It is funny how you don't always plan for things to happen in threes, but sometimes they do (just ask my mom, she's pretty suspicious about that!). In March, my "three" was all about irons or ironing.
At the start of the month, two of us in our bee made bags to carry our irons. This is a pattern that's been passed around our bee quite a bit and I think about half of us have made this bag now! I was so excited to pull out some of my Mary Engelbreit fabric to use for this project! I am a huge hoarder of this fabric because I love her art so much, so I am glad to have some which I can use and see every time I take my iron with me. I thought the travel fabric was appropriate since I will most often use this bag for sewing days or retreats.
A few weeks later, my trusty Rowenta iron became completely incontinent on me. She's had a few dribbles every now and then (don't we all after a few years?!), but just completely lost it...all over my ironing board and carpet. Boy, she's been a great iron - with the perfect weight, lots of tiny steam holes, fantastic steam and a nice big soleplate. But, she was expensive (my husband bought her for my birthday and he said he remembers me being a little mad that he spent that much money) and I wasn't sure I wanted to invest that much in an iron again...especially given the declining reviews they seem to get from people I know and from the people who review them in quilting forums and places like Amazon. After a morning of going back and forth and reading tons of reviews, I purchased a Sunbeam Steam Master. It arrived later that day (I love Prime one-day delivery!) and I got it set up. So far, so good. It is a nice heavy weight and it is doing well with water/steam so far.
The third part of my iron story is that I built an ironing station. After my retreat, I decided that I really wanted one to give me a bigger ironing surface and to give me some storage underneath the iron, which is hard to do with an ironing board.
I researched how to do it, found some good step-by-step instructions online, and headed out to Target to pick up the shelving unit. My neighbor had a great supply of plywood and she helped do the cutting and drilling needed to get it put together. [Note: I decided not to put mine on wheels, because I liked the shelving unit size better at Target and it didn't come with wheels - might add them later if I decide I need to move it more often.] [Second note - we two girls did this in a couple hours with no help from the guys except to find a staple gun...if I'd waited for my guy to do it....well, let's just say it wouldn't be done yet.]
I found some heavy canvas in my stash from Lois and it was a perfect fit! I got it all stapled up and promptly filled it up with my scrap bins, longarm supplies, and some other sundries. Suddenly I have more floor space in my sewing area!
At the start of the month, two of us in our bee made bags to carry our irons. This is a pattern that's been passed around our bee quite a bit and I think about half of us have made this bag now! I was so excited to pull out some of my Mary Engelbreit fabric to use for this project! I am a huge hoarder of this fabric because I love her art so much, so I am glad to have some which I can use and see every time I take my iron with me. I thought the travel fabric was appropriate since I will most often use this bag for sewing days or retreats.
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| New iron travel bag and new iron |
The third part of my iron story is that I built an ironing station. After my retreat, I decided that I really wanted one to give me a bigger ironing surface and to give me some storage underneath the iron, which is hard to do with an ironing board.
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| The pieces all ready to go before getting batting and fabric covering, faithfully guarded by the dog. |
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| Ta-da! Done! |
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| All loaded up! Look at the clean floor all around it! (And yes, the whole bottom shelf is buckets of scraps!) |
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Hope your week is off to a lovely start!