Not board!

The current cooler weather is very welcome for our reorganisation projects - hooray!  Even better, we can see progress being made.

We hired a skip bin recently, which was great for clearing out the garage/shed.  (Some stuff had survived the Great Cull of 2015 but was superfluous to our Queensland life).

Given the downstairs flooding of early 2020 (and lesser incidents since), we have become cautious about what we store - and where. More culling and organisation is on the agenda.

The various reshuffling has also prompted other projects.  Yep, I made an ironing board cover today - finally!  

I can't remember exactly when I bought the board but it was after arriving in QLD.  The cover was well-used, so I put a bright tablecloth over the top.  Easy, no-sew fix!

Last night I unpicked the old cover while watching TV.  It was funny to see the flower imprints!

I trimmed that batting piece this morning, as it had been too long for the board.  I then rediscovered an insul-brite remnant in the stash, for extra padding.  (I think the remnant was $4.00 and I still have another one for the intended use).  It wasn't exactly the same size as the original layer but covers the top and most of the overhang.  I sewed both pieces together with a zig-zag stitch.  The floral fabric was a $2.00 Dalby op-shop find from our overnight trip last September.  It had some marks and fading but I was able to use the best area for the cover.  

I'd watched a few YouTube tutorials yesterday and pretty much followed the common construction method, using elastic to fit the cover snugly over the padded layer.  It turned out really well, which made me wonder why I hadn't made one sooner! Of course, there was some fabric left over and I've used a bright section to trim two hand towels, upcycled from an old bath towel.  I'm really liking the co-ordinated look (and may also make more lingerie bags, trimmed with the same fabric).  The laundry area never looked so good!

Bee happy!

I really liked using my travel bowl cosy while away in Canberra - and decided to (finally) make a set for home.

The sunflower bee print is one of my images, printed on metal.  It's displayed in the kitchen and other bee art (including a gorgeous original painted and gifted by Kerry) hangs adjacent the kitchen doorway - so it made sense to feature this lovely bee fabric.  

I don't remember where the sunflower yellow batik came from but I'm sure it was a bargain!

I've watched many YouTube tutorials on bowl cosy construction.  There is much emphasis on using cotton fabric, batting and thread to ensure safe microwave use.  I watched a different presenter this morning, who offered an alternate view in terms of safety - and I was pondering her approach while viewing the next clip, of a cosy that had caught fire in someone's microwave!  

Although we used our travel set in the hotel microwave without incident, I'm thinking I'll mainly use this new set as bowl holders, to protect hands/laps after food has been reheated.  They fit our standard soup bowls quite well, though are a bit roomier around the pasta/porridge bowls.  I went out today and tried various Kmart and BigW bowls.  They were all quite similar in size.  It occurred to me that I could adjust the darts for a better fit around the deeper bowls but then the shallow bowls wouldn't sit well, so I'm just going to accept that's the way it is - and bee happy!

Cosy mornings!

Earlier this year I made two padded carry bags for our owl mugs, purchased during our anniversary splurge.  

The bags were a bit roomier than necessary, which has proved to be an expected bonus - now that I've added extra items to each.

Nick and I are heading off on another short adventure, staying several nights in a Canberra motel.  

Our room has a kitchenette with microwave and we've decided to breakfast as usual, so will take our preferred porridge/oat mixes.  We use large bowls at home when cooking our porridge, so thought it best to pack similar - because the larger volume bowls ensure no boil-over/less mess when cooking. 

Obviously the bowls get quite hot in the microwave.  I sit mine inside a cereal bowl when serving, to prevent burning my hands.  I've made bowl cosies previously as gifts but finally decided to make a pair for us.  They will provide extra padding for our bowls when in transit - and then serve their intended purpose when microwaving.  As it happened, there was just enough lining fabric leftover from the padded bags to make two cosies, so the sets look quite co-ordinated.

The cosies are intended to be used with the bowls inside (to protect hands/laps from heat).  When in transit, the cosies will sit inside the bowls to provide padding between them and our mugs.  The mug rugs will tuck around the mugs - and all will pack sideways into the bags.  I'm quite pleased with how it's all come together!