Yesterday was my weekly trip into town to run errands and do the weekly shopping. On the way home, I had to drive right past Hobby Lobby. Instead of driving past it, my car somehow ended up in the parking lot. It is funny how that happens.
I purchased several items for the grandchildren's Easter baskets. Then proceeded to the fabric department, where all fabric was 40% off. A few weeks ago, I had bought a lovely light blue gingham and hoped to find more so I could use it as a quilt backing. Unfortunately, it was sold out, so I bought six yards of green instead because I'm planning a new project.
Well, I might as well use the blue gingham I have on hand. So, I decided to use it for recovering my ironing board. It needed recovering a couple months ago. The picture is nicer than real life. Most of the white background is scorched brown and tan.
When recovering my board, I don't remove the old dirty fabrics until I get about 4 or 5 layers. Well fiddlesticks! The gingham will be layer two and the old fabric is showing through. UGG. I can't leave it like this and I don't want to remove a gazillion staples that hold the fabric to the board.
My solution to the problem is to double up the gingham.
And 15 minutes later the board is looking pretty cute!
Then it was time to deal with the green gingham. It's was cheap 100% cotton. $5.99 a yard at 40% off made it $3.60 a yard.
The lack of a selvage edge is a good clue that this is not a quilting cotton. I think it could be a woven or homespun. To be honest I don't know the difference between the two. My plan for the fabric is to make ruffled pillow shams for my bed and curtains.
Prewashing cheap fabric is always a good idea since it could bleed and shrink more than good quality fabric. Raveling can also be an issue with cheap fabric. But this one held up pretty well.
After ironing and starching the entire 6 1/2 yards of fabric I planned to put it back on the bolt. This makes it easier to deal with on the cutting table. But for the life of me I could not get it the edges lined up without puckering.
After about an hour of wresting with the fabric and not being able to get it to lay flat it was time for plan B. I'll just fan fold the fabric at the end of the table and deal with the puckering as the fabric is cut.
Today's plan is to quilt on the frame and cut the green gingham for the curtains and pillow shams. If my ruffler foot is delivered today I'll start making the shams later in the day.
