[Post 1,523] One More Post For Tonight

My fellow blogging friend, Julie, has one of these quilts as her blog header picture.  I just winged it and am making one from hers.  No pattern.  One of my daughters has claimed this as her Christmas quilt this year.  I am making a piano-string border.  This is the center completely sewn together.

One of my friends made me two little "shelves" for under my sewing machine and desk area.  They allow my knees to bend at just the right angle and make less strain on my back.

Here is the back of an I Spy quilt for one of my little guys.  I forgot to take a picture of the front, but it was bold 4-patches alternating with novelty prints.

One of my long-time friend's daughter is getting married this Friday.  W-a-y back on April 29 she came over and we pieced this together.  We took turns.  I cut while she sewed (and then I pressed), and then I sewed for a while while she pressed.  In a short time, we had all the blocks sewn, pressed, and laid out.  She took them home to sew together into a center (no borders).

{Post 1,452} The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I just now realized this post didn't make it to Blogger.  I don't know why.  It should have been posted about 5 hours ago.  So these are out of order.  Just pay attention to the post numbers.

Before:

{Post 1,453} Five Hours In

Five hours later...I have taken a couple very short breaks so I didn't burn out.  I'm quitting for the day now.  Here are a few shots of the transformation so far:

From the closets before:

After:

Where my quilting machine is going to live:

From the door to the room before:

After:

Most of the "mess" along the wall over by my green-curtained cutting table is quilts or quilt tops.  Just need to fold them and put them away.  

Whew--I feel like I accomplished a lot today.  Still lots more to do.

Anyone want a package of very small bits of Thimbleberries?  

{Post #1,451} My Generous Husband

Never saw this coming.  In fact, it was the farthest idea from my mind.  Yesterday I wanted to rearrange my office/craft room.  Half my stuff was in my bedroom, half was in the office, and I don't know where the other half was stored.  Mathematically that is impossible, but it does touch on the scope of my frustration!

I asked my husband for input on rearranging the furniture/goods in my office to make better use of the space.  Then I mentioned that I'd like to move my cutting table and pressing station in there.  He said, "Why not move it all into our bedroom and move our bed in here?"  It took a while to sink in.  When my son used the office as his bedroom, it seemed cramped with a twin bed and dresser in there.  Move our QUEEN size bed in with side tables?  Um, yes.  I literally shed a few tears over this idea.  My husband is the epitome of unselfishness and generosity (yes--he has both qualities to the max).

We slept in there last night.  There are many upsides to this arrangement.  We like a small bedroom.  We don't have an exercise area, lounge area, dressing area, etc. in our room.  We just need a bed and side tables.  Our noisy neighbors whose driveway is right outside our bedroom window and enjoys sharing the vroom-vroom of their Harleys and boom-boom music are no longer an issue!  It is cozy.  It is more relaxing because there is not all the quilt stuff screaming "pay some attention to me, would ya?"

Now to rearrange my former bedroom into my quilt studio.  Diving in on that as soon as I finish this post.  To pay tribute to my Susanna, I will take before and after pictures like she taught me.

Another benefit is that Wes is going to move my quilt frame and quilting machine in there after I rearrange the pressing station and sewing machine table.  All my sewing stuff in one place again!!  Whoo-hoo!!  Oh, the changes this past year have held.  Some GOOD  :)  In case you're a new reader, I packed up my former sewing space about a year ago and have been in a state of transition ever since.  I think we have finally hit on a long-term set-up.

Moving the quilting machine and frame out of our living room will give us room for my desk and cedar chest for grandchildren's toys in there...another solution.  It's all looking great!

{Post 1,355} Minis May Be Finished

Here is the back of my last mini (for now!):

Here is its front.  I found a bag of HST and put them to use way back for a mini.

Here it is hanging out with friends.

I used something I got at Lowe's called wire tacks for hanging them.  I just tapped them with a hammer right through the top corners of the quilt right inside the binding.  Hardly noticeable, but very sturdy.

I have fabric to recover the ironing board and to make a curtain to hang down in front there.  

These days it seems to take me forever to get anything done.  I don't know how I took care of a husband and 8 children for all the years that that happened.  

There is one more suit jacket for me to hem the sleeves, and then I will be finished with those 8 suits.  They've been haunting me for months now.  Another "friend" asked me to repair a comforter she uses on her bed.  It's store bought, silky fabric.  It has shredded along a seam.  I think hand-sewing the edges back together after taking it up a bit to get to usable fabric will do it.  But that's all hand sewing and very meticulous work.

Going to do that last suit today, then move on to other things.  Enjoy your day!

{Post 1,354} Mini, Mini, on the Wall...Who's the Fairest...?

