A Weekend of Tools

First I used this…


to do this (the untiled portion is where the microwave will go)…


and this…


It was amazingly easy with that little saw. Very dirty, but easy. Grouting will have to wait. After two days, the mastic still wasn’t dry. It’s been cooler here, but very humid.

So, after I washed up and put away my new toy saw, I decided to see if I could steal some time in my sewing room. I painted the walls and of course that required moving everything around and I discovered that my beloved antique ironing board had a broken leg. It was cracked nearly through and I could see it was a hot iron on a bare foot waiting to happen. But I love that ironing board and didn’t want to see it go. So I decided to see what sort of a Frankenstein creation I could devise to save it.

First I removed the legs. Then I assembled a three sided box out of pine boards and attached it to the under side of the ironing board. I didn’t remove all of the metal leg pieces from the board because they were attached with rivets and I didn’t want to break the board.


Next I attached the bottom side of the box to the top of an old dresser I have in my sewing room and use to store stuff in.


I plopped the top of the box onto the bottom and attached with screws through the side.


See the box? I suppose I could have closed the ends, but who’s going to see them?


Now my dilemma was that I didn’t have a cover for the board for I had to cut the old one off to do this surgery (kind of like they do in the ER when you are in an accident). This board is wider than most and I’ve tried the large covers, but they never seem to stay on so I stapled the last one to the board. That’s why it had to be cut off. So I got some old wrapping paper that was a little worse for the wear anyway (I didn’t have enough of my white pattern drawing paper) and I laid it on top of the board and traced.


A crayon would have been a better tracing utensil than the carpenter’s pencil I used, but I haven’t unpacked that box, yet. (See the green walls?)

Then I pinned it to some prequilted fabric that is a pretty pale green that I bought at Joann’s with my 40% off coupon and cut it out. I used my ruler to stay approximately 4 inches from the line.


I attached double fold bias tape to the raw, lining up the tape to the raw edge and staying about an 1/8th of an inch from that edge.


And then I attached some more…


When I got back to where I started, I left a gap between the two ends.
 

Then I folded it over and stitched down the other side again staying very close to the edge.


In fact, I tried to keep the folded edge of the tape very close to the seam I stitched on the opposite side.


Why all of this close stitching? I was making a tube through which I could insert a cord.


I have no pictures of that part of the process, but I can tell you that it is not a fun task for someone with carpal tunnel.

I had enough of the quilted material to cut out a piece the same size as the board and I stapled it in place on the edges just for a little extra padding. Then I put the cover on the board and pulled the cord tight and tied it off and Voila!


Now you are probably wonder why on earth I would put a green cover on an ironing board attached to this orange dresser, but do not fret. I plan on making that orange dresser into a chocolate brown dresser but mother nature has decided that for the time being my town is in the exact epicenter of a rain forest. Therefore, spray painting outdoors is not possible. So I will have to do that at a later date. I think the chocolate brown will go well with my green walls.

So this week I used a tile saw, a staple gun, a hammer, a chisel, a nail claw bar, a drill, a screwdriver, a pencil, a sewing machine, scissors, and a ruler. And tonight this laptop is a “toolish” as it gets!

Oh, I almost forgot! I sent a package of scraps to a fellow Buckeye, Jayne from Jayne's Quilting Room who has a friend named Amie. Amie is making a postage stamp quilt, which I feel is a very large endeavor to begin with, but to top it off, Amie has decided to make every one inch square, all 9072 of them, from a different fabric. Amie is taking donations because to be able to that on her own would require a stash we would all die for! Amie hasn't got a blog, but if you are interested in following her progress check out Jayne's blog, especially this post and this post.