Studio Revamp... the after

What is behind curtain #3??
Time for the ribbon cutting ceremony???

I feel like I should be doing a great unveling of a studio all redone - with everything in it's place, no clutter, nothing on the table, and all my intended revamps completed.

That isn't quite the case -but as I can't wait any longer, I will show you the highlights of what IS done.

The Table(s):

Thanks to an angel on the internet and the generosity of ReUseIt members (a yahoo group for repurposing similar to Freecycle) I was able to swap out tables for a new one. It is a bit smaller - but the benefits are tremendous! Lighter in color, compatible space wise with the cutting table, and straight leg construction allows for some under table bins to be utilized.

Not only was I able to completely open up my cutting table, I was able to tuck some things under the cutting table, too (like a dresser, cabinet, bookcase, and rolling cart - plus some flat storage!!!!) Overall the two tables together take up just a smidge more space lengthwise than the old table but it opens up the area where the cutting table had been stored... AND I have this wonderful cutting space with a full size cutting mat to cover the whole thing!

I am using the table for a while intact to get a feel for the new space, and will have Hubby go back in later and make the modifications to drop the machine in. No sense rushing and then not being happy with it.

The Storage:

I moved the taller mismatched dresser to another wall - and plan to have hubby run a shelf most of the length side wall the same height as the low dresser.  Tucked underneath, all those mismatched bookcases will easily accessible but hidden by a curtain, which will add a bit of brightness to the room, keeps down on the dust, and yet be removable for easy washing (I have a cat...'nuff said).  The plan is to eventually repaint the big low dresser to match the shelf color and add drawer pulls to it - but that is a ways down the line.

You can see here during the painting process what it looked like with those shelves stacked, and what it looks like after with them unstacked.  I am still working on where the easel will find it's final spot, but now that the yard sale stuff is cleared out of the storage end, I have a bit more wiggle room.



The Walls:

I started with an inexpensive primer -prepared to add a few coats of necessary.  Emptying the room to paint was not an option, so I worked section by section... shifting things around as I went along.  I pretty much went by the 4 foot wide sections of paneling, and could double prime one section in an evening.  Needless to say this was a LOONG project.

I used leftover yellow from the Munchkin's bedroom and it really brightened things without turning the room into an "institutional white" situation (plus it used up the surplus paint - we had bought two cans for his room when he was an infant -and used just over one).

The area that is still being used for storage was not painted, and here you can see side by side the primed and painted color versus the old color. I opted to cover with 2 coats of primer and one of the yellow so I would not have to purchase paint, and there is still a wee bit of paint left in the can.




The Floor:

A rug moved from the bedroom to the attic helped to brighten and unify the floor under my sewing chair and table (although the overall room is still a patchwork of exposed wood in the storage area, two different area rugs and interlocking colored foam tiles)  Dropping the stacked bookcases also really helped to open up the room.  Wire shelving runs along the side of the table and helps to create a barrier over the top of the opening to the stairs, while providing storage at the same time.

And I still have room for the Munchkin to join me to play or watch movies.

There is still more work to do - a few yard sales this month will remove some of the storage boxes (I hope) and continued stash busting should help open up space to store fabric that is now in bins.   A few more things need to be put away - and I have my fingers crossed for a window replacement contractor to come in later this summer.

All in all a MUCH more pleasant place to play.

(next post I will let you know how much this project cost...)

The Frugal Quilter?

Jill wants to know how I save time and money while quilting.  And since I am currently NOT able to do any quilting due to a total revamp of my studio (more on that to follow- soon - I promise) AND I am home with a sick child today - I thought I would ponder this for a few moments.

Saving money is easier for me than saving time...

The first answers are the obvious - shop sales and coupons.  Be it your LQS or JoAnn's or whatever store you prefer - find a way to score any discounts you can.  I like my Gutermann thread -and buy neutrals for piecing - the biggest spools I can get - but only when I have a coupon or it is on sale.

Next - scrap quilt... I use bits down to 1" square for various projects so I get the most out of every yard.

