Cleaning the dirtiest iron

How dirty is your iron?  When was the last time you cleaned your iron?

Yikes!  This iron came with my husband who got it over a decade ago.  As far as I know, I'm the first person to clean it.  Sad, right?  I have no excuses.  I'm just a lazy procrastinator.  Yes, I am.

I have been pinning various iron cleaning methods, and decided it was time to try some out.

First up is salt:

I poured some salt on a towel and ironed over it on a medium heat setting for several minutes.  I noticed some cleaning was occurring, but the results were less than satisfying.

It was working though. You can see how dirty the salt got:

Next up was dryer sheets:

I tried both new and used dryer sheets with the heat setting on low to medium.  I put a white piece of paper between my ironing board and the dryer sheet.  As you can see, some grime was eventually transferred to the dryer sheets:

However, after griming up 4 dryer sheets, I couldn't see much of a difference in the surface of my iron.

Next was steel wool:

 I didn't find a pin using steel wool, but I figured I needed something abrasive to get this junk off.  I just spread out a thin layer of steel wool on a sheet of paper and ironed over it, rubbing back and forth and in circles.  This method showed the most significant cleaning power, but my arm was getting tired by this time and the going was so slow.

What worked?

MAGIC ERASER:

2 minutes with a damp Magic Eraser on a cool iron and the whole stinkin' thing was shiny and clean!

I used up half an eraser, but it was much faster and easier than any other method.  

Just look at the difference:

I promise I won't allow my iron to get this dirty EVER AGAIN!!!

How about you guys?  How dirty is your iron?

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Before you click away, I'd like to invite you to join in my current sewing/craft challenge.

Since this is a first for me (and my iron!) I'm linking up to Celtic Stitches' New to Me in 2013 Linky Party!

From Ricochet's Tool Box:

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I've been sewing for a few years now, but I only just recently bought myself a self-healing cutting mat to use with my rotary cutter.  What did I use before that?  The plastic chair mat under my office chair.  Yes.  Seriously.  You see when we moved into our current home, the carpet in the office was too thick to roll our office chair on.  So we bought a floor mat.  Turns out we bought one that was too rigid for the pile of our carpet so it cracked.  The cracked mat was rolled up and set aside.  I could see the ruined mat when I was typing away on the computer (as I am now!).  Throwing away all that nice plastic seemed a waste.  But what else could you use a cracked floor mat for?

I don't know how it works in your house, but in mine the leftover bits of furniture go to my craft room.  I have the old computer desk for my sewing machine, the old dining room table, the old filing cabinets, some mismatched end tables, bits and pieces of old closet systems, etc.  I eventually ended up with the old broken chair mat as well.  I'm not too sure what the circumstances were or when I started making cuts on the floor mat, but I did and it worked.  

I didn't have an acrylic ruler either, but I had a metal straight edge with a cork back.  The straight edge worked great with my little rotary cutter and the floor mat.  Remember my Naughty Notions Clutch?  I used my floor mat for all the squaring up and trimming in that project.

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The spikes under the mat (my mat at least) are spaced exactly one inch apart.  They form a perfect grid which I used to square up all my cuts.

Remember the patchwork pillows I made for my mom for Christmas?  I used the floor mat to cut all the fabric.  Even though it meant doing all the cutting on my knees on the carpet, it still beat cutting all those strips of fabric with scissors.

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Over President's Day weekend I finally bought a real rotary cutting set.  I waited for the 50% off sale and used my 20% military discount and bought this very nice cutting set for under $20.  It was well worth my money.  Now that I am making my first large quilt, I can appreciate getting up off the floor to cut all my strips of fabric.

Now you all know a bit more about me and my cheapskate make-do-with-what-you-got attitude towards craft supplies.  I have a few more tricks up my sleeve so stay tuned.

While I have you here, please check out our current (March 2012) sewing challenge HERE.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Cleaning before quilting

Ever since I started following and becoming friends with Keren from sew la vie, I've had quilting rolling around in the back of of my brain. I started with my Retro Pillow Challenge entry, then my daughter's pink rag quilt, then my son's chevron rag quilt, then my Solids-Only Tote Challenge entry, and then pillows for Mom.   Now, I'm wanting to try to make a king-sized quilt for my bed.  I am scared to machine quilt such a huge project so I searched online for some alternative quilting methods.  This is what I found:

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Quilt-as-you-go is a method where you cut your batting into blocks and sew your blocks right onto it, log cabin style.  I won't attempt to explain in further detail, but rather direct you to the great tutorial by sewtakeahike.  Miss Penny from sewtakeahike hosted a quilt-along last fall and posted her quilt-as-you-go tutorial over four posts.  The photos are great.  Penny's instructions are simple and easy to follow.  I highly recommend you head over and give it a read.  

