2015 Update and start of 2016

I had difficulities with both the camera and the computer in 2015 and I didn't post very much.  So, here is a brief summary before I try to begin posting activities for 2016

Family gathered for last goodbyes to my mother-in-law in January

We survived the ice storms of February..

We redid my sewing studio and under-stair storage area after heavy rains caused water damage in April ... and reorganized my scrap stash... although it needs a lot more work!

 

 

In the spring, I wanted to plant a rose garden near where the big trees were removed in 2014... unfortunately... there were way too many roots and we began the big dig in July...

I finished the Savannah Squares quilt for Sr. Doris in September... and the niece it was gifted to was thrilled!

I finished my grandson's Big Brother quilt in October

     

It turned out totally different than the orginal plan.  I had laid the blue/white pieced blocks out on the floor for grandson to see... and his only comment was... but Nana.. there's not enough red.. red is my FAVORITE color! there has to be more red!  So I added red bandana fabric sashings and cornerstones and borders and it grew to nearly king size!  It is draped over the queen size bed he sleeps in and he pulls down one corner and snuggles in.

In September I started work on Little Monkey for a new grand-niece born in July

Activities with our grandson included a week of cabin camping with a waterslide near our cabin, a visit to dinosaurland, exploring caverns in KY, visiting several local county fairs, and a trip to Disney, SeaWorld and Sanibel Island and a trip to Nashville to see the Christmas lights and eat at the Aquarium restaurant in December.

    

 

An online friend from Alaska stopped in for a visit  ... and I met other online friends at at a retreat in Virginia Beach...

Matthew and I won ribbons at the fair....

And I had a very successful booths at Rugby and Santa's Workshop...

 

Other activities throughout the year included working the church rummage sale, working with Cookeville Jr. Women's Club at Santa's Workshop,  various activities with TTU college students, making woven placemats  and christmas trees with Matthew and his friends at Hope Academy.

 

I'm sure there is a lot I've forgotten but these are the highlights.  I hope to be better at posting, maybe monthly in 2016.

I hope you had a good 2015 and are looking forward to 2016.

Studio Redo

Back in 2007, when we had some heavy rains, we discovered that the downspout emptied off the roof right next to the foundation and water seeped into my daughter's basement bedroom.  We waterproof painted the corner of the room, replaced the carpet and added a downspout extension directing the water away from the foundation and have had no futher problems since.... until now.

A couple years ago my daughter moved out and the room happily became my sewing room. I hadn't been able to get into my sewing room for the month of December.  I was busy with work and family and holiday plans and travel.  But, on New Years Day I went down to spend the day sewing.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.   One again, we discovered the rug was squishy wet; this time from the corner all the way into the middle of the room.  We discovered that someone had stolen the downspout extension and all that rain we had in December emptied off the roof next to the foundation and seeped into the room.

We replaced the downspout extension and I ran two dehumidifiers for several days, but the damage was already done.  

My handyman was busy on another job, so my youngest daughter came over to help.  We removed all the furniture and boxes of fabric stash, and cut up and remove the carpet and padding.  I'm glad we did because although the carpeting was beginning to feel dry to the touch... the padding underneath was still wet and some mold was forming.  Luckily, my stash was mostly in or piled on top of plastic containers, so no fabric was destroyed.

    

You can see the corner we painted with waterproofing the last time.

My handyman stopped by a couple days later and determined that the wood behind the wallboard was rotting.  He suggested cutting and removing about 2 ft of wallboard and checking the extent of damage hidden behind it.  He hopes he might be able to determine where the water is coming in and plug it so this doesn't happen again.  Then we will replace the wallboard and hide the damage with a beadboard chair-rail so we don't have to deal with taping and plastering and sanding and dust!  Then a fresh coat of paint before we have new padding and carpeting installed.  Hopefully, work will begin next week as soon as he finishes up his current job and I  can be back in my studio by Valentines Day!

Goodwill Find

A recent trip to Goodwill netted me these two shelves... perfect for storing projects and fabric!

Those rails make loading the shelves a bit tricky, so hubby is cutting them off for me.  I'll need to sand a bit and to smooth out the rough spots; then I think I will line the shelves with contact paper for added protection... I don't want anything snagged.

More organizing!

I stopped at Goodwill on the way home from church today, just to check on more flannel shirts for the back of my Celtic Solstice.

While I was there I took a quick detour through the furniture section and found the perfect shelf to start unloading boxes and displaying my fabrics!

It is the perfect size to fit at the end of the bed and still have room to open the door!!  Instead of working on Celtic Solstice or finishing up customer work, I spent the afternoon unloading 6 boxes of fabric from the under-stairs closet and refolding to fit the cabinet.  This is some (maybe most) of the remaining yardage I collected when I worked at the LQS.  I got paid in fabrics and would "buy" 1 or 3 yds of coordinating fabrics I liked,  with no idea of what I was going to make.   I also have some pattern/fabric kits I put together for retirement work!

As you can see, my 90" roll of batting is too long to fit on the bed.  I thought about getting a heavy weight umbrella stand and standing the roll upright,  but the ceiling isn't high enough.  My daughter will eventually be "adopting" the bed to use for her youngest... so I must come up with a new method for storing and using these big rolls.

I've got some re-arranging to do and will continue my hunt for appropriately sized cabinets to store my collection of scraps and Goodwill shirts.

Organization 102

The rooms have been emptied and rearranged, and while not completely organized I am happy with the results so far.