Third - become a frequent customer at your local library!  Quilt books and patterns abound - at least here -and help fulfill that urge for new books and patterns.  Online resources for free quilt patterns are numerous, too - I have a digital file folder full of patterns that could keep me quilting for the next many years!!!

Fourth -don't be afraid to fly without a pattern!  Some of my scrappy "improvisations" have worked because I took techniques and ideas from other patterns and books and ran with them, making something my own (and using up scraps in the process).  Once you have the basics down from a few quilts - you should be able to figure it out!

Fifth - repurpose!  I do this more in craft sewing than in quilting, but my hubby's worn out jeans or plaid shirts find new life in my scrap bin to be turned into something fun!

Sixth - shop for projects, not for stash (yeah - I fail at this all the time).

Saving time?  I will have to get back to you on that one.  Any suggestions?

What puts the "U" in my "UFO"???

Jill asked recently what causes my projects to stay unfinished.

For me I think it is a combination of factors...

1.  Cutting/piecing/bordering - these are all things I can easily do in short spurts in the late hours (9-11) when I usually do most of my quilting.  This way I am not taking away from family time.

2.  Cutting/piecing/bordering also don't take too much energy (see reference to late hours above).

3.  Sandwiching can normally NOT be done in my house -unless it is a small quilt.  There is just not enough available open floor space.  I pin baste my quilts, and have had great success borrowing Shellie's living room floor - but I don't have the stamina to pin up more than one in an evening, so they are a bit backed up.

4.  Wrestling the weight of a quilt on the table without a drop in or an extension - especially late at night - often needs more energy than I have at the time.

5.  Quilting a large quilt during the daytime/weekends takes away from family time, so I tend not to do it unless I am really up against a deadline.

So that's about the extent of it.   I am working on point #4 - and Shellie helps with point #3 - so hopefully we will soon have fewer U's and more F's. (yeah, right!)

Two Strikes... and a Home Run!

The quilt on my "design wall" right now (thumbtacked to the eaves in the attic) is a graduation quilt for my nephew, a graduation quilt with a story. (Are you comfortable? Got your coffee? I can wait a few minutes... OK)

To start at the beginning - the fabric in this quilt (the light and medium blue - not the borders or the muslin) was previously owned by my nephew's grandmother (my husband's brother's wife's mother) - who used those types of fabrics to line steamer trunks when she refurbished them. These were leftover pieces that I acquired from her in a community wide yard sale - probably about 10 years ago.

The fabrics then sat in my drawer for about 8 years, until one day I decided that all the nieces and nephews on my husband's side of the family would get graduation quilts from me. Unfortunately, I was already one quilt behind - so thought it would be fun (and thrifty) to get caught up and make a quilt for the oldest nephew out of the fabric from his grandmother.

My first plan was to make Buzz Saw blocks - using this pattern that started out with half square triangles. So when I went to the quilt retreat in Ohio in 2009, this was one of the projects I brought.

However I forgot how monotonous it can be to sew nothing but 2 color HST's all day - so it got put aside.

When I picked it up again, I stitched all the HST's and then proceeded to stitch my first buzz saw block.

FAIL!!! Not sure where I erred, but the components ended up as rectangles rather than squares, so the block was very wonky. Very very very wonky. Unusably wonky.

By this time the 2nd nephew was fast approaching graduation, and it was his grandmother, too - so I thought I could use the HST's in 2 groups for the centers of 2 quilts, and then add borders round and round to make them a usable size. I even reversed the settings so that they would be similar - but not identical.

FAIL! The one I worked on was ugly, unbalanced, and about the size of a table runner. And I was rapidly running out of fabric. The border fabrics I had - the bits and pieces I was trying to stretch out of the remaining fabrics from "grandma" - were just not enough. I was sewing without a real plan - and it was showing.

So back in the drawer these went -I would think about them from time to time -but I was not ready to face all the unstitching I imagined was ahead of me - and I still did not have a plan. To be honest - I think I was really afraid, but unwilling to throw these blocks away. Until about 2 weeks ago at Shellie's, when I FINALLY pulled them out to evaluate and regroup. I ripped off all the extra borders from the one "center", and put the two centers together. OK - now I was seeing something in proportions I liked. I also figured out the pieced border with the medium blue blocks, and found a dark blue that would work as an additional fabric (that was sadly lacking in my previous efforts).

