Fall into quilting…

I took the month of August off, not entirely from quilting, but trying to catch up on outside projects before the weather turns chilly here in Michigan.  I also spent some time travelling, as well as 5 days in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the AQS show.

Some last vestiges of summer in my back yard:

Purple all summer, until this popped up yesterday morning – Crazy Petunias!

Last year we had to cut down our ornamental cherry tree because it was split in a storm.  It was a beautiful, blooming tree, and we hated to cut it down, but it was damaged beyond repair.  We’ve been letting the wood dry out, and when it rained last week, you could suddenly see all of the chainsaw blade cuts in the wood.  I thought this was just cool!  How great would that be for a quilting pattern?

So on the quilting end of things, I’ve had two, count them, TWO, irons quit in the last couple of weeks.  First the Rowenta Pro Master I inherited from my darling MIL, Dee.  This was my favorite iron, primarily because of the heft, large soleplate area, and reliability…until it began leaking and spitting a dark liquid, looking like oil.  I’ve never put water it in – I’m a firm believer in misting exactly where I want to press, and never running water through the Rowenta.  To the best of my knowledge, my MIL seldom, if ever, put water in her irons, but apparently this is not an uncommon problem with the Rowenta.  The picture is not of burn marks, but of the liquid that came out of it, which I pressed dry to see if it was water or an oily liquid.  At one point, there was actually black water seeping from the base of the iron, so I rapidly unplugged it, and have not used it since.  If anybody has suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

My back-up iron, Oliso Pro, or “Ollie” as I like to call him, stopped jumping up and down.  It is possible that this is a design flaw, as it’s the 2nd iron from them that has had this problem, but so far, customer service has been spectacular.  You iron, set the iron down, and the feet pop up, lifting Ollie about 3/4″ from the ironing board.  In my case, I picked the iron up, the feet retracted, I ironed, set it down, and it went up and down 3 times, then sat, hot-soleplate down on the board.  The red light came on, and I think it’s a fire hazard, or at least a burn hazard for the ironing board cover.  I don’t know that it would start a fire, but it’s like setting an iron down, hot, soleplate down, and walking away – who would want to risk it?

So two irons down, and I’m looking for suggestions…

Finally, an improv piece from the facebook page, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, challenge #1, New York Beauty – Deconstructed.  Now just needs binding!  Quilting by Ruth McCormick, free-handed, and she did a beautiful job!

Ok, that’s the update!

Cheers,

Beth

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