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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Benefits of a Board - Aha Moment Tip #4

I thought I'd have written my post about using the QBS on my Laurel Burch quilt by now, but I confess, I've gone a little crazy with creating a cool back, so it is not quite at the basting stage yet.

Here is my revelation that happened, as so many "Aha!" moments do, by accident.  My sister and I had had a garage sale in late summer where I spied a small old ironing board with little screw-in peg-legs of hers.  I saw it and thought, "Perfect to take to my guild's Fall Retreat!" which was coming up.  So she said to just take it, which I most happily did!  It changed my pressing life.

Any awkwardness at the small size (maybe 2/3, if that, of a regular-sized ironing board) was overcome by the fanTAStic sharp seams I got with little pressure from my iron.  The firmness of the board was delightful. 

Once I got home, I set the little board on top of my regular ironing board, and there I had another revelation: the stability of the iron was greatly increased; no more grabbing it frantically if I bumped my ironing board, or pulled with a little too much oomph on a quilt top, sending the iron to wobbling alarmingly.

Later, once my darling husband built my beautiful sewing room in our acreage home in Alberta (such a view I had there, forest flora and fauna to die for), I put the little ironing board on one end of my large cutting table for a terrific pressing area. 

June 


A different angle - December
Today,  in our new Kingsville home, I have it again at one end of a cutting table we fashioned out of two of the cabinets from the Alberta home with a piece of 3/4" particle board on top of them.  Outside of replacing the cover twice now, it continues to serve me very well.

Here, in the Florida condo, it wasn't long before I had to create a similar pressing surface, as the ironing board feels like a pillow after being so used to such a firm surface.  So, we went to Lowe's where we found a 3/4 X 12 X 36" knotty pine board.  I brought it home, covered it with some ironing board cover fabric from JoAnn's, followed by a piece of cotton,. I glued, with minimal success, the ironing board fabric to the board, but the cotton fabric is large enough to wrap underneath the pine, so it's held in place quite nicely.






4 comments:

  1. Neat! if you want the fabric to stay in place on your knotty board, you can buy metal clips (like chip clips) made to hold your duvet in place with a duvet cover.That may work! Or your handyman hubby lol may have 4 mini vice clamps!

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  2. Ooh, that's a good idea! In quilting land, we have Wonder Clips
    http://www.amazon.com/Clover-Wonder-Clips-Per-Pack/dp/B004ZKPX8A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390358622&sr=8-1&keywords=clover+wonder+clips
    that would probably do the same thing, duvet or knotty board-wise! Thank you!

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  3. Oh yes, those look purrrrrrfect LOL!

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