Sorting by color

My friend Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts has been sorting and straightening her fabric stash.  We have been friends for quite a few years, though we've never met "in real life".  She lives in New England, and I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we have an entire continent between us.  The pictures she's posted lately are the first ones I've seen of her fabric stash.  We are alike in so many ways, and her stash is definitely equal to mine.  ( I really think it is bigger, but I'm giving her the benefit of doubt here LOL!)

Much of my fabric is sorted by color, which makes it easy to pull pieces when I'm making a quilt by "color".  The majority of these fabrics are my older - much older - fabrics.  I still like them all, will still use them, but many don't fit with the "19th Century eras" I'm so drawn to.

I have plenty of blues, greens, blacks, beiges, tans, lights, pinks and browns.  I have fewer yellows and oranges, but still a fair selection.  I'm sadly lacking in purples, having only a small stack of fat quarters.  That's OK - I don't go to these parts of the shelves much.

All my plaids and stripes are grouped together too, as you saw in this post.  My 30's and 40's fabrics are together in baskets in the closets.

Reproductions by everybody else

Jo Morton Fabrics

I think it is time I follow Kathie's example and get these arranged by color.  So much easier, don't you think?  So that is my next organization project - which I will (hopefully) do this weekend.  But first I want to finish Jo's Bittersweet Stars.

Not much happening . . .

Quilt-wise anyway.

I've been struggling to get the house in order - at least the downstairs.  I want to be able to open my eyes wide and not cringe when I look around.  I'm almost there - just need to deal with the dining room table and the kitchen counters.  The second load of laundry is in the washer churning away, with two more loads to do.  I must have slept funny, because I have a cramp in my back - thus, I'm working slowly with lots of short rest breaks.  Of which this is one.  Since I don't like posts without pictures, I'll show you a bit of my progress. 

Clean floors and work surfaces in the sewing room!

The front hall bench is definitely looking springy.

As is the wall opposite the bench

Whoops!  What happened here?  The tea cups definitely say spring, but turkeys?  Guess I need to take this quilt down until fall.  I know I have another spring quilt around here somewhere . . . .

Whoops!  Edited to add this last picture.  If you've already read this you are probably thinking "Turkeys?  What turkeys?"

Happy dancing . . . .

I have an ironing station and design wall again!  Oh happy dancing (cue the pipers and fiddlers).  And I have a clear cutting table again!  There are lots of "pocket areas" that still need attention, but for the most part I'm done.  Hooray!

I need to bring in the stool so I can reach the top of my design wall - I want to arrange the blocks in the order they go in the quilt.  That way I can assure myself that my fabric colors and patterns are spread evenly throughout the quilt. 

I'm still contemplating the sashing - I've found a few pieces in the stash that might work (not sure I have enough yardage), plus seven  yards arrived in the mail that I want to "test" because I think the fabric is perfect.  It was on sale at $7.50 per yard, and will be used to set together another quilt, if not this one, so I allowed myself to buy it.  Major yardage of a single fabric is something I rarely have in my stash.

I can access all my fabric!

So all is right in my world.  I found two shelves of tans, whites, off-whites, backgrounds, etc. that I'd completely forgotten were in bins.  Since I started quilting again I kept thinking I had more to choose from than what I could find, but figured I was dreaming.  Turns out I wasn't!

There was no way the 30's fabrics were going to fit on the shelves so I didn't even try.  But now they are all easily accessible instead of buried.  The big blue bin has my wool stash - also easily reached.  My favorite weight yarns are in the drawers and easy to reach.  My current knitting projects are just to the right inside the closet door.  All my fiber is upstairs and in tubs in the corner of the bedroom.

I didn't think I could organize this well for three hobbies, but I did it!  Now it is back to rearranging books.  All my knitting books are on the floor in the computer room, waiting for  me to donate the rest of the romance novels.

Moving day - or should I say reorganization day?

