub with room temperature water.  It is important to make sure the water is not hot, cold or warm but actually room temperature.  Add a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a splash of a mild dish detergent.  This should make a nice thick lather.  Scrub the mat gently with a soft brush, like a toothbrush.  Rinse the mat with cold water making sure to remove all of the residue.  Air dry but be sure not to have it in direct sunlight and to have it flat.   This will prevent warping.  The reason this is a good procedure to periodically complete, is the "self healing" materials with actually absorb the water and make the mat supple again.

I hope you found my tip helpful!  I'm investigating a couple of other ideas to share with you weekly.  If you have anything you would like me to research, please let me know and I would be happy to see what I can find out.

I am starting to schedule classes and events for September through December for our Fall Newsletter.  I wanted to make sure everyone knew right away about the Fall Quilting Retreat we have scheduled for Saturday October 17th and Sunday October 18th.  This 2 full day event is a very popular class so please let us know if you are interested in signing up.  The fee is $350 which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.  If you are from out of town and need a room, we recommend the Hilton Garden Inn located in Danbury CT. Here is a link to their website:
http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/connecticut/hilton-garden-inn-danbury-DNBDHGI/index.html

This is Debby's write up of the class.

Fun, Fresh, and Funky Fillers
Whether you’ve never quilted a stitch before or you are just looking for some
new quilting ideas, you will discover some new quilting methods, markings, and
designs that will inspire you to finish your own quilt tops.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road
All machine quilters love to learn new patterns, but how do you actually use
them on a quilt? This class will take some quilting designs and show you how to
use them on the quilt tops that you already have stacked up at home.

Bonus: Make a Cutie Accessory project by the end of your two days.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

This week's Quilt Blast Friday Sale is a 15 percent discount off the American Made Brand Cotton Solids.  Enter code AMERICAN15 to obtain the discount.  Offer Valid 6/26 through 6/30/15. 

 
Have a fabulous week!!
Sarah