Hi fellow quilters. It seems to me that there are three Wednesday’s in the week these days, or am I just slowly going mad? The Quilters Quarters Newsletter comes to you again this week with a Secret Santa Gift idea exclusively for the subscribers to the newsletter.

This week I’m going to give you instructions for a very simple, easy and most importantly extremely useful quilter’s gift. This is a great idea for those quilters that don’t have a lot of room to keep their ironing board up, or to have a full size ironing pad taking up precious bench space.

I call it my Mini Press Pad.

You’ll need a bread board. I recommend the rectangular shaped boards. You don’t need to buy a new one, an old one works well.

An old or new pillow protector.

Aluminum Foil

An old or new pillow case.

Some masking tape.

It’s this simple. Firstly make sure the bread board is free of food and completely clean and dry.
Cover it completely with the aluminum foil. You may need to use two or three sheets to get a full coverage.
Place the aluminum covered bread board into the pillow protector, making sure the board is completely enveloped in the pillow protector. You may need to cut off the excess pillow protector.

Then insert the pillow protector covered bread board into the pillow case and arrange the cover so that it neatly wraps the board.

Using the masking tape, tape the whole thing together, making sure that you don’t put any masking tape on the proposed ironing or pressing pad.

And there it is, your very own Mini Press Pad. It can be put away when not in use, or even dismantled when no longer required. A great simple gift to make using recycled items from your home.

My article this week discusses the Journey that Machine Quilting has taken in modern times. Back in the 1970’s we wanted to quilt quickly, but it was absolutely taboo to use your sewing machine. Only hand quilting would do. My article offers a rather funny look at how far we’ve all come to arrive at today’s’ Quickie Weekend Wonders, or Womb to Tomb quilts, started and finished in the same day!!!

Go to the forum site if you have any comments to make about Machine Quilting in modern times.

I’ll talk with you next week.
Have fun quilting and Cheerio for now
Judie Bellingham
Editor Quilting BellaOnline