A tip from Ann O. that she passed on during last year’s Back To Basics class. To get better/larger ironing space for your fabrics and blocks with your standard ironing board, turn your board 180 degrees so that the narrow part is on the right and use that to hold your iron. You free up more of the wide area of the board and still have enough room for the iron and a spray bottle. Genius!

Subsequent online searching supports this tip. It was the method taught to English butlers who were responsible for ironing the masters newspaper. Well, that was from a PBS drama but it sure seems true.