Ricochet and Away!: Pinterest

Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2013

Fancy Feet Sewing Challenge: March 2013

March's challenge is all about those tricky sewing machine feet that sit in our sewing boxes and never get used. Come on, you know you're guilty! Every machine comes with a variety of feet, but few sewists do anything more than switch between the zig-zag and zipper feet. Here's your chance!

[source]
Check out this Bad-boy!
A Ruffler Foot

[source]
This one has a lovely conch shell spiral!
Binder Foot

[source]
Looks like a FMQ foot, right?
Wrong!
Open Toe Darning Foot

Dr. Suess's Foot Book comes to mind while I'm writing this post. My, what a lot of funny feet there are!

Hello and welcome to the Fancy Feet Sewing Challenge! This sewing challenge is open to everyone whether you publish a blog or not. This will be the 10th sewing challenge I've hosted. The first 4 challenges were co-hosted with Keren from sew la vie! Keren and I began these sewing events with the purpose of creating a collective learning experience for a group of kindred spirits. We wanted the challenges to be about inspiration and improvement of sewing skills rather than a competition. Those ideals hold true today.

You'll probably enjoy these challenges if you can answer yes to a few of these questions:

Does the theme of the challenge appeal to you?

Do you have a free afternoon (or 2) during the month of the challenge?

Do you want to improve your sewing skills or expand your sewing knowledge?

Would you like to connect with other participants from all over the world?

Are you more apt to finish a project if you have a deadline?

Please read the simple challenge guidelines:

Choose a sewing machine foot that puts you out of your sewing comfort zone and learn how to use it.
Complete a small project utilizing said foot. Don't shoot yourself in the foot (ha!) by choosing a difficult, time-consuming project. Your challenge won't be met if you can't complete it by the deadline.
Photograph your project. Bloggers submit their entry by writing a post about their experience. Non-bloggers submit their entry by emailing me their photos and I'll post on their behalf.
A just for fun poll will be conducted concerning the finished projects. Winners of the poll with receive bragging rights and fancy blog badges.

Here's the challenge timeline:

Now through March 31st. All projects must be submitted. That means bloggers will have posted and non-bloggers will have emailed me.
April 1-30th. Just-for-fun poll takes place.
Mid April. A new challenge for May will be announced.
The beginning of May. Poll winners announced and bragging rights established.

Visit my FAQ page HERE.

Grab a button and spread the word!

I like to make a Pinterest inspiration board for every challenge.

All the challenge participants can be added as contributors.

It's an easy way to share links, techniques, and ideas.

March's challenge board:

Fancy Seams Sewing Challenge

Previous challenge pinboards:

Curved Seams Challenge

Ring You Neck Inspiration Motherboard!

Fab Folds Sewing Challenge

2-in-1 Sewing Challenge

Garment Sewing Challenge

Solids-Only Tote Challenge

Naughty Notions Challenge

Typography Challenge

Be sure to scroll through and answer all the questions:

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Before you click away, I'd like to invite you to join in my current sewing/craft challenge.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Cleaning the dirtiest iron

How dirty is your iron? When was the last time you cleaned your iron?

Yikes! This iron came with my husband who got it over a decade ago. As far as I know, I'm the first person to clean it. Sad, right? I have no excuses. I'm just a lazy procrastinator. Yes, I am.

I have been pinning various iron cleaning methods, and decided it was time to try some out.

First up is salt:

I poured some salt on a towel and ironed over it on a medium heat setting for several minutes. I noticed some cleaning was occurring, but the results were less than satisfying.

It was working though. You can see how dirty the salt got:

Next up was dryer sheets:

I tried both new and used dryer sheets with the heat setting on low to medium. I put a white piece of paper between my ironing board and the dryer sheet. As you can see, some grime was eventually transferred to the dryer sheets:

However, after griming up 4 dryer sheets, I couldn't see much of a difference in the surface of my iron.

Next was steel wool:

I didn't find a pin using steel wool, but I figured I needed something abrasive to get this junk off. I just spread out a thin layer of steel wool on a sheet of paper and ironed over it, rubbing back and forth and in circles. This method showed the most significant cleaning power, but my arm was getting tired by this time and the going was so slow.

What worked?

MAGIC ERASER:

2 minutes with a damp Magic Eraser on a cool iron and the whole stinkin' thing was shiny and clean!

I used up half an eraser, but it was much faster and easier than any other method.

Just look at the difference:

I promise I won't allow my iron to get this dirty EVER AGAIN!!!

How about you guys? How dirty is your iron?

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Before you click away, I'd like to invite you to join in my current sewing/craft challenge.

Since this is a first for me (and my iron!) I'm linking up to Celtic Stitches' New to Me in 2013 Linky Party!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Curved Seams Sewing Challenge Jan 2013

Curved seams.

I've never tried them before, but I've been wanting to ever since I first saw the popular

drunkard's path quilt block. Here's a beautiful example of the drunkard's path block in action:

[I found this pillow at Made On Main Street]

And here's another way to arrange the blocks:

5 x 4 Modern Bee - Block for Megan - Hive 12

[I found this block at She Can Quilt]

I'm excited and eager to add this technique to my bag of tricks. I hope you are too!

If you're new to my sewing challenges, you can visit my challenge page and visit all my previous challenge homepages. Basically, I provide a challenge and participants attempt to meet it.

The focus is on:

committing ourselves to learn/try something new,

to step outside our sewing boxes, and

to meet a reasonable deadline

It's always fun and inspiring, and it's a great opportunity to meet other creative and crafty people. After the challenge is over, we vote on the finished projects and the winners receive bragging rights and a fancy blog button. You think this might be something you'd be interested in? Keep reading!