Pressing Matters

Just last week I received the Elna OpalPress that I won in the International Professional Quilter Association membership drive. It was perfect timing because I was already planning to wash and iron my accumulated new fabrics in preparation for my winter studio time.

It was very easy to set up once I cleared off some space on my cutting table.

Here is the mass of fabric waiting to be smoothed.

Once the press reached the proper temp, ironing the yardage was a breeze. Just lay out the fabric . . .

Close the press for a few seconds and it was done! Marvelous!

While it took less attention to do this pressing (so I could pay attention to the movie I was watching), you do want to be very careful when positioning the fabric on the board so that you don't touch the pressing panel. That pressing panel on the top is HOT! I brushed it briefly once with my knuckle -- ouch!

A finished stack of fabrics.

Overall the Elna OpalPress is wonderful and it is going to make pressing fabric yardage fun. I just wish I had the space in my studio to leave it set up all the time, but it is great that it stores and sets up very easily.

My very first sewing machine was an Elna AirSU, so I was already expecting that I was going to have a quality product from Elna! I bought it when I was 16 and it is still around - although at my daughter's house.

I'm still debating whether to share it with our inn (the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn) housekeepers! I'm sure it would make ironing sheets, pillowcases, and table linens much easier, but I'm loath to give it up myself! May have get another one just for them. I'll have to try it out in the laundry myself this winter, when I do most of the housekeeping myself.

My husband says now I can iron his shirts. I told him I would leave the instruction manual out for him! ;-)

Squirrel-ish Dilemma

I want to be happy with this, and I am with most of it, but still it is not quite right.

The dilemma is that to fix what I think needs fixing could require removing most of what I've already done. Gads! Suggestions are welcome.

My next moment in the studio is not until next Saturday, so I'll be mulling this over all week.

Hear the Music

I finally decided what to do with the rabbit figure I created last December. The rabbit has been on my design wall all year just waiting for inspiration to strike.

I was cleaning up my studio and came upon stack of leftover cut-outs from making guitar ties. I spread them out on my cutting table trying to decide if there was some way to reassemble them into a "fabric" sheet that I could use again, when out of the corner of my eye the rabbit beckoned. I lay the rabbit on top of the scraps and noticed that the colors were very complementary for the rabbit and when reassembled in a random fashion were scrambled enough to become an almost neutral background.

Well, that was that. I call this piece "Hear the Music."

I'm currently working on squirrel piece. The squirrel and tree were created by the same technique as the rabbit.

Right now I'm working on what other elements I'll add, such as the grass. Nothing is stitched to the background yet, so this is very much a work in progress.

I'm also playing with the idea of adding some sort of flowering tree/shrub blossom in the upper left corner, just to contain the eye within the composition.