North Carolina

When my sister, Janet Houts, and I teach at Kanuga we always present a choice of two projects. Many quilters make both. Sometimes they bring their own projects to work on and we give lots of help, opinions, and praise.

Here are two projects made by Denise. Two years ago when Denise came to Kanuga she had never made a quilt. She had a clunky old sewing machine that barely sewed a 1/4" seam. Denise made two quilt tops with both lack of experience and a machine that needed replacement. Here is what Denise sewed this year with her new machine.

Denise made Janet's Courthouse Steps table runner and then sewed a project of her own, a big carrot for the Easter bunny. 

           

Denise is ironing her seams using an Oliso iron. If you have never seen an Oliso, its remarkable feature is the little feet on the bottom that pop the iron up off the ironing surface when you take your hand off the handle. A nice safety feature!

              

I have a funny story about an Oliso iron, but it is NOT Denise's story, it is Peg's story. It seems Peg was in the hospital overnight and while she was there her home was burglarized. A few days later Peg thought she heard footsteps in her house in the middle of the night. Had the burglar returned? Peg got her gun, got up out of bed and followed the source of the noise. Soon she was in her sewing room, gun cocked, ready to confront the intruder. What did she find? Peg had left her Oliso iron on and it was merrily popping up and down with a little whishing noise when it went up on it's little feet and then when it went down again. Peg almost shot that iron! Oliso was saved at the last minute because Peg took the precaution of looking before shooting. 

Do you have a funny quilting story? Please share it with us.