Iron Board Cover

 

                                                              New Cover

My iron decided to spew rusty water on my ironing board cover. The rusty stains were still there after soaking it overnight in laundry detergent. Worst, the iron plate was dirty with an iron deposit. How did it get so bad? The other day, I pressed a top quilt with no sign of rusty stains. I did not take this lighting; I filled the iron reservoir with vinegar and let it warm up a bit. When it was hot enough, I pressed and steamed on a piece of fabric until all the liquid was gone. I had to do it twice with vinegar and twice with a mix of water and vinegar. It's stank! Most of the debris caught in the plate's holes vaporized out.

                                                    You can see the stain on the original cover.
 

I'm used to a drier climate and water with no iron in the water. I usually empty my iron when not in use. Maybe it was just time for a spring clean-up.

                                               The elastic hold in place the cover

 I purchased a curtain panel at a thrift store perfect for this. After the disaster, the cover was a ruin. I cut the new ironing cover a bit larger than the original one and sewed an edge so that I could insert a 1/2" elastic. This way, it will be easier to remove for a good wash. 
I was definitively not preparing to clean my two irons this soon, and now it's ready for my next project.

Simple Quilting Designs

 Hello Everyone,

For this small quilt top, I used only three main designs: A continuous feather going in one direction, straight lines that went through the small rectangles, and a loopy lines in the border-side.  I used the build-in walking foot on my Janome 7700 for the straight lines. For the feather, I used the free-motion foot. 

                                             Scoreboard Quilt- a smaller version from original pattern

Feather Design

Feather & Straight Lines

Cost Efficient

For the back, I used a part of a wide-backing piece from a previous quilt. And also used three stripes of batting that were cut off from a large quilt. Everything was reused for this smaller quilt. 

Finish It!

Th

                                             

This little quilt was used to practice wavy lines and instead of leaving it in a box useless, I sewed a binding on it and now I can give it away.

I'm so glad of the progress I've done far this year, considering I started quilting in mid-December.  Now that March is here with the weather warming up outside, I will sew less and less.

With difficult days ahead of us, be inspired by your own pace in life. Don't become subject to depression, discouragement, or doubts.  Everyday is a new day and whatever you do, do it to His glory. There is enough hate,malice, and envy in this world these day, we don't need to bring it to our quiet and peaceful happy spot.

Share your love for quilting with another awesome person. Or give a quilt to a person in need.

Creating With Orphan Blocks

 ARCADIA AVENUE QUILT

With each finished blocks, I'm amazed by the result how paper-piecing  gave such precision to each sections.

 

 

                                       Circling Geese Block #6

 CREATIVE DESIGN

This isn't the first time I've created a pattern with orphan blocks and usually I've used the EQ8 software for it. But for this particular project, it  became another matter, because all the blocks were of different size. Also not entirely savvy with the EQ8.  So draw my idea on graph paper and that didn't worked either. 

With that in mind, I placed all my orphans blocks on my design wall and started playing with their placement and then added fabric of greens and creams for the background. Few blocks  didn't' fit well with the overall and took them out.  

 

This are few steps I took to get there.

 

Step #1: Play with  the blocks placement and add background. This took me a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step #2: Balanced green background and darker purple blocks around. At this point, most of the placement of the larger Dresden and Flower Garden blocks gave a balance to the quilt.  but the bottom wasn't quite to my satisfaction and  added a few purple square to visualize that bottom area.

 

Step #3: Sew each blocks and added cream prints to connect any gaps between the finished blocks. All the background fabric are from my stash and it would have been prettier to have all the same background, but where is the fun in that (smile).

Step #4: It's not completed yet. I've to add a few borders. Something for next week perhaps. Imagine the creative quilting that can be done in those negative spaces! You can make a quilt from your orphan blocks and few pieces of FQ(fat quarter are pieces of fabric that are usually 18" x 22'. )

March has arrived with sunnier and warmer days, and I look forward to be outside a long longer.  Until then let's have fun with our stash. 

May God bless your week and enjoy every moment with Him. Let your LOVE and JOY in Him comfort those who need it. Be there for one another.

 

  

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,  to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.  For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. " Titus 3:1-7