New Tote Bag Finished, A Simple Christmas Decoration

I finally ironed and cut up the fabric for a tote bag from the souvenir fabric from Hawaii.  I love this beautiful purple and pink flower print.  I bought the coordinating solid canvas after I came home knowing I wanted to use it as the bottom of the tote.  I have more of the print fabric left and there will be another bag or two made with this.

I bought some Christmas cards last year to put in frames for decorations this year.  I pulled this card out and found this 5" x 7" frame at Target this morning.  Now I have another Christmas decoration.  I have some others cards that I will be framing.

A Short Post About Irons

    My old faith Rowenta iron bit the dust last week.  It was over 9 years old and I have used it in my sewing and quilting for the last 6 years.  I didn't buy it for my sewing/quilting hobby, but it worked really well for a long time in that capacity and I was very happy with it.

    I bought a Black and Decker Classic Iron about 3 years ago as a back up iron in anticipation of the end of my Rowenta.  I thought that a $25.00 iron would work just as well for me as my $90.00 Rowenta.  Yes, price does make a difference when you buy an iron.

    I was disappointed in the Black and Decker Classic.  It had several problems and these are things I just don't want to deal with so I'll keep it for a back up but I will not use it every day.  This iron got very hot, not a problem, but it stayed hot for a couple of hours after unplugging it, which is a problem.  This iron does not glide over my fabric the way my Rowenta did and the Black and Decker iron also had balance problems.  I set it down a couple of times and it just fell flat.

    I went to Target this afternoon and purchased a Rowenta Professional, Model DW8061 (link to the Target description and price here) for my quilting needs.  I hope it will last as long as my other Rowenta did.

Bright Color Chevron Quilt Progress

    Here is the beginning of my bright colored chevron quilt top.  I have all my half square triangles made.  I'm starting to put my rows together.  I'm making each row with 14 blocks and I'm going to make as many rows as I can.

     I'm really happy with the bright colors in this quilt.

Not So Pretty Potholders and Pretty Ironing Board Cover

     I made some not so pretty potholders to match my blue and yellow kitchen curtains this weekend.  I used scraps of different fabrics for the first set because I thought it would be pretty, but they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted them to.  I made the round set after the square set because I thought they would turn out better.  Not.  All of these potholders are, however, very functional, since I used a layer of 100% cotton batting and a layer of Insulbrite in each one.  The binding is a tad messy on the scrappy potholders and the round ones just curled up after I applied the bias binding.  Crazy potholders.  I also had a chance to crochet a new dishcloth, using up some of the tons of white cotton yarn I accumulated for some project or another that I now be using for new dishcloths for my kitchen.

 

    I made a new cover for my new small ironing board this weekend.  This ironing board came with a very thin muslin cover and a super thin layer of batting under the cover.  The muslin started to stain after two uses.  I sometimes spray my fabric with water to get out the tough wrinkles and the water stained the light beige muslin and that's when I knew I had to re-cover it.  I made a quick cover for the ironing board and I beefed up the inside with one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Insulbrite.  I left the old cover on it and used the ironing board as my pattern (I love this trick, learned on the Internets).  I put my fabric on the floor and turned the ironing board upside down on it and cut around the board giving myself about 4 inches for side coverage and  my elastic casing.  I cut the batting and Insulbrite the exact size of the top of the ironing board with no overhang for a neater look.  I made a casing for my 1/2 inch elastic and threaded the elastic in it.  I put the new cover on the board over the old cover along with the new insulating layers and tightened the elastic, knotting it really well.  That cover is on there to stay, I can't get it off without cutting the elastic.  I love the blue and I love the thickness of it.  It's perfect.

  I  washed some of fabric for my new quilt project.  I'm ironing today.  These are the pinks and greens, the patterns are for the top and the solid pink is the backing fabric.  The white fabric that also goes on the top will be washed today.  I'll start cutting soon.