keep it or rip it out?
mlondon17
11 years ago
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Matthew Haraminac
11 years agovaunda
11 years agoRelated Discussions
'Weed?' ID
Comments (17)If the first was mint, the stems would be square in cross section. The third pic, plant on left, could be yellow or white sweet clover(Melitotus officinalis, M. alba) -really an alfalfa, an invasive weed here in Minnesota. You would certainly know when it flowers and probably by the large size of the plant. More likely, I think, it is Black Medic (Medicago lupulina) a common weed in lawns, gardens and especially warm, dry and poor soil places. The plant on the right might be the same or not. Can't tell. If it is a true clover, leaflets will not have petioles (leaf stems), or if they seem to, the "petiole" length will be equal for all leaflets. This is obviously not the case for the plant on the left (and a helpful diagnostic for alfalfas and medics, among others), but the plant on the right is too young for accurate assumptions. True clovers often have symmetrical variegation in the leaflets. Alfalfas and medics do not. Rick...See MoreQuestion for paper piecers
Comments (13)1) I do what Jena does -- Trim the edge you are going to sew TO before sewing. At first I thought this was illogical, but I've learned it makes it much easier to line the new piece up properly. 2) Remember that although you're sewing it to a piece of paper, you're always going to put fabric RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER. 3) Do as Idaho suggests, especially with odd shapes, and pin along line then flip open before sewing. Hold up to light to make sure it covers the lines adequately. It's shocking how big a chunk of fabric you need for tiny pieces when you include seam allowances. 4) Cut the "chunk" out the shape you need, not just a big random chunk of fabric. I found that on "angled" pieces I would miss edges with huge chunks of fabric, but when it was the right basic shape (plus a generous seam allowance) it was much easier. For layering, you can lay you item on the table before sewing and you should have: The BACK of the piece to be sewn touching the table. The RIGHT side of the already sewn on piece touching the right side of the piece to sew. The back of the paper touching the wrong side of the sewn pieces, the lines on the paper staring you in the face. Note: you are right, it IS hard to cut chunks out of your stash. This is why we must buy BIG YARDAGE when shopping for stash! (and keep those chunky scraps!) BTW: Just two years ago I was on here saying -- PaperPiecing? HUH? I don't get it... Now I feel like a little paper piecing maven! So hang in there. Once you have that breakthrough you'll know you always have PP to fall back on for those "really cool blocks you couldn't possibly piece regular."...See MoreFound - fir floors!
Comments (14)We had original fir floors in our 1913 bungalow kitchen. They had been sealed with tar paper glued down with some kind of black glue. Both tar paper and glue passed asbestos tests (we used 2 tests at separate labs due to paranoia), so we decided to remove the tar paper and refinish the original floors. We found pretty quickly that we couldn't find a contractor / floor refinisher who would take on scraping the tar/glue off the floor. The best offer was one guy who said he would sand them off, but because the tar gums up sanding discs, he estimated the cost at something like $200 for materials and $75/hour. We wound up doing it ourselves, using citrus cleaner, a wallpaper steamer to soften the glue, and paint scrapers. Call it about 60-80 hours on our hands and knees for this...part of our kitchen used to be an exterior porch, and it was especially tough going there. The parts that were always interior went _much_ more quickly, so you might be lucky on that front. We found that letting the wallpaper steamer sit for a relatively long time - 5 minutes or so - softened the glue/tar pretty well; shorter dwell times were much less effective. Unfortunately I don't have any photos on hand that I can show you, but even after refinishing, there are stains on the floor -- apparently at the seams between strips of tar paper. It looks OK but not amazing -- it is definitely on the rustic side, and if we had it to do again, we might have proceeded differently. One other possible option for cleaning the tar off your floor is a deck sander -- had this suggested to me but didn't get one to try it out. Another comment: if you disregard our labor hours, refinishing the floors was cheaper than putting new floors down: about 1/2 to 3/4 the price of new floors, depending which quotes you use. Still, I would seriously consider pulling the floor up and installing salvaged fir tongue and groove flooring - still gets you that classic look, but with less labor and probably better end results. Or, even easier, just installing salvaged fir flooring over the existing floors, though this might yield a pretty big height difference between your kitchen and other rooms. Hope all this helped, I'll see if I can dig up some photos....See MoreKiwis not flowering after 5-7 years. Ready to rip out. Help
Comments (6)I am in Boston, they produce no flowers for pollination to become an issue at all. Might be a sun issue? That was kind of my guess as well, they are in an area with some sun but not massive amounts of sun as there are some trees around. Anyway, they are gone, took four hours of work, I was sad to see them go but once I saw how much effort it took to remove them I could see how invasive they had become, I guess just was not gonna work for me, I think I gave it the royal try for about 8 years! thanks everyone for their help...See MoreBlack_Rain_11
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