My minis (above my pressing station in my new sewing digs, AKA bedroom) are almost complete.  I have one more pieced that just needs to be quilted and bound.  The largest one (in the center at the bottom) is 15-1/2" square.  

I like each one of them the best.

{Post 1,347} Getting There With Sewing Space

    

Here is the view left to right in my sewing area in my bedroom.  So many little things got done, but I must stop and machine quilt a baby quilt for a week from today.  

The mini quilts above the ironing station (last pic) are just taped in place.  I actually have at least 2 more but don't know where they are right now.  

There will be a curtain on the edge of the ironing station to hide the plastic drawers eventually.

Wes built a shelf lifter so I can store bolts of fabric under the cutting table.  That means my green shelf by the door does not have to be used in its entirety for fabric bolts!  Yea!!

It goes the whole way across.  Eventually I will get all the many boxes and bins of stuff in here organized.  All in good time.  I want to make new curtains for the bookshelf, ironing station, and cutting table.  The green ones have been with me a very long time.  There are more minis to (find and) put up.  

But now--the baby quilt is calling.

{Post 1,346} 4 Out of 6 Lights Up

The pictures don't do it justice, but 4 of the 6 canned lights are up and functioning.  Like night and day is the only way to describe the difference.

{Post 1,343} Pegboard Up And Nearly Full

I bought one pegboard hardware kit at the hardware store.  It was more than enough for all I need so far.  The above arrangement will have some tweaking, I'm sure.  

So happy to realize that there were "shelf brackets" for me to set my basket of misc. stuff on!  

I had the idea of using a skirt hanger to keep my in process blocks hung on.  I can always move those if I run out of room.  

I decided against hanging my rulers on there.  If I keep them to the left on the rack, I can access any one of them without removing those in front of it (if they were hanging).  Very pleased with it so far.

I also had the idea of putting a vinyl clip on my steno notebook that I use for note taking all the time in the process of counting pieces, planning designs, etc.  It looks like it will work very well.

{Post 1,342} More Sewing Area Updates

The above picture is my completely empty pegboard.  Let's see how it will look afterwards!  I hope to keep most of the stuff on my cutting table on there.  I painted it the same color as the wall.

Next up is one more spool rack I got in GA this past weekend.  It will help me empty one more drawer.

One last picture from the wedding.  Susie made her dress.  This is with her parents (me & Wes) and her husband's parents.

{Post 1,339} Fabric Bookshelf in Place

Many hands do, indeed, make light work.  My husband, two sons, Rachel, and I got this moved up and into place and all the fabric bolts replaced in a very short amount of time.  I think I can fit all the other bolts down in the garage on the top of the green-curtained shelves.  I will remove the curtains and use the top section.  That will leave a wide shelf on there in the middle for some bins or boxes.

Tomorrow, I'll be painting a pegboard sheet to match my bedroom walls.  I have gathered some ideas for getting some things off of my cutting table and on a pegboard.  

{Post 1,338} Moving This and That

Amazingly enough, the gi are all hemmed and ready to be returned.  I hope to get a lot more as the days go on.  Easy money for me.

I did some rearranging since I was on a roll with the sewing stuff.  I figured since my youngest and I were the only ones home, it would be easiest to do it now.  He was a huge help and accepts payment in milkshakes.

Below is a space where I hope to put one of my fabric bookshelves.  When I cleared out my sewing room to make way for my daughter's new bedroom (the renovation you are probably tired of reading about), I sent a fabric bookshelf and many boxes of books to my daughter in Florida, thinking I would have built-in bookshelves in my new sewing room (that I know now isn't going to happen).  So I have to find space for all those bolts that were on the 2nd bookshelf.  Not to worry...I have a plan.

Here's my ironing station.  I put it where my cutting table used to be.  It is narrower, allowing more walk-through space between it and my bed.  I added the two black plastic crates in the middle.  Not only do they support my ironing station better, but I can put all my quilt books, magazines, and single patterns in there, freeing up another shelf elsewhere.  If I find my leftover green curtain fabric and have enough (it is over 10 years old), I have a plan for making curtains to hide the multitude of drawers and whatnot in here.

When I was originally picturing my new set-up, I thought I'd have to sacrifice my L-shaped sewing table.  Years ago, my husband cut a hole the exact shape of my sewing machine base in the left side, and it now rests on what was supposed to be the keyboard drawer.  It is the perfect height for a large flat-bed area for machine quilting.  With being able to keep the whole table (instead of taking off one leg of the "L"), I can keep my laptop set up in here for blogging, grading school work, and watching the occasional movie or listening to live-streamed music. 

My cutting table.  My husband made me a riser for it, and that has saved me so much backache, I'm sure.  Next to it is an empty *gasp* 3-drawer unit.

