Both machines were humming away by quarter to five this morning, one with more snowflakes, the other with more bookmarks.

All this embroidery has been a nice break from quilting, I’m enjoying it!  I’m going through a serious amount of white thread though!

I have to take a break for a little while though, and go make some more fruitcakes.  My fruit has been soaking in brandy for several weeks now, I’ve never let it go that long, so it could be interesting!

The new KitchenAid mixer arrives today, so tomorrow I’ll start baking cookies so I can test it out and see how it compares to my old one.  I was going to do the fruitcakes tomorrow and use it, but Jim decided it would be better put to use on cookies.  Imagine that.  LOL

Somewhere once I read that you could save all your scraps of water soluble stabilizer, chop them up and put them into a jar, and put some water in it to dissolve the pieces.  Then you can use this solution to brush onto fabric for say, decorative stitches in lieu of using more stabilizer. 

So there’s my half gallon mason jar, getting full quickly!  I have no idea of how much water to add though, if anyone has any experience in doing this, please share details!

Comments

[SusanB]

Just add enough to make a thick soup. Try starting with a half cup of water and stir, adding more water until dissolved. With the size jug you are starting with, you will have a LOT of liquid stabilizer. Please let us know how you use it! I've had some for several years, but never remember it. Oh, you might want to add a little alcohol to keep it from fermenting. Refrigerating it might also be a good idea if you have space -- assuming you will keep it a while.

[Judy Wolf]

I've done this for years. It's really great for items you have washed and want to stiffen again. I hadn't thought about using it (painted on) as a stabilizer. I'll have to try this.

I've always kept mine in the fridge and have never had a problem with it fermenting.

Judy in MO

[Jeanette]

Another thing you can do, is to patch the largest pieces of the stabilizer together. Either use a dab of water, and or water soluble thread to sew it together! I hoop a large piece and patch on a smaller piece but one that will still cover my design. I've never made the water stabilizer.
jnet

[Cindy]

I've saved soluble for years. And yes, I have no idea why or where I heard it, but I keep it in the garage fridge. I never thought about "pasting" it on...hmmmm.......now you have me wondering...

I have used it for "restiffening" FSL .

I agree, I nice break is doing FSL, especially when you have all one color ...turn on the machine.......and do something else.