This week, my husband made me a Big Top for my ironing board. We went to the home supply store and got a piece of plywood and some molding. I traced the outline of the existing ironing board and he screwed the molding along those lines. Then I put the big board over the top of the existing ironing board surface. I covered it with some flannel and some ironing board cover fabric that I bought from JA's. I taped the whole thing down with blue painter's tape, just temporarily until I can get him to staple it all down.
I LOVE this big surface! No more angling large pieces around to accomodate the small end of the ironing board. I probably won't ever take the big top off, but if I ever needed to, it just lifts right off.
I think my husband likes to make things that make my life easier, too.
Today I finished a baby quilt for a customer. She had sent me the fabric and pattern before Christmas and I made the top for her, then returned it to her so she could hand quilt it. She got too busy to do it herself, so mailed it back to me to quilt on my longarm. I chose a pantograph pattern called Popcorn by Willow Leaf Studio, I love their designs. They are very organic, lots of leaves and vines, with the repeat clearly marked, so it is so easy to advance the quilt and not lose your place. Despite the fact that this quilt has quite a bit of pink in it, it is a quilt for a baby boy, so I tried to chose something that was gender neutral (not too flowery!)for the quilting pattern. I wanted to bind it with the blue that you can see in the sashing, but all I had was scraps from assembling the top. I'm not sure the Beatrix Potter fabric line is still available in stores, it came out a few years ago. I was happy to be able to eek out the binding by using a 2 inch, instead of 2.5 inch binding, from the scraps, which helps to frame it. There are really sweet illustrations of Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin, Jeramiah Puddleduck, and her other characters. My Mom used to read them to us when we were little. Now, I read Benjamin Bunny to my grandchildren.