Here is the ugliness under that table.  Thank God for curtains!!  The pizza boxes have watercolor squares in them by fabric.  The center two boxes on top have mailing supplies and special fabric collections.  The drawers have a multitude of precut triangles and squares, binding pieces, templates, and the like.  I hope to clean out this whole area as I go through and purge and straighten.  If I need the space, I plan to raise that shelf 4" and put bolts of fabric sideways up there.  We will see.

{Post 1,337} Beginning of Sewing Room Space

Here is one of my bookshelves I used to keep many things stored in downstairs.  I am going to take off the bottom curtain and store bolts of fabric in the bottom.  The top will hold my books and individual patterns.  I will be giving away a lot of books and magazines in the future for postage only.  Stay tuned!  

On top of the file cabinet on the left is a small 6-drawer set.  It holds trim, thimbles, notions, sewing machine feet, machine quilting supplies, needles, etc.  All neatly labeled for easy access.

Last night my husband attached my cone and spool holders on the side.  I am going for maximum storage in minimum space.  I'd like to get everything except my quilt frame in my bedroom.  It used to be in a 24' x 18' room, so wish me luck!!  For some reason I find this challenge hilariously impossible.  Baby steps!

{Post 1,333} Inspiring?

As I was cleaning up my bedroom yesterday, I came across this spool stand for the umpteenth time (however many that is!).  I decided to arrange my spools on there, knowing I didn't have nearly 60, which is the stands capacity.  Well, I have 62.  The legs on this are sort of stiff/tight, so it won't fall over easily.  This gives me some extra leg room under my sewing table since I used to keep them in a bin down there by my feet.  And the rainbow of colors is so inspiring!  

It looks like it will be quite a while before I am set up to sew again.  The lighting is so bad that I had to use my LED clip-on light to illuminate the rack enough for the colors to show up!

So many activities and little trips here and there break up the time, plus there is much to do yet to get my daughter's room ready for her to move into.  I am looking forward to a more organized and usable space for sewing.

{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 1,314} 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 1,307} Good News

See the lovely PINK insulation?  That means...

1.  We don't have to buy it.

2.  It is not moldy.

Aaaaaaaahhhhh...

{Post 1,306} Ready to Renovate

Here are a couple views of the room we are renovating.  I have packed up all my sewing supplies and moved them to other locations for the time being.  The room is empty except for two trash cans.  My husband is starting to take down the dropped ceiling and its metal supports.  The fireplace is going to undergo a big change.  Stay tuned for that.

I sewed a quilt block together today!  My sister is mailing me the fabric for my new nephew-to-be's quilt.  I am having trouble getting good lighting in my bedroom for sewing.  I was spoiled in my former space (above) with those lovely fluorescent lights.  

We are replacing the sliding glass doors with a regular exterior door and adding a wall just to the left of the fireplace.  It will be hard to get pics once the wall is in place.  I hope my girl likes the new room!  It will be 15 feet square when finished.

{Post 1,305} Making MORE Progress

This moving things around is such a big project.  I'm afraid I'm very close to losing momentum.  But there's always much to do here.

The sewing corner is set up in my bedroom.  Wes actually walked in after the sewing machine was set up and my cutting table was in here and said (and I quote):  "It's not that bad."  Of course, there are no projects under way yet.

The view at the other end of the room.  Again--not bad.

Downstairs is nearly cleared out.  After this picture, both of those bookshelves (the "fabric one" and the "green curtained one") were moved to the garage.

The design walls are heading out to the garage too.

We will definitely be finished with all this moving stuff around this weekend.

I just found out tonight that my parents will be here tomorrow, and we were already having two other couples over for supper.  My husband will be gone all day (which is quite rare), so we'll see what happens tomorrow.  

My daughter and I kind of mapped out where everything in the new bedroom will be placed, so things are under way!

{Post 1,304} More Progress

You don't have a quilt frame in YOUR living room?

Sewing room progress (I will have to point it out for you!).  The sewing machine table is gone.  The books are MOSTLY gone from the bookshelf on the farthest left along the wall (hence the 5 boxes of books in front of it), and the cutting table (with the green curtains around the bottom) will be moved to my bedroom shortly.

A big thank you to my husband for taking his break time from work today to unassemble and move my sewing table up to my sewing room.  He is behind me right now putting it back together.  What a guy!!

I am going to focus on getting the rest of my bedroom ready for this big change, and then back to the sewing room (if Ben has brought me packing boxes from work).

BTW, I am mentally planning my new sewing space (several months down the road)...if you have any organizational or whatever ideas from your room that you LOVE, drop me a comment or an email!