Frixion Pens

There has been some hubbub in the blogosphere regarding these pens. They are called Frixion Pens and can be found at Staples. Mine had a 2 for 5.00 dollars special when I picked them up Thursday. You can get a pack of three in black or a pack of black, red, and blue. So what's the deal? They make a very fine line, something not that easy to do for many markers. Here I did my sampling on some 100% cotton batiste, nice thin lines.

So here's the deal. The end of the pen has this grey, very smooth tip. This is used to erase the lines. You can see my success (?) at dong just that. On this fine batiste, the action of erasing was a bit hard but on some other heavier cotton I tried the results were better.  Now here's the rub:

Did you read that fine print? Soooo, if you make a white jacket and use these pens, and live up here on the Canadian border where it can frequently hit 40 below zero, your marks will come back. Just to prove that to myself I put my sample in my freezer. It holds a steady zero degrees temp. It was in there for about three hours. Here are the results.

You can see the lines came back, albeit with a bit of subtlety. My opinion? I may use this on fabric that is not particularly fine/thin in a situation where I really need a fine line. As far as the lines coming back, often, when making such marks, I am using them to embroider on top, place a button, etc. so the lines will be hidden by stitching. If you are quillting, I wouldn't use these. Quilts are more likely to see cold temps than my batiste  baby garments and the positive/negative effect of the quilting stitch would not hide the returning lines. JMHO.
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I arrived back from visiting both daughters in New England yesterday late. One of the things begging for my attention today was the garden. It's been a totally dry week here and lots also needed picking. The last of my blueberries will be turned into scones tomorrow morning. The green beans will be blanched and mixed with fresh pesto I just made. Yum! I just love summer in the garden!

It was a very busy, productive week. I helped DD unpack many boxes, fine tuned the innards of  of her appliances as only a Mom can, and spent hours in the pool with the grands while she continued unpacking. We measured for window treatments, discussed options, and shopped a few vendors. We only were able to order one fabric but the rest will happen soon. Of course DD found the perfect fabric in design with not enough yardage, anywhere. I came home packed with beaded trims, fabrics, mounting boards, miles of piping, etc. So you will be seeing some home dec projects in the future here on the blog. In the meantime here is a tiny peak at a part of her new home that I love. It is a good size home, a rambling Royal Barry Wills design, and was built in 1986. The sellers redid every single inch, updating everything with lovely taste, except for the kids bathroom. That would probably be on my list  to do last as well! All the remodeling has been done within the past year so it was a real turn key situation. Here you can see the moldings that adorn nearly every room.

And one more thing to get off my chest:
DON'T DO THIS:

 Don't put a spool of thread or a bobbin on the top of your machine. Ninety dollars later, my machine is fixed and back to running beautifully. Seems while intently watching my guide on the presser foot I didn't realize that the threads got sucked down thru the bobbin winder and into the motor. The machine came to a screeching halt and made a sound that I knew indicated one more stitch would be certain death. On her last visit DD brought it back to Nashua Sew and Vac in NH and I brought it home yesterday. I am happy. I love Nashua Sew and Vac.....Bunny