Fifteen minutes

Posted on January 21, 2013 by ArtistDoris

This week brought a fun surprise on page 19 of the latest issue of Quilty magazine (Jan/Feb issue):

The second “n” was left out of my last name, but that’s me! (It’s spelled right in the URL at the bottom of the page so that’s what matters, right?!)

I had a few emails asking about the quilt I’m holding in the photo; I did show it once here on the blog, but the photos were not great (taken quickly before the quilt was gifted). Since I borrowed it back for the photo shoot, I took the opportunity to snap a few better pics…

It’s a traditional block, Chrysanthemum, in scraps of greens, border is an Erin McMorris print, and Espresso Brown solid on outer borders. Yes, it is on the list for making into a pattern for Row House Creations.

This weekend, the Des Moines MQG had a sewing day, 12 uninterrupted hours to sew… heavenly! I worked on quilting a table runner that has been pieced since JULY– it’s still not completely quilted, but I made good progress. And I made a new ironing board cover, with a simple elastic casing to hold it on:

And I just happened to find this matching pincushion on a quick run to JoAnns (could not resist!):

I’m such a fan of that Cut & Sew fabric line, it’s adorable and the colors are yummy.

One of my sewing goals for 2013 is stash reduction, and this project helped use a little of it up! So far this year, I have only bought one charm pack (Posy by Aneela Hoey) and I have used 5 yards for a quilt back that went to the longarm quilter last week, and 1.66 yards for this project (to get the length of the ironing board, with some obvious waste that went to the scrap basket).

Stash Stats year-to-date:

Acquired — .75 yards

Used — 6.66 yards

-5.91 yards

Tutorial: Ironing BIG Board

Posted on June 22, 2012 by ArtistDoris

At our house, my sweetie irons. I do. not. iron. clothes. (unless I absolutely have to–say, when he is out of town). But, pressing fabric and seams is a part of quilting and sewing, and I have no problem with pressing. It’s ironing that I loathe. Who’s with me here?!?

Anyway, I’ve never particularly liked pressing fabric on a traditional ironing board; that tapered/pointed end is counter-productive. So I made myself a Big Board:

First, I bought a piece of MDF, and cut it to 17″ x 48″.

Then, I covered it with Bo-Nash Ironslide 2000 (if you don’t have this on your pressing station, do yourself a favor and get it! You can thank me later). This comes 19″ wide, hence why my board is cut to 17″. The IronSlide 2000 was attached to the MDF with it’s self stick backing (you could reinforce it with double stick tape, if desired).

Finally, I wrapped it with a piece of 54″ wide “PURE” canvas, by Sweetwater for Moda. This is then stapled into the MDF from the backside. I posted in detail here how I do this “wrap and staple step” to get a nice clean edge and tight corners.

The BIG Board sits atop the traditional ironing board, and greatly increases your surface area for pressing.

Here’s the finished product, modeled by my sweetie pressing a fat quarter, ’cause sometimes he does that for me, too. 😉

Press On

Posted on August 29, 2008 by ArtistDoris

I acquired a new ironing board from my mom earlier this year after mine broke. Well. Okay. After I broke mine. I fell. The ironing board got in the way. I weigh more than the board is designed to withstand. ’nuff said. My mom had one that’s probably 30+ years old that she doesn’t use much since she got an over-the-door model, so she gifted me her old one. I replaced the Walmart style cover with an Ironslide 2000 cover from Bo-Nash. If you don’t know what this is. Consider getting one from http://www.bonash.com. Seriously, you will not regret it, it adds heat to what your pressing like nobody’s business and is ideal for pressing while piecing. Anyhoo…I was having trouble with the edges coming undone, so I needed a cover to put over the Ironslide cover (plain metallic grey color) to hold it snug. I saw an idea in this book: and I borrowed it to make this:
In great retro 30s/40s reproduction fabric, the main cover is this Darlene Zimmerman clothesline print:
and the end has some other pieces from Darlene Zimmerman’s “Happy Homemaker” line, including the cute red-white-and-blue ironing board girls:
This was super easy to make, solved my problem of the loose edges on my Ironslide cover, and is bright and cheerful as a bonus.