Before I could allow myself the luxury of scratching my quilting itch, I needed to clean up and organize my fabric a bit.  Check out the difference in my 2 fabric shelves when everything is folded and tidy:

Top shelf is blacks and greys,
second shelf is reds and pinks,
third shelf is blues and purples,
and the bottom shelf  houses a box of denim
 and ticking and other heavy duty fabrics.

Top shelf is my whites and creams and ironing what-nots,
second shelf is oranges and greens,
third shelf is browns,
and the bottom has all the silky and satin-y and slippery fabrics.

After the big clean up, I was ready to choose fabrics for my quilt-as-you-go project.  I'll make 18 blue/grey blocks with black centers, 19 pinkish blocks with black centers, and 19 purple/black blocks with grey centers.  I've completed about 14 of the blue/grey blocks.  Each block is different.  Well, as different as you can be when working log-cabin style with 2" strips.  I'm having fun mixing it up so far, but have so much more to do.....

Have any of you tried this quilt-as-you-go method?

If you're reading this before February 29, 2012, go HERE and vote!
If you're reading this before March 31, 2012, go HERE and sign up!

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

From Ricochet's Tool Box

I'm not quite sure sometimes if I'm more clever or cheap or lazy.  Most likely it's a combination of these qualities that make me the crafter that I am.  Allow me to elaborate, please.  There is always a home improvement project going on at my house.  Hence, we always have an abundance of blue painter's tape lying around.  As you probably already know, the main use of painter's tape is to tape off areas that you don't want to get paint on.  Also, the main quality of the blue tape is that it is low tack, and therefore easy to remove and doesn't leave a sticky residue behind.  Because we have a lot of it lying around our home, I have been utitlizing it in various crafty projects.  Here are some examples:

I used lots of blue tape in my Paper Weaving Tutorial.  It really
helped to secure the weave and keep it nice and tight.  When
it was time to remove the tape, it left the paper undamaged.

I used blue tape in my Tudor Rose Tutorial to secure the leaves to
the petals.  When I tried it with stick pins, the pins caught up on parts
of my sewing machine and fell out when I was rotating the flower.

This is a photo of wallet I was working on a while back.
I used tape to mark where I wanted to place the inside pockets.
I also wrote the measurements on the tape.

When I buy a pattern, I unfold all the tissue and tape around the
edges of all the pattern pieces.  Then, I cut out the pieces.  This
reinforces each piece and makes it really easy to trace onto fabric.
The blue-taped pattern pieces don't fit neatly in their original envelope,
but usually I paperclip them all together an lay them on a shelf.
I only take the time to do this with a pattern that I know I will use over
and over again.  

As you can see, blue tape is used all throughout my craft room.

The masking tape doesn't have to be blue, of course.  When I was making
 The Envelope Wristlet Tutorial, I used some regular masking tape
to help me mark where to place the magnetic clasp on the flap.

Because it has a higher tack than the blue tape, I used regular masking tape
to keep the edge of the flap clean and decoupage free.  You can see
the finished project here: Another Modge Podge Upcycle.

Stay tuned for more unconventional crafting supplies from Ricochet's tool box.  Also, please check out our current sewing challenge, The Naughty Notions Challenge.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

My Craft Cave

Many crafters out there have jokingly called themselves Craft Divas, Craftaholics, etc. What I call myself is nothing so glamorous. I'm a Craft Mole. I craft underground far from the light of day. Down the steep steps to my basement and around the corner lies my Craft Cave. It began existence as our guest room, but my crafting has taken over. The cave is cold, dark, and smells faintly of mothballs.

You can see the little curtain at the top of this pic.  That is my cave's only window.  At about 10' x 20" and located in a recessed window well, it doesn't let in a lot of sunlight. 

Here's a look at the opposite wall.  This pic is a bit old.  The stacked cardboard boxes have been replaced by actual heavy duty shelves. 

Yes, there is a bed in here!  I promise to remove all the stick pins before you spend the night!