Remember these – the box full of batik sunflowers last seen here in 2017? They have been my focus for a week or so because I decided that I needed to make a few more.

A few? Famous last words. Because this was the result.

Thanks to a blogging friend who had sent me a lovely selection of batiks from her stash, which I had set aside for this project, I have a few really interesting sunflowers to be made. A few? Try 90+. I got carried away and any batik I had that I hadn’t used already for a sunflower and that I thought might be fun got added to the mix. There are about 50 done already. Add these 90+ and I’ll have a huge number of 6″ sunflowers. This may end up as more than one quilt. But that’s far, far off at the snail’s pace I seem to be working these days.

I did, however, get one new sunflower pieced and ready to add to the box of finished ones. It was fun to sew one of these again after so many years. Hopefully it won’t be more than a couple of weeks before I’m back to sewing them frequently, if not exclusively.

A while ago, I got one of the Oliso mini irons. For the longest time I didn’t really use it. However, for prepping all the sunflowers, I put it to good use and I’m thrilled with it! Unlike most irons these days, the hot setting actually means the iron gets really hot which is exactly what I want when pressing fabric to freezer paper – I want there to be a good bond as that ensures I get a perfect print every time. This little beautify of an iron does just that – gets nice and hot and makes it easy to achieve a good bond.

Because I’m too lazy to wrestle with getting out and setting up the ironing board every day I want to press some freezer paper to fabric, I often just use my wool pressing mat on the kitchen counter with an iron. Up until this I was using a regular iron you can buy in any Canadian Tire or other store of that kind. Now? Now I’ll always use my Oliso! I was using the flimsier Reynolds freezer paper for the sunflowers and was amazed at just how well it got affixed to my fabrics. I was even able to stack 6 or 7 pieces in the printer, set it to print and just wait for it to finish – and got perfect prints every time. All because that little iron had gotten hot enough and my freezer paper/fabrics were ready to print with no problems.

It has a little silicone sole, this side of which is used to rest the iron while it’s hot and plugged in and while cooling down once it’s turned off.

Once the iron has cooled down and is ready to be put away, turn the sole over and this side clips on to the bottom of the iron.

Now it’s ready to be put away, with the cord wrapped around it. I have no affiliation, I’m just thrilled with the fact it gets so hot and makes it so easy to affix freezer paper to fabric. That’s a big deal for me as I print pretty much everything I piece using Inklingo, and have struggled a bit at times to find irons that get truly hot. The Oliso mini does just that every single time. Of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s pink and it’s cute. It does come in other colours as well.

I plan to be back before Christmas. Plan being the operative word. I would really like to get back into a blogging rhythm, but time will tell whether I manage to do so.