So, I have been playing quilt-refugee. Instead of working in my lovely sewing room, I've been hand sewing at the kitchen table.
Apparently, I needed help with the project.
As you may have noticed, my sewing room is in turmoil this week. Hubby and I set out to clean the carpet, and wound up rearranging the furniture and designing a new layout for the work space. I still need to break down the computer and printer, remove the computer desk, and finish organizing the stuff. So, I have been playing quilt-refugee. Instead of working in my lovely sewing room, I've been hand sewing at the kitchen table. Apparently, I needed help with the project.
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So, then, that thing happened....and I redesigned the layout in my sewing room....
As you may have noticed, my sewing room got naked this week. Then, things got a bit crazy in there, and Jen and I sewed, anyway. After our play date, I tore the room back to its original nakedness, with a little bit more chaos. Last night, hubby did the best job, EVER, cleaning the carpet. We noticed that the carpet is getting worn in a few key places. Hubby....ahem....suggested that I try a different arrangement and layout to even out the wear. In the long run, we'll replace all of the carpet with hardwood, but my sewing room is at least 3rd on the list, so, I suppose I could try a new layout.... for a while.... It's just that the old layout was SOOOO awesome! I spent about 2 years, sewing and ironing and cutting on 3 tv trays, with no storage, tucking my finished blocks on top the books on my bookshelf. During those two (highly productive) years in sewing purgatory, I dreamed about the layout of a sewing room. I agonized about the most efficient use of space, and the cutting board/sewing machine/ironing board triangle. And when we finally moved in this house, and I got my very own sewing room, I spent six months setting it up, and the subsequent years tweaking my design. And now, the room is about half way through the transformation. I have been meaning to do a major shift for a while, but the time never seemed right. Now, I have stumbled face first into a HUGE rearrangement project, and, despite my grumbling, I'm really excited about the changes in my sewing room. I won't know if the room will work until I start to sew. In the meantime, I'll tame the rest of the chaos and see if the room can be effective in the new configuration. Check out the pics....More changes to come! Hello, all! I have started a Facebook page to make it easier to open a dialog between us all. If I have done the right thing with all of the technology, then you will still get your rss feed letting you know that there is a new post. At the same time, there should also be a prompt on the Facebook page for those of you who find me over there.Let me know if this doesn't work the way it's supposed to! Happy Quilting!
So, it's been a wild memorial day party....Jenny and I have been sewing in the naked sewing room. It's like two years ago when we used to share a sewing machine EVERY playdate! Retrospectively, I am surprised how much I got done while sharing a machine. I carved scraps, made another stack of half square triangles for my current scrappy quilt, cut and ironed ALL of the finished units, wound bobbins, and cleaned up the wire salad next to the Jem Gold. Check out the pics from our wild part!
In the post-concert reclamation of the house, the sewing room got a pretty big overhaul. Do I get Brownie points, even though I haven't been able to sew!?!! Hello, my friends!!!! Concert season is officially over, although there are still a few lingering commitments. Life is returning to normal, and after a few days of recuperation, we are starting to reclaim our house and our lives. (Chaos reigns supreme the further we get into the concert season.)
Normalcy mostly regained, I am back to sewing again! This week, I have been working on emptying the bins of precut scraps I have been filling since January. Last week I finished one half square triangle quilt. (It still needs a border, but I will pick that up at the sit n sew on Thursday.) I'm in the process of piecing my next scrappy quilt, which has sky blue and scrappy half square triangles. I think that I am going to use the units to build a nine patch around a blue charm square. We'll see how it goes as the quilt grows! In other news, I have started a special side project for the fun of it! I enjoyed talking about the way that I scrap quilt SOOOOOO much that I have been working on a way to share my system with a larger audience. I'll keep you posted as I move forward with this new project!!!! Happy Quilting! A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with some of my family from out of town. During our visit, I got to spend some time with a distant relative. April is graduating from college this spring, with a major in film.
Of course I was madly interested in her work, and her creative process. So I asked if I could see some of her films. She sort of stared at me blankly for a moment, and then tried to understand why I was interested. Was I involved in the film industry? Did I have a background in editing? She couldn't seem to imagine why I would be interested in her work since we didn't have enough of a relationship to justify polite interest. I explained that I am always interested in creative projects, and that I just wanted the chance to appreciate her art. (Which I got to do!) She went and got her laptop, and we got the chance to talk about her work, her education, and where she wants to drive her career after college. It was a delightful conversation, and when I got to see her films, I was TOTALLY blown away! Her films are light, and sweet, and good, and filled with heroes, and all around wonderful. I hope that you take a few minutes to go and find them on YouTube. But the thing that blew me away the most was April's relationship with her work, and the way she spoke about her work. She is so proud of what she does and of what she has accomplished. She's excited for and by her team of actors. And when she critiques the weaknesses in her work, she doesn't apologize for existing, for lacking perfection, for trying to be creative in the first place. She acknowledges her flaws, explains how she learned about her mistakes, how she could fix them, and then returns to the idea that she is proud of her work, and delighted to have the chance to do what she does. It was one of the most amazing attitudes I have ever seen in a woman, talking about her creative passion. What would we all sound like if we talked about our quilts the way that April talked about her films? Sky's the Limit: https://youtu.be/kyVWTAWiuEA I'm on a road trip with my hubby, my daughter, and my dog, today. We've reached the point in the trip where we've exhausted the pressing conversations, and are enjoying the companionable silence that falls when you are just happy to be together.
I used my cell phone to wander over to etsy to find inspiration (and to convince myself that I don't actually have to pee, already.) It was delightful to see all of the wonderful projects that people do, and I wandered from Doctor Who mugs, to quilt patterns, to steampunk keyboards, to wall decals. After a while, I got a little bit lost. I found myself promising to do more, have more, buy more....and why couldn't I make beautiful things, like the rest of the internet? And by the way, why couldn't I make as much stuff as there is on Etsy!?!! Talk about being lost! I looked at the finished product from hundreds of people, literally thousands of hours of work, and my self-talk was brutal because on some level, deep down, I believe that I should be the best at all things. And I'm not. But, I've got my little corner of the world, and I am happy here. I'm still not the best, but I'm good. And there's room in the world for everyone to have their own little corner of good. I'm going to take a little break from etsy and get my self talk under control because I love what I do, and I love my skill set, and I love the way that I make connections. What do you love about the way you art through the world? My space clearing charity monsters are done. Yay!!!! There are TWENTY SEVEN OF THEM!!!!! Completing this project emptied 3 bins of stuffing and one bag of felt. That means that I shouldn't feel guilty about the six yards of fabric that I bought today, right!?!!
Check out my monsters and let me know if you would like me to post a tutorial! I have a whole bunch of pictures of my long arm setup, chewing up TONS of space in my cell phone. I thought that you guys might like to see where I work before I delete them all. My setup is not perfect, but I won't let myself use the 'to-do' list keep me from sewing! Still needed:
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JanelleaLet's be Quilting Friends! I want to share my quilting progress and hear about all of your projects, too. Archives
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