Old Iron Uses

HA – you probably thought I would take one day off of blogging?!  Nope!  I had to laugh when I found this image of an old iron.  My mom had a very similar iron when I was a kid.  It was very heavy but my mom was smart and taught me how to iron at a young age.  I used to love to iron – so satisfying to get all those wrinkles out of a shirt, and to see it all crisp and ready to wear.  Those skills stayed with me though – although I rarely use them on clothes.  Are you kidding me?  If I have time to iron I rather be be sewing.

I just had to replace my old iron with a new Oliso Smart Iron, but I couldn’t just get rid of my old friend.  Even though it no longer wanted to steam, it still ‘worked’ and I found a new handy use.

We have taken to ironing our background and batting as we’re laying up our quilts.  We have a rather large island in the kitchen, and the granite top works perfectly for layering and even ironing.  We used to just smooth out the three layers as we pinned and would often have to smooth out wrinkles as it was hand quilted.  Since we stumbled upon ironing the layers, plugging the iron on the side of the island and working *without* steam – cue the old iron – for perfect smoothness.  I’ve seen others suggest using painter’s tape to hold down the backing, which would work well too.  Since we’ve been giving the fabric and batting, when needed, a quick iron I’ve found no issues.  It does take a few minutes but it is well worth it when hand or machine quilting.  What method do you use?  Have we gone too far?!