Sandra Clemons: Homemade Iron Boards

Hello Friends.

I had the most wonderful family weekend. My 3 year old daughter performed in her first recital. When I say performed, I mean she performed on stage in front of a huge audience. Yay! As a parent, I'm not sure if my child is participating in an activity simply to please me. Perhaps, it starts out that way, but seeing her smiles and hearing her giggles, it was confirmation that she really enjoyed it. In fact, she didn't seem nervous or shy. She was ready to go. It truly melted my heart.

With that, it was a crazy week. I did my web seminar, which was discussed in this post. I published another pattern, which can be purchased on my Etsy Shop.

Meanwhile, I started Instagram and Facebook. I've been posting my progress on quilt projects for the last week and plan to keep it going. Check-um out. If you like what you see, then please support me by clicking 'like'.

On Saturday, I managed to start another project. For the Denver Quilt Guild, I organize our annual quilting retreat. Yay. Aren’t retreats so much fun! Well, in the effort to make the retreat as comfortable as possible, I decided to make 4 iron boards instead of asking and organizing volunteers to bring iron boards. This leaves extra room for our quilters to store more supplies in their cars.

To begin, I headed to Home Depot. There I found a sheet of plywood on sale for $7.50 a sheet. Not bad. The sheet was 5/16th thick. I didn’t want it too thin, say a 1/4” because I didn’t want the plywood to easily warp, nor did I want a too thick plywood, say 3/4” thick, because I need to be able to carry and haul it around. The 5/16th seemed just right.

I plan to make 4 cutting stations for the retreat. 4 sheets of plywood were loaded by my kind husband and hauled to the back of the store where they cut the wood.

A nice service Home Depot provides is free cutting. I had them cut my sheets of plywood to my desired size. In this case, I’m planning on placing these sheets on a banquet table that measure 28” wide and 6’ long. I asked Home Depot to cut my sheets to 32” x 76”.

Why the extra 4”? Well, I plan to have a little bit of overhang to screw in 1" wide boards underneath each side of the plywood sheets to prevent the sheets from moving. However, I changed my mind on during construction. I have to haul and store these things. In the effort for space consolidation, I'd like for them to stack on top of each other nicely. I don't expect them to slide too much on top of the tables, but if need be, then I'm ready to screw in a few 1" wide boards. Instead, I stapled Grip-It Shelf Liner to the back side.

Once the pieces were cut, they were hauled home.

Meanwhile, I took a trip to IKEA. If you didn’t know, they have FABRIC. Fabric off the bolt and most are 59” wide. Yay! I picked around at the different patterns and opted for plain & simple. I bought 9 yards of the gray linen for 4 boards. I picked plain & simple, and instead of fun & pretty, because when I’m ironing my piecing, I don’t want to be distracted by the pretty print of the board. My focus should be on my pretty pieces for my quilt to notice any imperfections. Yes, they do happen and boy, it would be a sad day if you see them when the quilt top is completed. And yes, it has happened to me. I had to rip an entire quilt top down to the blocks. Ugh. I don’t wish that on anybody.

Back to the boards. A trip to Jo-Ann's with my 50% off coupons to buy 4 Warm & Natural queen size battings. All my shopping was done.

Here's a list of all my ingredients to put these iron boards together.

- 5/16th sheet of Plywood cut to desired size

- Fabric yardage to fit the plywood with an extra 4" on each side.

- Cotton Batting to fit the plywood with an extra 4" on each side. You'll need 2 layers.

- A staple gun and extra staples.
- Grip-it Shelf Liner

- Hammer

- Duck Tape (Make sure it is real duck tape. The fake kind doesn't stick very well.)

To begin, find an open and clean area. Lay out your fabric right-side faced down.

I kept my queen size bat folded in half and then laid it on top of the fabric.

Next, I laid the plywood on top. Did you know there is a smooth and rough side to plywood? There is. I kept the smooth side faced up. This is the side that will be exposed and handled. Gently, guide your hand over the surface of both sides. You should notice that one side is rough and the other is smooth. You are free to sand the board and even paint over it, but really it isn't necessary. This is the side that won't be seen.