Product Review: Cropper Hopper

I wrote a review for another blog in November, and never heard from them, so I figure I'll post it here for you.

Cropper Hopper 10 Drawer Rolling Organizer

This is a great way to store and compartmentalize little, lightweight things. A scrapbooker, a jewelry designer, a quilter, an office worker or a student would all be able to keep his / her things organized. I bought this on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when lots of things go on sale, and many people in the long line had this organizer in their carts. One lady said she was going to assign each group of students in her classroom their own color-coded drawers. It could be useful to keep by the door for each household members' keys, signed permission slips, or mail. You could purchase drawer organizers, like those used for utensils, to separate out smaller items.

It does require some assembly, but it is not difficult. The directions, with five steps, are easy to understand, and have clear pictures. Everything you need is included, with some extras. The box says you need a hammer, but I'm not sure what it is for, maybe snapping in the casters. I didn't have any difficulty just pushing them in. The only other equipment I used was a screwdriver to tighten the screws behind the drawer knobs. The box did not call for a screwdriver. You could add other drawer pulls (not enclosed) to personalize your cart. The dimensions are 37 1/2" H x 13 " W x 15 1/4 " D.





The drawers are nice size, about 10" W x 14 1/2" W x 2 1/2" D, with plenty of room for a ream of paper and other supplies. There are ten drawers, with room at the top for additional things. I plan to use stickers to label the drawers. Hopefully this will help me put things back where they belong. The drawers are not enclosed, so they will collect dust. I plan on covering my organizer up when not in use. To open the drawer, either lock the wheels or hold on to the cart. There are no locks to keep the drawer in the cart, so it is possible to pull too hard and have your supplies spill out onto the floor and the other drawers. The drawers only open from the front.



It is lightweight aluminum, and plastic, not industrial strength. To test it, I put a ream of paper in the top drawer. The picture shows the top drawer pulling away from the rail, but not slipped off. It felt like the drawer was straining to open, and when I closed it and opened it again, it slipped off the rail, so it was resting awkwardly on the second drawer. Even though there is room for a ream of paper and other supplies, I would recommend storing things that are lighter. I will keep my beads and other small items in containers before putting them in the drawer.

The average retail price seems to be around $70. I haven't compared this with other products, but I think you should be able to find something sturdier for that price. The Black Friday price was $24.99, which makes it a good value for me.

Pros

Pretty colors, color coded supplies.

Lots of drawers to compartmentalize stuff in a small convenient space.

Can be moved around a room with casters. Two of the four casters have locks.

The drawers are removable, so supplies are portable.

Cons

The drawers will fall off the rail when loaded with heavy items.

Some assembly required.

The drawers are not covered, so you could get some dust in your storage. This also makes it hard to move over thresholds and to different floors, depending on the contents, in case something spills out of the drawers, so it is best for a designated craft room.

The drawers do not have stops in the back, so you have to be careful to not open them too far, so your contents aren't all spilled over the floor, and into other drawers.

Since I wrote this post, I loaded it with my supplies. I'm loving being able to organize my stuff and finding it easily. I thought 10 drawers is a lot of space, but I apparently have lots of supplies. Pins and needles, 2 drawers of ribbons, beads, scissors and rotary cutters, markers, small templates. I have one WIP in there, but I'm not sure I'll use it for that - most of my UFOs tend to be bigger than will fit in there. I haven't gotten a chance to label the drawers yet, I was waiting to make sure I was sure about my loading choices. I have a tendency to not lock the wheels, and I had a box of unopened pins that fell all over the floor as a result. I was planning on also doing a review on the sewing table as well, and I will do that here later.

Retreat

Virginia Cole of Galloping Pony is holding a cyber retreat at the end of this month. Check it out.

Cheddar Cheese and Crackers

I think it snowed 17 days in a row. But yesterday, the sun was out, and started to melt the snow off the street and roof. It is warmer and winter doesn't seem so bad here.

I've been watching the news about the earthquake in Haiti, and the aftermath. It brings to mind all the other disasters that have happened around the world. I really feel for the people in Haiti, and hope that help gets to them quickly. It takes a while to organize and coordinate relief efforts, and it always seems to take longer than it should to get help to the people who need it.