Yesterday I quickly that two of the five quilts needing binding needed 30's fabrics.  And where are my 30's fabrics?  In the closet under the stairs - of course!  And how far back in the closet?  All the way to the very end.  So I decided if I had to pull all the tubs and baskets out of the closet I might as well reorganize everything.  

A flashlight is necessary to see what all is back there.  All these tubs are full of fabrics.

There is room to open only a few at a time.

In addition to 30's fabrics, I want plaids back on the shelves, too.  So I sorted through the yarn, decided what I'd need for the next 1-2 years of knitting, and put that yarn under the longarm.  The rest of the yarn is going in bins deep in the closet to age to perfection.  Since I'm quilting most of the time, I figured I probably wouldn't be starting new sweaters, so sweater quantities are what I'm putting away.

Of course the yarn must be moved off the shelves before the fabric can go on.  And the fabric must come out of the tubs before the yarn can go in.  This means the floor is covered with bins and yarn and the cutting table is rapidly becoming covered with fabrics.

It is a slow process.  Why is it making me so tired that I have to rest every half hour or so?  I know - the fabric is heavy.  And I'm sure I must have been at least 10 years younger when I moved it into the closet 3 years ago!

 
How did I accumulate so much fabric?   (Even more mysterious - how could I possibly have accumulated this much yarn?) 

Even 2-3 years ago it didn't all fit on my shelves.  This calls for drastic measures.  I'm going to put the fabrics I'm unlikely to use in the near future - novelties, and bright non-reproduction fabrics for the most part - into baskets and put them in an accessible place in the closet.  I'm hoping this will make room for everything I want on my shelves.  Of course, that doesn't include all the quilt kits I have in tubs under the longarm upstairs.  I'm afraid to look in them LOL!

Now I remember!  Three years ago I met my Weight Watcher goal.  Three years ago I was 15 pounds lighter (I'm working on it!  I've lost 10 pounds since January.)  Three years ago I was fairly active.  I don't remember the last time I went to the gym.)

I got the doctor's final OK on my hand this morning - no more restrictions other than wearing my brace if lifting heavy things.  Fantastic!  I can go back to knitting socks.  Even more fantastic, I can now start swimming again.  That will certainly help me lose these last 15 pounds and give me more energy.

If I can just force myself out of the sewing room.

Three hobby mess

Here you see Lady Ashley, my first spinning wheel on the left.  She is a castle-style wheel made by Ashford in New Zealand.  The model is called "The Traveller", which is strange because she doesn't travel well.  The purple is a beautiful merino-silk that I'm spinning.  You can also see three baskets of spinning wheel bobbins.  A blue tub of fiber and fiber braids strewn on the floor is the result of choosing something to spin today.  Behnind Lady Ashley you can barely see my hand quilting project in its hoop.  My applique basket is just to the left of the fiber tub.  The large blue tub on the far right is full of sock yarn, and current knitting projects are in the basket on top of this tub.

 

My cutting table is covered with fabric to be cut, a quilt top, patterns for the doll dress and apron, a blue tray with a small wool project, and a notebook and folders with several years of Jo's Little Women's Club handouts.  At the far end of the table is my large drum carder, used for making carded batts from short fibers which are mostly from the sheep fleece I've purchased.  

What a mess!  If you've been reading my scribblings for a good while you know I like neatness and order while I work.  I'm certainly not achieving it here!  I wonder how long I can stand to work like this?

Where did it go . . . or what is wrong with this picture?

Remember this beautiful pressing station?  A huge surface for pressing large pieces of fabric.  Perfect for any quilter.

So what does it look like now?  It certainly doesn't look like a quilter lives here.

A bunch of magazine files - all knitting and spinning magazines.  A bunch of loose-leaf notebooks full of knitting patterns.  A design wall full of knitting and spinning info. 

So where am I going to iron the fabric for my final borders?  In the hall on the regular ironing board.
Shelves to the right, that used to hold rulers and other quilting stuff is now full of knitting and spinning books.

Obviously I need to do a bunch of adjusting in order to make my room work for three hobbies.  The catch is to stop sewing long enough to do the rearranging.  I'm trying to get myself motivated.

