Flimsy

 My star quilt top is finished.  My sister in law said it reminded her of pop rocks... so its called Pop Rockstars.  That gray star on the top left isn't that washed out in real life.  

 This quilt along has been so much fun!

I'm declaring my first attempt at a piano key border a success.  It changed the whole quilt and I am in love with it!  Hoping to find backing and binding today :)

yoohoo...Im still alive

I'm still alive over here.  Just trying to unpack, keep up with the quilt along I'm hosting on FB, and making dinners since the hub is home now... all the craziness is good.  

We had been living in an old on-base townhouse for the past year and a half and decided we hated it.(NO front windows! AT ALL!)  They were making the old townhouses 'off-base' anyways, so we thought if we were living off-base we might as well live someplace we like.  We bought a house in Rapid City (actually in Rapid Valley)  and we LOVE it.  Even if the hubs is often doing things like this...

Our little house deserves some new paint and a few new faucets.... then she will be much purdier.  I'll blog soon about the Jukis' new accommodation. 

I have been sewing a little here and there on my stars then saving the pressing for sewing night with my friends.  I ended up after a few little spurts with a pile of these...

The other morning I had one finished star from my tutorial making in June.... withing an hour or so I had.... 

 Finished stars!  They came together so quickly!  

Yesterday I sent the monster to nap, the puppy was snoozing and I managed to get my top done!  Then I went outside to take photos in a thunderstorm.  -see that stone facade?  It delayed closing on this house by a ding dang week!

I ended up making a star of each fabric... just to remind me of this quilt along and all of the women sewing along with me.  It been a lot of fun! 

stalled

These eleven blocks had me a little hung up the past few days.  I pushed on a prevailed!  Random is not my strong suit.  

I just have the fifteen -four rectangle blocks left to assemble and they are way faster. It took me 15 minutes to sew six of them together.  Thanks goodness!  

I'm still loving this project!!!  

Portable Ironing Board Tutorial

Little FeFe and the board I made her.

 Several months ago I bought a portable ironing board and a mini iron to take with me to sewing night with my friends.  The ironing board was 30 bucks and thankfully I had a 40% off coupon.  Still, it's plain and it's a little bulky.  But I love taking my little mini iron and my board to sewing night so I'm self sufficient.  I decided I wanted to give one away during the online quilt along I'm hosting, but the 30 dollar store bought version was out of my budget. I decided to make one.  A cute one.  There are a ton of tutorials.  This is just how I did mine.  I recently saw a tutorial for a TV tray turned mini pressing table.  GENIUS.  I might make me one of those too.  Hehe.  

This was a cutting board I picked up at the W-mart.  It was 7 dollars.  From now on I will keep an eye out for wood cutting boards on clearance or at garage sales.  I also picked up a cute cut of fabric.  I bought 1/2 yard, but I had plenty to make FeFe a little cover too.  I used a hunk of Insul-Bright and a hunk of regular cotton batting, some grip liner and the Hubs' staple gun.  

 I trimmed the batting to a couple inches around the board, the Insul-Bright I trimmed real close to the board since I didn't want to waste any.  

 This photo is blurry, but you get it.  I pulled the long edges over first and stapled tight.  I needed a little hammer to get the staples down tight.

Looking good.

 For the corners I just tried to taper them in a little before I folded it down.

 I dont think this looks terrible, but I wanted it to look a little neater.

I took section of extra fabric, pressed the rough edges under and stapled it on the back so all of the rough edges were covered.

I used a hot glue gun to put the grip liner on.  Which burned the heck out of my finger, but it was worth it.  No Pain No Gain!  RIGHT?! 

 Easy right?

 And darn cute too!