New Project in the Works

I started a new project in the sewing room yesterday. My Bruder Bear is going to be a grandpa again and so it was time to start a new quilt for the little one. We know it's another boy (great-grandson number six for my parents), and so I picked out some cute boyish fabrics at the quilt shop a couple of weeks ago.

Most of the fabrics are from the Giraffe Crossing line by The RBD Designers for Riley Blake.  I'm going to use the Yellow Brick Road pattern by Atkinson Designs, which is the same pattern I used for soon-to-be big brother Grant's quilt.  

Meanwhile, it's a very dark and dreary day here at the resort, so I think that makes it a very good day to spend sewing.  And maybe for making a big pot of soup.  ♥

A Couple of Finishes

Hey, as promised, I'm back!!  

Down in the sewing room, I finally got gutsy and decided I needed to quilt the window scene wall hanging using the Through the Winter Woods fabric.  Yes, it had me buffaloed because it had light and dark sections and I'm an "all over" quilter girl and what color thread would work on both?  Answer:  none.

So Tuesday afternoon, I gathered myself together and came up with a plan.  First I put the layers together and pin basted them, then I stitched in the ditch (right down the seam line for those not acquainted with the term) around the scenes and the window frame.  Then I basted around the entire edge of the quilt and put it on my Handi-Quilter and using a brown variegated thread, stippled quilted the border.  I changed to a cream thread and lightly stippled each scene and...I was done! And I'm happy with it.  Turns out it's no big deal to change thread colors!  What a dork I was about this!  

I may stitch some lines through the window sill, but that'll just take a jiffy using my regular sewing machine.  

I also finished the herringbone table runner from the same pattern book as the window wall hanging several weeks ago.  It's not the best photo as the light was wrong in my sewing room and I was too lazy to drop the blinds.  

I think I'll make two more projects from the book.  Can you believe that, after almost forty-three years of marriage, we've never had a real Christmas tree skirt? There's one in the book I really like, so I hope to tackle it soon.  Also, Ann gave me a jelly roll of this fabric for my birthday and there's a log cabin quilt, using those scene panels, that I believe I'll try.  That will most likely be after Christmas, though.  

Ah, the joys of being a quilter--there are always more patterns and fabrics calling to us!  ♥

Thankful Thursday

Wow, I can't believe what a slacker blogger I've been this month.  But then again, there's only so much you can say about dusting, organizing shelves, and cleaning sinks.  Yeah, it's been that exciting here this month.  

But, this morning I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.  I try to do at least four posts per month, so stay tuned for a flurry in the next few days!

Meanwhile, I know Thursdays have become known in the internet world as "Throwback Thursday", but today I decided I would do a Thankful Thursday.  So, in a few words and a few pictures, here goes:

I'm thankful for this perfect little ceramic bird I found last fall in a drugstore next to the shop where I get my hair cut.  It makes me smile.

And I'm thankful for my trusty ancient NordicTrack.  I can't believe that for the last one year and nine months, most days, I climb on it each morning and work away. It's a love/hate relationship, but still, I'm thankful!  

Hope your day is as beautiful as it is here!  ♥

September?

Well, it looks like I've missed a few weeks here.  Things have been busy, and when I've had down time, I've been lazy.  :-)

I have my little house picture done and hanging.  I've left the frame matte-finished, but I may varnish it later. I do like it!  And it solves a bare-space dilemma for those times when my Christmas stocking and my little flag banner are out of season.

The little basket below it holds our car keys and I've made different garters for it for various seasons. I haven't been to a Longaberger party in years, but I sure love the baskets I have and use them all the time. (We'll just have to ignore the fact that the light switch isn't centered...  Bah!!)

I have finished changing out Americana decor for fall and it feels so good!  Love, love, love the fall season. And here's that Edyta Sitar runner I made earlier this year. Doesn't it look perfect with this arrangement on it?