We have lots and lots of bookcases upstairs - they surround the entire family room - and at least 30% of the books are historical romances.  I can't remember the last time I read a book like this.  Must be at least 20 years.  I need to get those boxed up and given to the library.  Then I can move half of my quilting and knitting books upstairs so I can shift all this stuff into the computer room.  Just the thought of all that work makes me tired - which means I really need to do it because I need the exercise!  I know I'll be so much happier once it is done. 

But right now I want to finish the borders on this quilt top . . . .

All ready to sew!

I'm so excited - tomorrow I can finally start sewing in my "new" sewing room! This week was too packed with other things for me to have time to sew, but I have most all of tomorrow. Hooray!

This afternoon I covered the top of my new cabinet with a layer of Insulbrite, three layers of Warm and Natural, and a top layer of canvas. All set now to iron! I had to move it to get to the back - the first time I've used the casters. It is WAY too heavy to move easily - the fact that the casters have no brakes doesn't matter at all. I may need Fred's help to move it out into the hall if needed. Originally I was going to put a casing around the edge of the top layer, fit it with elastic, and make it removable. That's what several people advised me to do. When I came time to do so this afternoon I decided to follow my own instinct instead. So I just used the staple gun to tack it to the underside of the butcher block top. Yes, that will leave holes in the wood, but they won't be visible to anyone who isn't crawling around on the floor. Besides - this is what I bought it for. Years from now when I'm no longer able to sew I don't care if someone else wants to take the top of and doesn't like the tiny holes under the edges of the top.

Another thing that makes me happy is that I finally have a good place to display most of my pin cushions. I think they look great on the glass top of my two new chests. Each one makes me smile, as they either cause me to remember a special friend, or to remember a pleasant time when I made the pin cushion.

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Gratitudes:
1. Continuing beautiful weather
2. A pleasant evening spent sewing with friends
3. Yummy recipes in a new WW cookbook

The building is finished

We have spent about 1 1/2 days of putting together IKEA furniture - having to deal with a few glitches along the way - and now the building is finished. It's been a long time since I've stooped that much! With help from my DH, and lots of help from my friend Kim, as this is definitely a two person job.

The biggest glitch concerned the casters for the feet of the ironing station. After a total of two trips to Lowe's, one trip to IKEA, and three trips to Home Depot. we finally found casters that worked. I guess one shouldn't decide to put casters on a piece of furniture that isn't meant to have them! The good news is that I finally found some that worked, and Fred was able to install them on the legs of the ironing station. All that's left now is to return the 4 I bought at IKEA, as they didn't work at all. What I thought was drilled holes for casters turned out to be holes for leveling legs, and all the casters fell out the first time we tried to move it!

Now all that's left is cleaning up, moving my stuff into the cupboard and drawers, and making a padded cover for the ironing station. I can already tell that I'm going to love this!

Sewing Room Redo - Part 2

Some of you will remember that my dear husband agreed to a sewing room redo as my birthday gift in 2007 - so we were standing in line on opening day of IKEA-Portland, OR. IKEA has everything needed for changing your so-so sewing room into a dream room. Even if your room is really small like mine (8.5' x 12'). Their Billy bookcase system is perfect for fabric storage because you can get glass doors for each unit and the price is very reasonable. Some of the pieces in their free-standing kitchen line are perfect for cutting tables and more. (If you'd like to see "before" pictures of my room look here and here. After pictures can be found here.

I adore everything about the new room arrangement. It works beautifully. But lately as I've worked in the room I realized it could be even better. I could do something about all the wasted space under the ironing board. Wasted space is a really bad thing when your room is so small. I've also worried about how precarious this storage arrangement is, with the TV balanced on top of a rolling plastic cart. Though we don't live in southern California, we are still in an area prone to earthquakes, and are also supposed to get a BIG ONE one of these days. This would NOT survive such a shaking.

