The Latest In Rusting

A young designer studying fashion in Los Angeles contacted me last week, to rust several yards of silk for her for a special fashion project she's working on. Most of my rust work has been on cotton, so just this week I rusted these silk fabrics. The one above is crepe de chine, and it turned out just beautifully.

This second piece was a lark, really...a silk chiffon scarf that I dyed about a year ago, that I rusted this week. The blue is actually a lot more teal than it looks in the photo. But the rust on top of the dye is really something, isn't it!

Hoping to get back to quilting in the next couple days. I bought a second sewing machine today -- a Singer Confidence Quilter -- since I don't expect to see my Bernina again for close to a month...if I'm lucky, some say :( There's a lesson in here somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is...let's see, could it be "Don't buy foreign made electronic equipment if you live in a small town and there's only one dealer and their regular repair person has retired or is out on extended medical leave"? The next closest dealer is 200 miles away, round trip. I'm certainly not up for two of those trips, seeing that my machine may require parts from Switzerland.

What I think I dislike just as much as having to wait, is the local Janome dealer, who tried to talk me into an off-brand, made in China machine, told me I'd likely have to wait 2-3 months to get my Bernina back from the other dealer, and threw in that he couldn't, or wouldn't work on certain Singer models, so I likely made a mistake in buying that. I detest being on the receiving end of retail fear mongering. Although it is a difficult proposition buying equipment such as a sewing machine in an area where there's no competition to speak of and a lack of qualified repair personnel.

Whatever. I'm counting on my new Singer to work just fine. And it's got everything I need -- drop feed, needle up/down button, and a free motion embroidery foot. If you've got one of these and you're not happy with it, please don't tell me!