{Post 1,321} New Setting for HST Quilt

 

This setting is perfect for my HST quilt.  I have enough triangle units for 8 more blocks.  A row of 3, a row of 2, then another row of 3.

The above piece measures about 60" wide by 53" long.  There are very few seams, so it won't shrink by much when the units are sewn together.

I am not working on this any more tonight because MY NEWPHEW WAS BORN A LITTLE AFTER NOON AND I'M LEAVING TO SEE HIM IN THE MORNING!!  Just a teensy bit excited.

{Post 1,320} HST Star Still Needs a Real Name

Earlier I was cleaning out a drawer or two from under my cutting table.  I have some drawers of "what was I thinking when I cut these extra units?"  I harvested enough HSTs or triangles to piece these...

Yes--the lighting in this room is not for sewing!  The oil-rubbed bronze semi-circle in the top right of the picture is a SMALL table lamp.  See how its light only goes so far?

I will add the above star blocks to THIS:

How is it possible that every new project is my new favorite?  I think I'm going to call this one "Scrap and Save" because of using up all the scrap HSTs.  Doesn't that sound like a discount grocery store?  I see a boo boo in one of the blocks above.  Do you see it?  Will fix in the AM.  Too tired tonight.  

Good night all!

{Post 1,319} New Set-Up for Sewing Room/Bedroom

I sort of had a brainstorm tonight concerning my new sewing digs.  I really am trying to make the most of this new space.  

When I moved everything to the garage to start the bedroom renovations downstairs, I was realizing that there was a lot that could "go" that I was moving.  These drawers hold a multitude of things.  I will purge them later.  

I had a little ironing board to my right on my L-shaped sewing table.  Usually the serger goes there.  I hardly ever use the serger.  The ironing board was awkward to use.

When I passed through the laundry room earlier today, I saw my big board ironing board that I made back here.  I was wishing I could use that for ironing.  Then my inspiration struck.  I could move up these four 3-drawer cabinets to use for storage and put the ironing board on them.  But, alas, they were too short.  I remember now that when I used it before, the drawers were on our hearth downstairs, bringing it to the perfect height.  

I had two of the metal mesh crates for hanging files that I was this close (picture my thumb and index fingers a centimeter apart) to giving away.  Voila!  They raise the board to the perfect height as well as serving as a "bookshelf" on top of the drawers.  The boxes in between them need to be purged as well.  All in time, grasshopper. 

Soon I will make a curtain to hide the drawers.  It's too much to look at for me...it looks messy.

My computer was moved over to the right of my sewing machine.  I didn't like the desk it was on anyway.  There was so little storage that it wasn't worth the space it took up.

Some good lighting, and soup is on, baby!!

{Post 1,318} I'm Beggin' Ya

I would LOVE, and I mean l-o-v-e to see your sewing areas, large or small.  I am trying to make my now little space worth every square inch.  It will be in my bedroom.  Please email me a picture of yours to whistlersmother10@carolina.rr.com.  Thanks so much!

{Post 1,317} I Spy Quilt Center...Nearly!

Here is my grandson's I Spy quilt center.  It lacks the skinny outside row on the left of cornerstones and sashings.  I need to cut some squares to finish it, but I will fold it up and put it away after that instead of having another photo op.

One hundred unique pictures to learn from and play with!!  I am going to add some kind of outer border.  I am thinking a pretty stripe radiating out from the quilt center.  I will look in my stash and maybe shop for something.

{Post 1,316} Fireplace and Door

Some more work was done Tuesday night, the night of our big winter storm.  The fireplace is ready for drywall and wood trim, and the sliding glass doors are out and the single exterior door is framed in.  It is coming along quickly.

Isn't it funny that when you see a picture, things strike you that you don't notice in person?  I find this true when I look at a quilt layout picture, room decor, and now in this project.  

The bricks of the fireplace will be exposed for about 10" around the opening.  Do you see how dirty they are?  The inside is horrible, too.  I see a lot of cleanup in my future, as well as some painting inside the opening.  Good thing I got some experience doing that here.  Click on the "fireplace" label to see all the posts surrounding that makeover.  We are going to do some more to it after the bedroom downstairs is finished.  something similar to what is being done to our downstairs fireplace.  Stay tuned!

I am not going to Ohio now to see my sister.  Our plans changed.  So I am finishing up a quilt top for my grandson.  It only lacked one row.  Picture to come later.  I also am doing some clearing up of miscellaneous things in my bedroom/sewing room that just got dumped earlier.

{Post 1,315} William's Quilt FINISHED

Baby William's quilt is all finished (that means washed, dried, and labeled).  Here it is...

{Post 1,314} New Sewing Digs

You know we are under construction here.  I don't think we are going to add on the big room for me to use for a sewing room.  So I thought I was going to have what was our guest room to use as a sewing room.  So I was doing my usual thing when faced with a new room situation.  I had a piece of graph paper marked off with the size of my "new" sewing room.  I had cut out little pieces of fabric to scale and was moving them about in the room.  Then my husband walks over and basically says "That's not going to happen.  Kill your ideas now."  Now he was much nicer than that.  Of course.  But I saw my "dream" going down the drain like so many dirty soap suds.

Here is what I have now.  I realize it's a lot more than many of you have.  It is not a designated sewing space.  In fact, these pictures were taken from my (unmade) bed first thing this morning, from right to left.  But I have room for my design wall, cutting table, and sewing table.  Luxury, right??

Some better lighting, and I'm good as gold!  

Trying to look for the silver lining,

~Joan

{Post 1,313} Burp Cloths to go with Quilt

These we're made using some scraps left over from the quilt.  Only sewing the binding by hand remains to be done.