So . . . I've been looking at the IKEA website again. It's a great place to start - though going to the store is much better. I thought I knew just what I wanted - but changed my mind once I got there. My new ironing station will be made from this piece, which is from the same free standing kitchen line as is my center island. It gives me great storage underneath for things like baskets, quilting hoops on stands, and my jugs of water and Best Press. The iron can also go under here when not in use. My DSIL says he will make me a new big board that will fit on this piece. When not ironing I can use this as an additional cutting surface. I'm going to put casters on legs, so when I need to use my entire design wall (which is on the wall behind my ironing space) I can roll this out into the hallway. If I'm going to be sewing all day I can also roll it out there so I can accumulate more activity points on my pedometer! My current ironing board and big board will go upstairs for use in the longarm room. Right now I have to run up and down the stairs to press quilt tops and backs.

Here is what I got to replace the rolling carts. There are about 4" taller, which is a little taller than what I have now, but that's OK. I got two of them, plus a heavy glass top that will cover both of them together, plus a kitchen lazy susan (under $10) for holding the TV so I can rotate it as needed. These drawers are pretty much the same size as what I have, so I won't have to reorganize everything for switching over. I was going to buy a 4 drawer chest, but this is much better for storing what I have to store here. I thought I needed something in white to match the fabric cabinets, but this light birch matches my cutting island and my new pressing station.

If there is a gene for organization the it's one of my very strongest LOL! If you send me an airline ticket and promise to feed me and give me a place to sleep I will come redo your sewing room if you'd like!

Organization Complete

I've put my time off work to good use so far I think. I'm also giving my arm lots of exercising. The physical therapist gave me several exercises on Friday to prevent frozen shoulder. They are very painful to do but I'm making myself do them nevertheless. The therapist is encouraging my doctor to order an MRI on my shoulder. I'm emailing her tomorrow morning also to second that request. If I'm going to need surgery to fix this shoulder I want it sooner rather than later.

The exercise my arm is getting by finishing my organizing tasks is painful also but much more pleasant for me. I've filed away all the items I've saved from years and years of quilt magazines. My filing cabinet is now stuffed so it's a good thing I've decided to let all my subscriptions lapse. I've decided I'm not that crazy about the labels I've given the hanging folders and the file folders but I'm not going to change them now. It most likely doesn't matter anyway - I know I can't remember what 95% of the filed items are. Please don't ask me how many of these items have been removed from the file long enough to make something from them. Let's just say I'm saving projects for my retirement LOL!

I also took a trip to Office Max for some acrylic storage boxes. The remaining magazines are now arranged on the bottom shelf in such a way that I'll actually be able to find the one I want. I've now been able to move my jug of water for the iron up off the floor and onto the shelf. On the shelf above I've folded all the dish towels I have for future stitching and appliqué. Looks like I should start doing something with them too, don't you think? Maybe for Christmas this year. There is now room for one of my baskets of DMC machine embroidery thread, so they aren't all piled on top of themselves. I've also labeled all the notebooks on the top shelf so I can find the one I want right away without having to pull down three or four others first. I thought I'd also show you my two storage walls now that all the fabric is put away. Not any extra space so I'll have to stop shopping LOL!

Now that I'm not having to wear the sling I'm actually going to try some real sewing. I'm going to stitch together the Halloween wall hanging. I can hardly wait!

Be sure to check my blog tomorrow - I'm going to draw names for the first two give aways. If I find more items in the filing cabinet to give away - and I just might - I'll post those also.

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Gratitudes:
1. Driving to Starbucks for the first time in two weeks.
2. Toasted sourdough English muffins dripping in butter
3. A comfy new sweatshirt that's all soft inside
4. Surprise visit with Rick and Rebecca
5. New pictures of Sophie!

Déja vu?

