This 'n' That--Quilt, Method to Unstitch, Camera Woes

This quilt is on the August page of a 2011 Lang calendar of quilts from Colonial Williamsburg.  My husband thinks it's an awful mess of a quilt.  But me?  I think it's fascinating.

The information about this quilt top tells me it has newspaper backings and was probably made in or near Forth Worth, Texas, between 1913 and 1914.  It measures 68" x 76".

 
This appears to have been made from clothing fabric in stripes, plaids, and ginghams, along with a few prints and solids, in blacks, greys, browns, tans, white, reds/pinks, and blues.  Using the quilt's measurements and the number of blocks across and down, it seems like the four squares of paper used to create a block were cut at 5½" which, when sewn together, become 10" blocks, for finished blocks of 9½".  (Did I get my math right?)

I still have scraps of black plaids from the two quilt tops I made, plus parts of other plaid shirts.  Maybe it would be fun to try to recreate this quilt, or make a similar one.  Or is it just too crazy?

Unsititching
It's one of those things we always hope we won't have to do but sometimes need to do.  I've tried so many ways of unstitching, trying to find the easiest, and I think I finally have.  This is how I do it.

I fold the fabrics so the seam is closed, then use my seam ripper to cut through every other or every second stitch, being careful not to cut the fabric. (Caution:  If your thread is really fine, your stitches are very small, and/or your fabric is delicate, this method might not work.)

When I've cut the stitches to the place where I want to restitch, I gently pull apart the two pieces of fabric.   It reminds me of pulling perforated paper out of a notebook.

On one side there will be bits of thread and on the other there will be an uncut length of thread. Yes, those bits of thread end up on my clothes but it's easy enough to use a small piece of masking tape, or even a bit of cotton batting, to pick them up.

What's your favorite way to unstitch?  Please share.

Camera Woes
It seems my Canon PowerShot A560 is out of commission for me.  Canon has discontinued support of that model.  If they hadn't, I could have had a factory reset which, no doubt, would have given me back the camera's ability to focus.  I bought it in about 2007 so I guess it's had a good run, longer than expected for a digital camera.  I'm so sad to lose it.  My phone cameras (an old Samsung used just for photos, and an LG, used as a phone and everything else cameras do) don't focus as clearly, do not take flash photos, and don't take a photo quickly enough to be clear when I don't hold the phone completely still.  The LG does take good close-ups/macros if I'm in good light.

So now I'm on the hunt for a good but less expensive digital camera.  What kind of camera do you use for blog photos?  Make, model, and year/age, please, if you can.  Do you love your camera?  Would you buy it again?

I think that's it for this post.  More another time.  I hope you have a good weekend.

--Nancy.