So now I am closer to having my "Home Run" - although it is a quite a bit longer proportionally to it's width (again - the results of not totally planning the entire thing through. I think I should have removed the 6th row instead of just putting the 2 squares together. Oh well...)

The second nephew is getting a quilt with different fabrics and different colors -but ones I think he will like - and who knows, I may just sneak an extra HST from this quilt in as his label.

And we can cross another one of those pesky PIGS off the list!

The "Studio" or the "Sty"...?

So Jill has asked me about my work space.... and I finally got brave and brought the camera upstairs to "the Studio"... or perhaps "the Sty"???

So I am not going to make any excuses for the mess -this is the normal state of things up here - controlled chaos. As you can probably guess from the slanted ceilings -we are in the attic - it is mostly finished, although the floors are a bit rough, so I have an area rug, foam squares and a chair mat on the floor. I don't do floor layout of quilts up here - I go downstairs for that.

When you come up the stairs (steep stairs) you run down the "gauntlet" of storage tubs - this is the main storage area for the household, so not all these bins contain sewing/crafting items. I did have them well labeled at one point, but we need to go through and consolidate, purge, and relabel a few. My biggest problem is dumping things on top of the bins when I bring it upstairs.

So when you run down the "gauntlet" towards the big double window (curtains closed as I took these photos at night) you will see off to the right the TV -and just in front of it is the play space for the Munchkin - including a play kitchen and an easel, play table and chairs. These get moved around a lot, although I have used the easel as a mini design wall. On a good day I can get the Munchkin playing up here while I "play," too.
When I sit at my table, I can look over my work to the TV and whatever the Munchkin is doing (that is if my pile of projects does not get too high).
My main work space runs down the left side of the room. There is a big closet on one side of the stairs (opposite the bin storage area) and my table is just next to the door. I have some items stored in there, but can close the door to keep the cat out. When I am working I can just pull supplies out as needed (I did not take pictures in there.) I have storage along the wall behind me in various cabinets and dressers, and the ironing board towards one end near the window. One challenge is where the outlets are - and the other is light - or lack of it. Note all that beautiful paneling - it just sucks up the light. I want to paint it - but it is so old and dry it would just suck up the paint, too. Long term plan -but low on the priority list (the house is a 1929 -we have a long priority list!)
So this is looking back from the ironing board into my work corner. You can see the closet door behind my chair.
I have storage tucked everywhere. My table is a recycled door from the house with a glass top - but the top is longer than the door, so I have this small white bookcase tucked under the overhang. It is piled pretty high with projects and scraps right now, and in front of the bookcase are the leftover props from the Munchkin's jungle birthday party. Need to find a home for - or a recycling purpose for - all of those.
And last but not least - here is sewing central. I try to keep the cutting mats as uncovered as possible while working, and do pretty well.

My wish list for this space? A drop-in sewing table so I have more flat surface to wrangle large quilts under the throat of my machine. Storage areas underneath that are not broken up by funky old wrought iron legs at a strange angle (family hand me downs - they work for holding up the table but are not ideal). Storage cabinets built into the knee walls so that they are moved back further and give more open space for me and the Munchkin. Whiter/brighter walls to maximize all the good lamps I have up there. An extra wide ironing board. Pergo. Central air conditioning... oh and a maid?

But for now - this works... and it works pretty well. We have fun - we get things done - and I can walk away and leave half done projects on the table and not have to worry about cleaning them off to serve dinner.

UFO's and Flying PIGS

(ok -so I know it is a sheep in this picture - but I could not find any evidence of aliens abducting anything except sheep, cows or people - they don't seem to want PIGS - go figure)

My PIGS are battling my UFO's - and at least this week, the PIGS are winning! I have pushed aside a UFO from the recent Sew in the Snow Day (the creamsicle quilt), and started a charity quilt that has been roiling around in the back of my brain since last year at this time, when a few fellow quilters at my workplace donated a quilt to our United Way kickoff carnival raffle.