 
My quilting studio is now formed by a wall of shelves and boxes of fabrics and scraps.  As customers walk into the room there is a table to lay their tops on where we can measure and discuss work to be done. The boxes are labeled with content or fabric color.  I love that there is more open floor space for me to maneuver as I quilt along.

 The sewing studio is reorganized too.  Along the back wall of the room is a table with baskets of UFOs that need to be finished.... yes that pile is way too high!...but it was even higher last year, so I am making slow progress getting things done.  Next to that table it is my new pressing table that my husband made as a Christmas gift with some batting scraps in those pink crates underneath.  Right now it is piled high with fabrics that I am in the process of  preparing for three different quilt classes I will be attending in August.  The spare bed on the right wall serves as a "table" for my roll of batting with the extra roll stored standing on the floor in the corner.  At the bottom of the bed is the spare dresser in which I am organizing and sorting my fat quarters and storing my Dear Jane kits with work in progress.

Along the left wall of the room is my sewing table and chair.  I've discovered that I need to buy one of those plastic or wooden things for the floor as my chair will not roll on the carpet.  I've got a couple of  folding tray tables and my handquilting hoop and stand with the quilt I will eventually finish for me!  Now that it is set up and constantly staring at me I will be able to view and decide how to quilt the next block.  The last item along that wall is my cutting table... it is constructed with saw horse legs purchased from Lowes and my old butcher-block kitchen table. Yes, there is a pile of projects to be cut stacked here too, and I will get them all done eventually!   On the window sill above the table are my Civil War fabrics and some of my collection books

Lastly is the closet.  It is crammed full with two large tubs of various yarns and knitting projects, another two large tubs of fabrics and patterns for dresses and jackets that I planned on making, another large tub of kitchen towels and yarns and yet another full of colored plastic bags to be cut and crochet into waterbottle holders or entry-way rugs to help stop dirt and leaves from being tracked all over the house!  Not sure how it got knocked off, but I'll have to get hubby to put that one door back on it's tracks this weekend.

There are still more boxes to sort through, organize, and label, but at least now I can move my elbows while working and not have to worry about knocking something over.  I am so lucky to be able to expand into and take over two rooms... one for hobby and one for busniess!

organization 101

If you are like me and trying to get your sewing studio organized... again.  Check out Pat Sloan's posts on getting organized.  Lots of helpful hints.

http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/02/02/organization-101-pat-sloan/

My first step will be to empty both work areas.... my quilt studio on the left and my sewing studio on the right.

Thank goodness for strong young son's wiling to work for food!
LOL!

Organizing...again

Eighteen months ago when my new Nolting quilter arrived I cleaned out my portion of the basement, moving everything into the family room. I now had a clean quilting area in which to work, but a disaster in the family room.  So began one of my ongoing attempt to get organized.


Within a couple of months of setting up the quilter, I was going to need to get at the gas fireplace hiding in the brickface wall behind all those boxes in the family room.  I began going through the boxes and organizing some items.  All my unstarted kits got boxed up and stored in the bottom of the coat closet. My cutting table and two folding tables and my folding ironing board got put back in my quilting workroom.  My bins with completed for-sale work is stacked under the cutting table.  Some of my UFO projects were placed into trays and stacked on one table with my sewing machine in hopes that being able to see them daily would incite me to work on them and clear some working space. (Yes.. I have completed several of those projects this past year.)   I color-sorted and boxed my scraps and miscellaneous projects and piled them on top of and under the second table or hid them in closets and corners around the house, wherever there was a space. So I was back to a crowded quilting/sewing space again... and I had to go searching in boxes all over the house to locate any one specific item or project.(sigh)

A few months ago my daughter moved out and I decided to set up her room as a sewing studio and keep my current space as a quilting studio. I had to keep her large dresser and the spare bed but the almost empty room had possibilities.



I set up shelving for my boxes of color-sorted scraps, my goodwill shirt collection and boxes of miscellaneous fabrics.  You can't see the closet but it is full of yarn related projects and supplies in one half and fabrics and clothing patterns in the other half.  One roll of batting lays on the bed ready to be cut and the other is standing next to the dresser by the doorway.  I am in the process of gathering and pressing all my fat quarters and sorting them in the dresser drawers for easier access.

My Civil War fabrics and some books are up there on the windowsill in those pink crates, and under my brand new pressing table (Christmas gift from my husband)  are some boxes of batting scraps.  I still have boxes with "kits" in a coat closet and books and other misc fabric in the understairs closet.  Due to my most recent attempt to organize there is a a minefield of assorted boxes of stuff I'm trying to sort and organize on the floor that I have to step around whenever I go in there. Having boxes and labels is good , but  I hate not being able to see my fabrics at a glance.   And... yes, there is my hoop and the top I have been (not) handquilting for me.  If I set it up I might actually be able to work and complete it!

Now that I'm a bit more sorted and organized, I'm thinking about rearranging everything, once again.  I'd like to put my cutting and sewing tables here in the studio with my pressing table.  If I could leave my current projects set out and walk in and just sit and work I might get more done!

I would like to  invest in some nice cubicle shelves to display my fabrics and kits so I can see and use what I have before purchasing more!  The current shelves and an extra folding table could be set up in the the quilting workroom to define my space.  I'd have a nice clear table to consult with customers and maybe organize paperwork somehow to make bookeeping and taxes easier to deal with.  I guess the goal is to look more professional.