Thursday, November 16, 2006

To sleep, perchance to dream.

My "never fail" trick of coming up with some of my very best design ideas while in the grip of a fever seems to have let me down this time. I'm thinking a low fever works better than a high fever. My concentration and creativity is non-existent the last few days, and I miss lying there drifting off to sleep with the shapes and colors of future quilts dancing in my head. I did get two finished quilts out the door yesterday and another one due to be picked up today or tomorrow. Still waiting on the name block to come back from my friend with the embroidery machine and get that one done and gone, and a simple 9 patch and I'll be through with OPS for a while. Maybe by that time, I'll have some motivation to get back on my own.

I killed another iron the other day, this time the good Panasonic. My one absolute requirement for any iron is an auto-off feature. That's an absolute imperative, between my forgetfulness and my cat's penchant for sleeping on the ironing board. I can do without spade-shaped burn marks on the floor, ironing board, cutting table, fabric, what ever it happens to land on when he's ready for a nap and shoves it off because, as we ALL know, he IS the king of the entire known universe and nothing is more important than his comfort. Well, food maybe, but that's about it. So, back to the auto-off thing. I had the choice of 2 different styles at Fred's so got the lighter one with the shiny sole plate. Only AFTER I get it home, get it fired up, play with the burst of steam thing, press some binding and a sleeve, then come back to it, do I realize that the damn thing shuts off after 30 minutes, whether you're using it or not. And when it shuts off while you're actually ironing, it spits water everywhere. To turn it back on you have to UNPLUG THE FREAKING THING and plug it back in. Not nearly as convenient as the box leads you to believe. I may put this one back for a spare (for the many times I've needed one at night and killed the current one) and go back to Target to replace the Panasonic.

I've had expensive Rowenta irons, cheap Continental irons, and everything in between. I manage to kill every single one of them within about 6 months. For a while I was buying a more expensive one each time, thinking the quality just wasn't there with the cheap ones and a good one would last longer. I did that for a few irons until I realized that the expensive ones didn't last any longer than the cheap ones and I'd rather pay $15 twice a year than $60 twice a year. I have no idea why my mojo with irons is so bad either. They don't get dropped (I do move them off the ironing board when I'm not actively using them....see reference to Gumbo the cat above) and they don't stay on all the time (see reference to auto-off above) and I don't do much weird with them beyond maybe melting some Tyvek or something and I don't let them run dry while on the steam setting. No real explanation of why I can't keep one for more than a few months at the time. By the way, did you know you can blow out the thermostat and ruin an iron if you add cold water to a hot iron? If you HAVE to add water while the iron is hot, turn the iron to no steam and pour a tiny bit of water in first, then add the rest of it. I can only imagine how many more I would have killed over the years without doing that.

I'm telling myself that I will get back later today and post some pictures. Maybe if I post some quilt pictures it will motivate me. Or maybe I'll post a picture of the cat. Something besides words in any case.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Your whine last night made me laugh..."come back tomorrow for sweetness and light." lol Too funny. I guess your irons get a workout. You probably use yours as much in a week as many of us use ours in a year...it's kind of like an iron time warp. I did not know that about the thermostat! I do that all the time..adding cold water. I won't do it again. Thank you for the advice.

I look forward to a picture post. I need to get a pic up on my blog too...hmmm, but first I need to make something.

Anonymous said...

My last Rowenta lasted almost a year, but when it decided to give up the ghost, not even Joanne's 40% off coupon could induce me to spend that much money on a short term appliance. I bought a little
Sunbeam to replace it (very cheap at Walmart) and it cuts off if you don't keep using it. I'm always jumping to pick it up so I won't have to plug it in again. Grrr. Is there not an inexpensive, but perfect iron out there?

Rissa said...

My creativity has been in the toilet too. At least you are not ultra whine girl. :-)

I got a white cordless iron at Hancock a few years ago. It has worked very well for me.