They did a t-shirt quilt, which was very popular, but I did not have access to shirts and did not want to copy them anyway. What I did have was a large number of fabrics I have been collecting in our school colors - orange and brown.

Last night I finally decided on a scrappy brick wall pattern -making it up as I go - and did the initial cutting. I am assembling this using a "quilt as you go" construction, and was able to pull batting strips that have been in a box since about 2000, when they were leftover from a baby quilt I did. There are plenty to do both the body of the quilt and the borders, so once I get the strips laid out the way I want (and pick up some muslin for the back and a nice brown thread) this should go together fairly quickly.

Currently I have 12 strips that I have sewn into loops. I will be cutting some open down the middle of a block, and opening up some along a seam so that I can lay them out staggered like a real brick wall.

And then once this PIGGY is off to market at the raffle, I will be back to battling the UFO's.

QDD

Jill has asked if I know "why" I have UFO's and PIGS and other projects that never seem to be done.

I've said it before and I will say it again - I have "QDD."

That is "Quilters Distraction Disorder" - or perhaps "CDD" - Crafters Distraction Disorder.

I was doing better in January - making a concerted effort to slow down my perusal of crafting blogs and websites - to focus on the patterns at hand and not feel like I need to print and start the latest and greatest free pattern shared by my favorite online quilters.

I WAS doing better in January.

On Wednesday, February 2nd I tripped... and fell headlong into cutting out a Moda Bake Shop free pattern that was recently posted.

My quilts I started in January? Not done.
My tiger wall hanging I started in January? Not done.

That is not to say that I haven't had finishes in January - I did finish up decorations for the Munchkin's birthday party (pictures to come after), and props, and goodie bags, and fly bean bags.

I guess I just need to turn off the internet, cancel all my magazine subscriptions, stop going to the library - and FOCUS.

Yeah -like that is going to happen.

the QDD/CDD and the UFO's are here to stay.... (until I get them done! and find more!)

PIGS - a herd? a litter? a pod?

What do you call a group of PIGS? Is it a herd? A flock? A crowd?

When it comes to sewing PIGS, Jill is asking... how many do I have? do I keep a list of them? and what is my oldest?

And the answers are "I don't know." "No." and "Hmm....."

I have been quilting for about 13 years now - and I do have a UFO from the one and only quilting class I have ever taken - but for a while I was finishing every project I started, and was making quilts for specific gifts, specific recipients, and making them one at a time. I even - gasp - bought fabric just for that specific project, and had no real stash to speak of - other than some leftover bits from previous projects, and clothing sewing.

Then I met Jill.... and things got totally out of hand. I started traveling to retreats, started shop hopping, started trolling the web for free patterns and ideas, and GASP - started working on more than one project at a time. (ok -that's my story -and I will stick to it -but we all know that it really wasn't Jill's fault -it's just fun to blame her! :-0 My "problem" started before that!)

OK -back to PIGS. I have a few Lazy Girl bags that are PIGS, and a whole bunch of quilts that are in the UFO stage. The oldest UFO's??? Those would have to be the quilt blocks we "inherited" when we bought our house in an estate sale - cathedral window blocks that a relative of the previous owners asked me to consider finishing. Next oldest are blocks that my mom started in 1986 - and recently passed along to me to finish. (sorry - no photos of either). The oldest UFO of my own origin is a quilt I started 2 years ago when I attended a retreat with Jill - it is all assembled and only lacks quilting.

And just what do you call a group of PIGS?
According to one source i found, all of the following are acceptable:

Pigs (General)	Drift, Drove
Pigs (Boars)	Singular, Sounder
Pigs (Hogs)	Team, Passel, Drift, Parcel
Pigs (Piglets)	Litter, Farrow
Pigs (Swine)	Sounder

I think that in my case - Parcel and Passel are both VERY descriptive!!!

Last/First Quilt

The official title of this quilt is "The Last Quilt of the Year" which really should be said to music, as Chris Isaac's "The Last Month of the Year" was the favorite holiday tune of the Munchkin this season, and I got it stuck in my head.... bad! But it is also the "Last/First" quilt as it was begun in the last week of 2010, but not completely completed until the first few days of 2011.

