Design Wall Monday - 8/22/16

First - I just have to get this tragically sad news off my chest - I've had a death in the family.

I was devastated when I realized last Thursday that my iron had died - the heating element had given up the ghost. I'm sure that you can guess I was in the middle of something. It was a slow death instead of the burning plastic/smoking mess the last one went out in...so that's a plus.

It's OK tho - I went to the adoption agency over the weekend. This will be my third of the same model. The first lasted less than 6 months and Walmart replaced it rather quickly after I showed them the stinky burned iron. The replacement iron lasted 4 years to the month. That's $6 a year for a decent  heavy iron and I'm ok with that...

And now you know why nothing from the last week has been ironed...

As some of you may recall, my family runs the antique division at the county fair. 2/3 of our time is supervising which means being available to answer questions of the visitors and workers. And I bet most of you know that I don't sit too well. Instead I work on hexies!!! Hence a VERY productive week.

Of course, now that the fair is over I start one of my other jobs collecting school taxes so the hexies are going to be ignored. It's feast or famine here at Casa Grande...

This is the last of my houses for our hexie club birthday swap.

This is also the last of the Cherrywood honeycombs that I prepared -
 it's time to bite the bullet and find a fabric for the center.

I am definitely getting my "curve" on.
I was trying to press and cut these pieces when the iron died Thursday.
I've only got 7 more pieces to attach...

Design Wall Monday - 9/10/12

I have a single, very pathetic, picture for you today...

It's a cute and simple little mug rug based on something I saw online yesterday. All I had to do was pull some 3.5" squares out of a box and wa-la! I just need to find a backing in the scrap bins and I am sure I can find some binding scraps as well.

I added the lingerie fabric to spice up the picture for you! It's leftover from some scrap trimming I did over the weekend. I trimmed scraps for 3 scrappy projects and the rest went into strip bins. Not an overwhelming accomplishment but any progress is better than none, right?!

Ahh...the other upside is that I took that stupid, dead iron to Walmart and before even telling the lady the whole story, she said "it has problems" and told me to get a new one off the shelf - no questions, no receipt. It's the same iron so it could have the same problems but if they will keep replacing it, so be it. On the suggestion of several people, I did not add water to the iron for the whole weekend but by Sunday night I just couldn't take it any more and added water...I'm much happier :)

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Don't forget that next Monday is the 17th and will be the next installment of HeLP for Hexie-aholics. Please come back and join in our HExie Linky Party!!
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Grandmothers Choice #1

Have you all seen the new Grandmother's Choice blog? Barbara Brackman is doing another block of the week that will share the history of US women seeking the right to vote. Blocks will be posted each Saturday and there will be 49 blocks total.

I've decided to do mine in batiks, given the recent stash enhancement! The black I am using is also a batik - it has a little blue in it but it's so small I don't think it will show up much. The blog shows 3 different color ways for each block and I'll be doing mine as if it's a 2 color quilt but each block will have a different batik.

The first block was posted on Saturday, 9/1/12 and I completed mine almost on schedule :)

There were 2 problems with making my block, however.

1.

I decided to do the 4" block size. Have y'all tried cutting pieces that are 1 3/16"? I would appreciate suggestions for a good acrylic ruler that has 16ths on it. For now we'll ignore that my block isn't perfect - and we can because it will all be hidden in the seam allowance.

2.

My iron was banished to the front sidewalk. As you may recall from this post back in April, the iron wasn't yet 6 months old and leaking. This weekend it was making some extra noises and then I smelled something awful. Burning plastic! The thing was smoking up a storm and smelled horrid for hours. I unplugged the cord immediately and fought to get it unwound from my table so that I could deposit it outside. Harumph. My GC block and several others were finished with a "wooden iron" but it's just not the same. Mom and Dad think I should take the iron back to Walmart and demand a refund...

Do NOT buy this iron!

 



The steam has damaged the lables



  

I bet I haven't had this iron 6 months and it's driving me nuts. I like a good heavy iron with lots of steam holes and this iron was touted for it's steam and durability. I had to turn down the steam levels when I first bought it because it was so copious (enough of a blast to burn your hand) but I soon found that as the water is used from the iron I have to turn up the steam level to maintain the same amount of steam. That's tolerable but a bother as my other irons were much more consistent regarding steam.

I have hard water (the directions said to alternate tap and distilled water) so I expected the calcium (?) deposits to come out of the iron. I'm even ok with the fact that the Teflon coating is wearing away on the edges. I do use my iron every day and not for ironing clothes!

What I'm not thrilled with is the fact that the iron now spits, spurts, fizzles, dribbles and drips. It even sometimes spurts dirty water on my fabric and board cover!



All good quilters have a close stash of candy!

The dripping has been sporadic as the iron was used but yesterday morning it also created this mess. Every single time I set the iron down after pressing a selvage, more water would leak out.

This is the second iron I've bought since I moved back to NY. The iron I brought back with me had lasted all 14 years I was in Miami. The next iron was a Black & Decker that worked like a charm until the heating element gave up the ghost.

I really don't want to buy another iron when this one technically works. I can't seem to justify the expense, even tho this one was only about $20, especially when I have no idea how long the next one will work. Maybe I need a cheaper iron so I won't worry about the expense...

Anyone have iron suggestions?

Yup - it was snowing this morning!

Iron versus hard water

I like my iron a lot - it's a GE that I picked up at Walmart a couple years ago. The black looks nice, it's got some heft to it, there are a lot of steam vents (yeh, send in the quilt police) and the 6 foot cord is quite helpful at times. It does have auto shutoff but it heats up so quickly that I don't care and it's nice to know that if I get sidetracked elsewhere that it WILL shut off on it's own.

Unfortunately, the water here is very hard. The directions that came with the iron said to alternate distilled and tap water. I did for the longest time but there were some calcium deposits that would come out the steam vents when I shook the iron or pressed the extra steam button. I could deal but decided to just use distilled for a while to see if it helped.

Last night I ran out of distilled, needed my steam and filled it with tap water. It had just turned off so I pressed the power button to reheat it and all the sudden I heard steam while I watched water and brown gunk/calcium dribbling out the bottom steam vents. It made a mess of my iron board cover but it also made a mess of the sole plate. Any ideas how to clean the calcium out? Vinegar works on other items but what about in an iron? Anyone else have problems with hard water? I would love to hear what you do...