Hmmm . . . it seems like I've been here once before. These pictures seem VERY familiar. I think this is the view of my sewing room just before the redo. Nope - these aren't new Crumb Chaos blocks. These are the same ones - blocks that are almost finished but not quite. And remember my joy at getting through all those 1 1/4" and 1 3/4" strips? Short lived joy indeed. During the redo I discovered I'd grabbed a few handfuls of each and stuck them in one tub to work from, as I didn't have room for two tubs. Here is the glaring reality - still a large drawer of each size strip. At least now I have room to put both drawers next to the machine while I work, along with the basket of partially finished blocks. These won't get done today - in fact need to stop working on these for awhile and get to the two customer quilts that need completing. One for sure needs to be finished today, and the other one sometime this week. I had a sneaking suspicion all along that longarming for others probably wouldn't really be my bag - I have too many of my own things that I want to do. Even though I've never advertised at all, however, the customer quilts wander into the studio at the rate of a couple a month. At least I can use that to justify the machine purchase - to me anyway. Fred doesn't need me to justify it at all - what a sweetheart!

All my fabric is now put away. I've washed and ironed all the pieces from the splurge shopping of the last few months. Shopping I justified by telling myself I was spending my bonus, which was just like a gift. You may have noticed, however, that the fabric diet badge is gone - I just couldn't keep it in good conscience when I'd bought so much. Now the buying must come to a halt however. I have a small amount of room in two places on the shelves - the 19th century reproduction section and the Jo Morton section. That is it! And when I put away the fabric that currently resides in baskets under the island - fabric for my two Eileen Trestain reproduction classes - there will be no room whatsoever left on the shelves. I think this is a good thing. It's going to force me to use up fabric before I can buy more. And at the rate I'm going that will be just this side of forever, since sewing up all my scraps doesn't make a bit more room on my shelves!

Guess I'd better get busy now as I have several goals for today. I want to get a pedicure - it's so hard to bend over these days to cut my toenails and they really need it. I told Fred to leave me the truck as I want to continue the garage clean out, so I guess I'd better have at least a few things tossed by the time he gets home from golf. I have that customer quilt to do, I need to run to the post office, get to B&N to look at the newest Quiltmaker, as it has an article about Jo Morton, and I need to find something for dinner. Two things I can say with confidence - I'll never, ever run out of things to do in my life, and I'm never, ever bored!

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Gratitudes:

1. Continued cooler weather for us - highs in the very high 70's and low 80's

2. A riot of colored blossoms in my front yard

3. Space to move around my sewing room

4. Exactly 200 more working days before retirement!

5. Fat free hot dogs and whole wheat high fiber hot dog buns - it's been so long since I've had a hot dog!

Finished - at least for now

The room is all together. The fat quarters are all refolded and put away. In honor of the event I even tucked the featherweight away on the shelf inside it's table and put the beautiful table top cover on the top of the table. There never was enough room to do this before. The shelves are almost full, and when I prewash the bunch of fabric waiting under the ironing table and put it away - my splurge from my bonus last spring - there will be no more room on the shelves. I'm happy to say that there is no longer fabric filling half the shelf to right right of the ironing board - it's all been shifted into the cabinets. This is my entire stash except for my small stash of solids, which I keep upstairs for longarm practice. I still had to stuff things into corners in ways I was hoping I wouldn't - plastic shoe boxes of cut scraps, and UFO's. I still need to make my first priority the using up of oddball size scraps, and bringing UFO's to the flimsy stage my second priority. My goal will be to have accomplished that by the end of this year.

For now I just gaze around the room and try to convince myself that all this is really real. I've waited a long time for this - I've been sewing for over 50 years. I will enjoy sewing here for at least another 30-40 years if I am lucky.

I'm sure you are all tired of seeing pictures of this room by now, so I'll call it quits. I hope to get back to posting pictures of quilting projects soon. But not this weekend. We are heading to the mountains camping - finally! - for the first time this summer. Our son had to work unexpectedly so he and Chelsea and Sophie won't be there, but Rick and Rebecca will be. Our weather is supposed to be beautiful. I can hardly wait.

Tonight I'm hoping to catch up on my emails, and tomorrow I'll start catching up on blog reading. I can hardly wait to see what you've all been up to these last few weeks.