This was fabric I purchased during my "hop" in July - it was so new in the shop they had not even cut FQ's of it yet and it just fell off the shelf into my arms. It had PIGS status - still in the bag from the store - until I was moving it around the day after Christmas and realized the Happy Hour Snapshots I had just used for another quilt would work well with the flannels due to the minimal seams - and would also show off the larger scale prints of this fabric nicely.

So the day after Christmas I spent a bit of time in the afternoon doing some cutting, and that evening after the Munchkin was in bed I had 36 blocks stitched up and waiting for "math class."

See -the Munchkin had decided he wanted to play "school" during his break from school. With a new Wii to double for "gym class" and some thank you cards to work on for "writing class" - I thought that working on laying out a pattern and counting blocks would be a great lesson for "math class."

So the layout on this quilt is the Munchkin's hard work. He followed three rules:

1: follow the pattern of where the inside rectangle is in each block. We went top, left, bottom, right across each row.
2: Don't put more than one block of any fabric in each row.
3: Don't put any of the dark pink blocks in an outside edge or row so that they don't blend in to the border fabric.

I am a bit biased -but I think he did a great job!

The backing fabric was a fortunate find. I had popped in to an out-of-the-way, very small JoAnn's back in early November to "pick up some thread" for the other Snapshots quilt, and discovered that their clearance red tag fabrics were an additional 50% off that day. This store gets a lot less traffic than the other stores I shop, and their selection of clearance quilting cottons was VERY good!

I quickly filled my arms and wished I had grabbed a cart. I picked this orange vine fabric up and bought the bolt - thinking I would use it for backing fabric on another project - but the colors matched so nicely that I used it on this. The Munchkin had requested "fluffy fabric" on the front (flannel) and "smooth fabric" on the back - so that is what I did - with another layer of flannel in the middle.

The quilt still needs a good washing for a good crinkle, but it's been "field tested" by both the Munchkin and I and seems to be working just fine!

The fabric line for the flannels is "Ice Garden" by Maywood Studios. (note -this link is NOT where I purchased the fabric -but shows the entire line in one link).

So one less PIGGY in my craft room - one more quilt on the sofa - although the Munchkin wants it for his bed, too!!!

Happy New Year - Happy New Quilt!

P.I.G.S - where do they live?

Welcome to the Year of the P.I.G.S (projects in grocery sacks) - sponsored by Jill at Ramblings of a Fabric and Yarn Obsessor.

Jill has asked us to write a bit today about how we store our PIGS -and how we keep them separate from the rest of our stash of fabrics and "stuff."

She also asked for photos - which she is not going to get... at least not in this post.

So - how do I store my PIGS?

Probably the best way will be a list:
1. plastic shoeboxes -clear sided. These mostly hold my precut scraps (cut to various sizes for future use) but a few hold unfinished projects. The great thing about these is that they stack easily and fit on my shelving units. They are also clear so I can see into them to see what project is lurking there.

2. "Take and Toss" containers - the ones made by Ziplock or Glad or the generic ones sold by my grocery store or Target. I usually get the ones that are about 4x6" and about 5 inches deep. These usually hold small scale projects, or scraps precut for a particular pattern that I make a lot of, like Lazy Girl Wonder Wallets, or mini composition book covers or sachets. I often write on the lid the dimensions of the scraps I need to cut to make those projects so when I am trimming leftovers I can just trim and drop them in for later assembly.

2. Art Bins - I only have 2, but they work!

3. Storage bags that sheets and blankets come in - those heavy squared off vinyl bags with the zippers. They are great for larger projects.

4. Zip top bags - the ever present zip top bags. I like these because I can write notes on them as I go along.

5. Fabric reusable grocery bags -these are also good for larger projects, backings and battings, take and go projects. I can also hang these from hooks in my closet.

and last but not least... 6. The bag the fabric came in from the store. Yes - some of them have never even made it out of those bags.

(but I did evict one little PIGGY this past week - from the store bag no less!!! Pics to follow when I can get someone to hold it up for me!)