I've finished the first step of the Cheddar Cheese and Crackers quilt. I had counted how many pieces I needed for this block, and didn't think about the ones I would need for steps 2 and 3, so had to dig out some more of the Bali pop strips. I decided to move on to step 3, and go back and do step 2. Hopefully, everything will look coordinated with the different strips I used, but if it doesn't, it doesn't much matter.

Nothing like an earthquake to keep things in perspective.

African Circles

I just love the Quilt Reveal label. I put it on this post before I even started writing or adding pictures. This is my first finish of the year, hopefully the first of many. The binding is done on the African Circles quilt. This quilt is very different from my normal style, and I didn't even think I had one, and took me out of my comfort range. The African fabrics are busy, and I added a background that was also busy, but hopefully tames and brings them together. I know that the circles are arranged symmetrically, which wasn't the plan, but I had to put them in a pleasing arrangement, and symmetry is pleasing to my eye. Just as a reminder, I used an old CD as a template, and the circles are attached raw edged with a zigzag stitch. They are also quilted with a zigzag stitch around each circle. According to some sources I've read, Africans make their quilts busy to avoid evil spirits from getting into them. Somehow to my logic, it seems that busy quilts would trap the evil spirits in a quilt, which is still somehow a good thing. In either case, I added some quilting in a zigzag pattern on the circles on the side for the evil spirits. They may see that they will be treated like pinballs in this quilt, and avoid entering. The border also has zigzag stitching, to create a diamond pattern. Although it didn't need more quilting, since the circles are quilted, it did look like it needed more quilting design, so I looped around the middle circles. It was hard, because I wanted to make sure I wasn't causing any lumping as I created the loops. I didn't, even though the photo shows a crease. I'm not sure I like the circular quilting. I might take it out and add diagonal lines joining some of the circles. I'm just not sure the diagonal lines would look any better, and not sure it would make an overall difference in the quilt. Please let me know what you think. For now, I'm calling it done, and reserving the right to redo the quilting. I've added this blog post to Blue Cricket Design's show and tell Wednesday, and Amy Lou's Sew and Tell. Feel free to click on the links to see what other crafters are up to.

Cheddar Cheese and Crackers

I know I was going to finish African Circles before starting a new quilt. I could sit down all day and finish sewing down the binding, but I would prefer to do it when I am sitting down to watch TV, leisurely. All that sitting around is not good for me, and I've never abandoned a quilt at the binding stage.

I know I said I was going to make circle banner quilts, or finish some UFOs, or at least start on one of the quilts that are already kitted up and not started. I might have to call the kitted quilts UFOs, just to get moving on them.

But I also said that I was going to take advantage of little projects when they called to me. And Lori at Humble Quilts is making a doll quilt called Cheddar Cheese and Crackers. It's a doll quilt, how long can it take? I'm not making it as scrappy as she is, but I think batik fabrics will add to the variety. Even though I am technically opposed to cutting up a jelly roll vertically, since it kind of ruins the point of buying precut fabric if you aren't going to use it's precut features, I figure since this takes just a few strips, it won't hurt to do it this time. It keeps me from rummaging through the stash for other fabric, which is always a good thing.

Binding

I'm working on sewing down the binding on the African Circles quilt.

Scanfest Resumes

I've been reading a genealogy book - one about writing your history, and looking at the photos makes me jealous. These gorgeous black and white photos of days gone by, which we have very few of, beautiful certificates and memorabilia, and even the color photos are nice. The boxes of ephemera looks so nicely old and well loved and well used. I was thinking that if I photographed boxes of ephemera, they would simply look cluttered and dirty and disgusting.



They did lead me to resume Scanfest. Instead of starting with one of the big boxes, I thought I would start with a smaller album. Note that the first photo is not all inclusive of the photos that need scanning. This album is one my sister gave me, probably for my daughter's second birthday. It wasn't a quick scan-while-reading-blogs, because the photos are tucked into sheets, so they had to be taken out and put back in after the scan. It is a nostalgic trip down memory lane through diaper changing and spoon feeding days. One thing I love about these pictures is that they are taken before we became artistic. The backgrounds are clear for everyone to see. I can see what my sister's place looked like.

I think we need to do more of that. Besides taking the artistic shot, and the closeup shot while blurring the background, once in a while, we should take a wide angle view of the background. So what if it is cluttered or boring. It will remind the future us of the setting of the story of our lives in 2010.