A new toy and Blogger's Quilt Festival

I recently read  a post by Kerry at Simple Bird Applique. She published a tutorial about preparing points on her applique pieces and one of the tools she used was a Dritz Petite Press. You can read her post here. I was intrigued by this little iron and knew I had seen it at my local sewing store so I decided to pick one up and give it a try.

The packaging states that the Petite Press has four temperature settings, the head pivots, it has an erogonic handle and it heats up in seconds. One of the features I like is the built in rest which can fold back out of the way when the iron is in use and then it folds down when you want to set the iron down. The sole plate is small enough that you can keep your fingers out of the way but it is much larger than the sole plate on the Clover Mini Iron which I also have.

The Petite Press has a red light that blinks when the iron is heating up and when it reaches temperature there is a soft beep. While it does heat up quickly it did take a more than a few seconds! I pressed a few hexagons and it really delivered. The Petitie Press would be great for pressing open small seams and for turning applique edges. Just like the Clover Mini Iron it does take some getting used to because it doesn't have the heft or weight of a regular iron. Neither iron has steam. My Clover iron came with a carry case that is heat resistant so I can pack up the hot iron when I'm done however I found that the Petite Press cooled down very quickly once turned off so the carry case is not a big issue for me.

Here you can see the sole plates to get an idea of the size difference. The Petite Press sole plate measures a whopping 2 1/2" from tip to the base.

The Dritz Petite Press was about double the price of the Clover Mini Iron so that is a consideration however I think I will get more use out of the Petite Press. When I'm doing a lot of small piecing or applique work I'll just set up my mini wooden ironing board next to my sewing machine and I'll use my Petite Press!

Blogger's Quilt Festival is now on. There are many spectacular quilts on display and you can visit all sorts of interesting and creative blogs. To vote for your favourite quilts just click on the heart in the upper right corner. It will show as red once you've cast your vote. But before you do that be sure to visit the blogs. If you click on the picture of the quilt you will be taken to the blog where you can see better pictures of the quilt and meet the blogger. Back at the Festival you will see a green check mark to indicate that you've visited the blog. There are so many interesting and innovative blogs to visit. I'll be spending some time between now and May 29 to discover new blogs and to vote for my favourite quilts!

I've entered two quilts. In the Small Quilt Category I entered Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden.

In the Scrappy Quilt Category I entered Stars in the Loft.

I've linked up with Angie over at A Quilting Readers Garden for more hexagon fun! If you have a few moment do pop over for a visit!

That's it for today. Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H