Vintage Ironing Board Tribute...

This is my trusty vintage combo board and iron.  I have another trusty iron, much newer, but also a Sunbeam.  The Sunbeam pictured is a Made in USA model that still works just fine. I had never read the booklet of course, so when it didn't seem to steam correctly I bought another bottom line Sunbeam. THEN I read the booklet. Seems you can clean the steam holes by pushing the little steam setting lever or dial back and forth and guess what?! IT WORKS!!! So....I did that on my old iron and it works too. Then newer Sunbeam is not Made in USA, but works just fine. I love it - it's all white.   I decided to blog my board and irons because of the hype about expensive irons and boards. ALL boards seem too expensive now days. I have to admit I bought my sturdy metal legged, four legged board back in the era of about 1970. This board is a keeper - not wibbly and doesn't have any problems except a squeak that is my fault. I could clean it and oil it one of these days and get rid of that squeak I suppose.   The cover is one of the ones from Joann Fabrics with the measuring tape theme and it really works so well.  Handy for straightening up lines in ironing and in pinning together both garment pieces and quilt blocks. Helps in grain line placement as well. The legs of this board are nice thick metal and there are four of them.  I was inspired to blog about the board, boring as it may be, by a friend who also has a vintage board and who recently posted pics of her refurb of said board. You just cannot get this quality any more without spending a fabulous sum. It never occurred to me to take pictures of my ironing board before. You just never know. HAHA.  You can see in the last picture that I have left on an older cover I bought several years ago with its pad, and added the tape measure cover on over it for the depth of padding. Here is a link to my friend's review on Patternreview.com for her lovely new cover! She links to her picture tutorial on her own site, which is a lovely set of pictures and a really wonderful tutorial!

My blog is hardly that inspirational, but I do think our vintage equipment that still serves and does it well deserves to be highlighted a bit now and then! I will keep my board the Harvest Gold color it came with, as it is so indicative of the age of it's inception.

Don't we vintage ladies have Harvest Gold Tupperware as well? I know I do. As to quilting - I will get back to my Blue Quilt very soon and post a few pictures of the finished quilt top. I do need to purchase the backing and batting. I will, of course, be using Warm and Natural as usual and for this quilt flannel is the backing fabric I choose.I think flannel makes the best quilt backing there is. Warm and comfy and really good for winter as well.

The Vermont Quilt Festival and Fabric from Shibori Dragon

Last month was the Vermont Quilt Festival. As usual I went with a friend, and we had a great time. I took no pictures. The winning quilts and more are on the Facebook page of the festival, and at the link above.  Moreover I bought only a small pair of embroidery scissors from Janome purchased at the booth of Bittersweet Sewing from New Hampshire. Very nice dealer and a great festival. It was warm those two days and we had to sit outside under a tent to eat lunch, which is a change from previous years, and one I think was not good, but other than that a fine festival.

I bought no fabric at the festival! I KNOW!  But, after coming home and waiting a few days, I ordered from Shibori Dragon in Tacoma, Washington.  I ordered on a Tuesday and got the package on Saturday following. Such wonderful service, and what beautiful fabrics. Now to finish my Blue Quilt so that I can use some of those lovely Asian fabrics! The crane panel is at the top of this blog. Here is the array of loveliness I need to use!

Blue Quilt Design and Start...

I designed this quilt from an inspiration picture  I saw on the web of a quilt in a show some time ago. I drew up a plan, and mine is somewhat different than that show quilt in design, but the plan to keep almost all blue large triangle pieces stayed with me. I have my pieces cut now (only took me a couple months to get this plan ready and cut the pieces - I am slow) and have sewn up two blocks just like you see in the picture.  I have arranged the pieces so I begin with the darkest dark sewn to the darkest light, so that I don't end up with blocks of the same hue - if I get to the mid-range, I can change the arrangement for better value. Then I will see if my original plan is the one I go with when I come down to arranging the quilt blocks in their final statement. :)  I had already lots of blue Asian fabrics in my stash, and I just love working with them. I had a pack of blue fat quarters of batiks so there is also batik in this. Not usually a fan, but these prints were so nice. I have accumulated Asian fabrics over the last few years as they are all I intend to use in future. You never know though, with so many lovely fabrics out there, I could mix it up a bit next time!  This quilt should go faster, as there aren't a lot of seams and it is relatively simple. I must chose backing and binding fabric as well.

After searching a lot, I did find the creator of this pattern. It seems it is no longer available, but the designer was Stephanie Sims for Clothworks. The name of the pattern is Sapphire, and it was available free. The fabrics were from the Sapphire Collection by Skipping Stones Studio. Finished size was 61x61 inches. Mine will be about 64x80".

Finished 15 Minutes of Play Quilt...

Here is the finished quilt!  January, 2016, 15 Minutes of play end product....Did the quilting in curved lines with a walking foot per Jacquie Gering's class on Craftsy! This was a great class, and it applied so well for this quilt. I enjoyed a curved line challenge, and the next quilt I think might be a spiral! I do like to do whatever I like when I quilt, and in both piecing and quilting, this quilt was excellent for that.