Monday, August 17, 2015

Summer In the Country with Island Batik

Take a stroll with us, down to the country with Island Batik.  Grab a glass of lemonade or sweet tea, and enjoy the fun we have planned for you!

Find out more at Island Batik's Blog.  We have some fun recipes, great designs, and previews of all the gorgeous new batiks heading to shops.  Lots to inspire and enjoy.


My day is later in the hop, and I have my recipe and project planned.  I can't wait for you to see it.

In the meantime, I'm working on some special orders that include a variety of batiks and I'll show them soon.  I've been procrastinating, though.  I want to get them done, but something else was bugging me, and I couldn't work on the fun stuff.  I know you've probably felt the same at times.

My ironing board cover is disgusting.  Really ugly.  Stained and yucky.  I liked the design, for the most part.  It's the one from JoAnn's, with the grid and measuring tape printed on it.  The lines helped square blocks, and estimate sizes, but the grid stretches, so it's not accurate.   I've been meaning to make a new cover for quite a while (a few years), but I couldn't decide on the fabric to use.  I was thinking about all the great cotton prints I have, and how pretty they would look when I was pressing blocks or clothes.  But I also wanted something a little heavier and durable.  Not denim, though.  What did I have that was pretty, and heavy?  Because I didn't want to spend money when I have stuff that would work, but maybe not so pretty.  I've been pondering this for over a year.   I was working on the pirate shirt a few weeks ago and looked through the fabrics I had stored in that cabinet, while I was getting the leather lacing and rivets for the shirt.  And I spied it!  Ohhhh, there's a pretty blue and yellow floral, in home dec weight!  That would make a pretty ironing board cover, and be durable (and the colors won't transfer to what I'm pressing).  So, I pulled it out, measured it, and figured it would be perfect, with quite a bit left for other uses.  I purchased it from an ebay auction years ago.  It was a bargain, and I'd thought of a machine cover and a case for my extension table for my machine, when I travel, but I never cut into it.

I kept looking at the fabric.  I put it, folded, on the ironing board.  Then moved it to the top of the washing machine.  Then put it on the board when I needed to do laundry.  For about 2 weeks, the fabric taunted me.  I shouldn't take time to sew for myself when I needed to finish the commission work, right??  I even wanted to do it before the Ambassador Favorite Things hop.  Procrastination!! Well, last night, I needed to do laundry, and had to move the fabric again.  Nothing was getting sewn because I needed to replace the cover on the ironing board, which I was procrastinating.  Well, I decided to just do it.  At Midnight, last night, I pulled the old, gross, cover off the board, and got some scrap batting, and cut a piece of Insul-Bright to fit, and made a new cover.

You may ask why I didn't buy a cover.  I haven't seen any I loved, and they are expensive.  I have so much fabric that I could have used, it didn't make sense to spend money when I could make it.  I have the knowledge and batting, and would prefer to buy new quilting fabric with that money.

But I thought it would take a long time, so I kept putting it off.  I was done with the whole thing in less than an hour.  I wasted so much time procrastinating!  But now I have a pretty cover and can get the other projects done.



Here's what I did.  I laid the fabric over the board, allowed for about 5" to go down and under each edge, and used pins to mark the shape.  I cut out the cover, did a quick serge around the sides (to finish the edge), curved the bottom corners a little,  turned under about an inch and stitched a casing, leaving an opening in the narrow flat section for inserting elastic.  I curved the corners carefully, making little pleats (knowing I would be inserting a safety pin to pull the elastic through).  I've found a safety pin to be the best for pulling things in casings.  Easy, and very cheap.  I used about 3 yards of 3/8" elastic (again, something I had plenty of).  I pinned the ends of elastic to the cover (so it wouldn't slide into the casing opening) and tried it on the board.  I had put the Insul-Bright down first, then the batting.  I put the cover over that, and adjusted the fit until I was happy, and the cover was smooth, and then pulled the elastic a little tighter and tied a knot in the two ends.  DONE!  The elastic allowed the gathers to be easily adjusted, and now I can work on a pretty surface!  Yippee!!

It really adds a bright and pretty touch to my little pressing corner in my laundry room off the sewing area.  The board is old, but very steady, and a perfect height.  And now it's pretty again!

I hope you don't procrastinate making a cover for your ironing board.  It's not worth wasting the time!  I'll be back soon with my batik projects, and you'll get to see what I did with buttermilk and these pretties soon!


Thanks for visiting!
Maryellen

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Winner

Hi!  Thanks for all the great comments on My Favorite Things Blog hop!  I did a random.org number thing, and the comment chosen is #40, Allison CB.

I've contacted her, and she'll be getting 3 Island Batik FQs.

Let me tell you, it's so hard to part with these gorgeous fabrics.  I really do love them all.  

Emily asked about the star blocks on the design wall.  They are Hunter's Star, and I used the die from my Accuquilt GO!.  It was a breeze to cut out, and piece the blocks on the vintage machine.  As soon as the blocks are all pressed, it'll become a top.  Many of the batiks are from Island.

Allison, congratulations again, and thanks for commenting.  I'll get your pretties out this week.

And remember to stop back for the Island Batik Ambassador blog hop starting soon!


I've shared this on Facebook, but wanted to thank Chris again.  He purchased some vintage embroideries from me in my Etsy shop a while ago, and we've been chatting about vintage textiles and sewing machines since.  He asked me to make the embroidered pieces you see in this photo into the dress they were supposed to become 100 years ago.  He finished the embroidery.  It's stamped from the Royal Society, and it's Craftsmen style, or Art Deco style.  Among our conversations about him searching for machines, I mentioned I wanted a black long bed Singer 301.  It's larger than a featherweight, but a slant needle, so you can see more of the work area.  Jokingly, I had mentioned one time that people in the Vintage Sewing Machine group on Facebook talk about buying an accessory as bait.  Once you have the accessory for your dream machine, the machine usually follows.  Included in the box with the dress I'm to create was a few yards of vintage beaded Cluny lace, a vintage appliqued tablecloth, and a box containing a zig-zagger for a 301.  He sent me bait, just because I've given him info on machines.  But he's given me info on textiles and refinishing furniture, as well.  I joked about something, and he found it, and gave it to me.  I'm just so touched!

I plan to make the table cloth into a quilt.  And if you know of any sources for Royal Society dresses (I've found lots about crochet), please let me know.  I'll share more about the linens in another post.


Lots going on here!  Thanks for stopping!

Maryellen