GREAT GIFT!

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home Saturday to find a mystery package from someplace I had never heard of…I have not ordered anything from Nebraska.  Inside was a wonderful gift from my friend and quilt client, Barrett.  Can YOU figure out what this is?

 

It is called a Crystal Press.  You use it like one of those little wooden “irons” for pressing fabric seams but this is better because the acrylic is much slicker than wood, so it slides right along the seam line and does NOT distort the fabric like the wooden pressers will do. 

(Please forgive the poor photo… one-handed-photography is not my specialty!)  A REALLY neat gadget, and I am a gadget girl.  I have drawers full of them and some of them just did not live up to my expectations, but this one really IS neat!

 

Please note:  This will NOT completely take the place of your iron!!  I am a pressing fanatic, and firmly believe that the quality of your quilt top is directly related to how well you press!!!  However, this tool will help you by pressing out small units  during block construction, and then the larger units/blocks would be pressed with the iron to get everything firmly pressed down into the direction it should go.

So you say, where can YOU get one?  You can email Lee right here at Crystal Press.  Wholesale orders can also be made through United Notions.  Check it out!!  They also have point turners that my friend says work very well because they do not poke through the corners of what you are turning like most of the pointy things I use to help turn corners right-side-out do.

SSSOOOOOOO…. What was I working on with all those strips? 

I’m trying to finish up the locker-hook rug started in the class I took with Jamie Wallen this past summer.  He showed us how to neatly hook the strips together, but for the life of me I just can’t get mine to lie as flat as the strips he joined.  The TYPE A that I am, I want them really neat and flat so I have chosen to SEW the strips at a 45 degree angle like you would when joining binding strips together.  I then press the seams (using my Crystal Press) and fold the strips in half (just like you would for binding) as I wrap them up.  The angle causes you to have very little additional bulk as you are working your strips through the canvas.  Now they are ready to go when I get back to working on this project.  

And the rug… about 2/3rds done!!  It is a good TV project (not that I have time to watch TV right now!) and hopefully it will be completed after the Christmas quilt rush.

And… speaking of the Christmas quilt rush….. 18 more quilts to do!!!!  I think today is a 2-quilt day, so I better go get to it!

Kat