So far I've found no bags of cute little pumpkins at Safeway, but I'll keep checking.  ♥

A Tiny Little Decorating Project

As it's about time to change seasonal decorating, I came to the realization that my little flag decoration would soon be coming down and I would again be left with a blank spot next to the front door. This was unthinkable! And so I headed down to my newly organized sewing room and began to pull books from my stash, looking for just the right new thing.  I finally found what I thought would work and was able to go right to my bin of ziplock bags full of scraps, all sorted by color!! Super yay for organization!!  

A few fabric tryouts and some tracing, cutting and ironing, and I had my little top. 

At first, I thought I'd make a small quilted hanging, but as I looked at it I realized it would just look bulky. It's quite primitive and I decided what it needed was to be framed with a simple black frame.  Hmmm, where to get a simple black frame?  I called in my Sweetie and described my dilemma, knowing full well he would volunteer to make one.  

He's made the pieces and hopefully he'll have time tomorrow to put it together.  (If you think retired people, or in his case semi-retired, have lots of spare time, I suggest you think again.)  I told him I would be glad to paint it.  ♥

And...It's Done!

That old song, "Heaven, I'm in heaven..."  probably from some musical, keeps running through my head.  It took me a few days, but I have order, lovely, blissful order in my sewing room!!  I combed through every piece of fabric I owned--yardage, fat quarters, and scraps, and I was ruthless.  I have bags and bags of things to take to the Hope Center (click here to read about) and my trusty Explorer is full of them.  

And the closet itself?  Have a look:

Now, I know must quilters would scoff at my "stash", but I can assure you that there is a lot of fabric on those shelves, and of course, there will be more to be purchased in the future.  It is so lovely to be able to walk into the closet and see exactly what's on each shelf.  I have sections for colors, sections for Christmas, one for fall, one for Kansas Troubles fabrics, and so on. I even have a section for fabrics to make more of those little Dresses for Africa (I was inspired to do them again after watching the video of the ninety-nine-year-old lady from Iowa who makes a dress a day and hopes to make her 1000th dress on her 100th birthday next May).  

Another section of the closet, which didn't need revamping, is a series of small shelves on the left side where I have books and magazines:

(Also on those shelves is the complete Magnum, P.I. series, courtesy of my Sweetie, and the complete Scarecrow and Mrs. King series, courtesy of my adorable daughter.  Love to watch them while I stitch.)

My sewing room seems even bigger and so much fresher! I even dusted now that there are cleared-off tables. (And we all know how rare that is for me!)  Now I'm ready for a new project.  ♥

A Little Organization, Please!

My longtime friend and pal, Kathy (all the way back to kindergarten!), and I email regularly as well as keep up via our blogs.  We've been discussing quilting stashes recently and mulling over purchases and possible additions.  I mentioned to her the other day that I really needed to sort out my sewing room closet, although I confess I really wasn't planning to do anything except contemplate sorting.  Until yesterday. 

For some strange reason, I found myself in my sewing room and I opened the closet doors and shockingly began to pull things out.  Dan happened along and I told him what I was up to.  He said, would more shelves help? Well, of course they would, but he has little time these days and I wanted closure on this project within a day or so.  He measured, we talked, and he said that rather than build the shelves from scratch and paint them, he could buy pre-painted boards and some brackets and get this project done that very afternoon.   Pre-painted boards? Who knew?!?  (Obviously not me.)

So, with my blessing, he headed out for the builder's supply and I attacked the closet with a vengeance. Here are some before pictures (don't judge!)

 

And how did the renovating turn out?

I so blessed to have such a wonderful, huge closet (with a light in it!) to start with, and now I have space, space, space thanks to my sweetie!  Today I have begun to put things back and it's an archeological dig.  So many wonderful fabrics that had been buried, some not so wonderful ones that will go bye-bye (I'll donate to the local Hope Center), and if you can believe it, I even found a piece of fabric I bought to make a maternity top back in the '70's!!  (Yeah, I saved it.)  

It's taking me a while to sort, and I have all kinds of plans for how to organize, but we'll see how that works in the space.  A section for Kansas Troubles, a section for Christmas, sections for colors (blue, green, red, etc.), flannels, and so on.  I'll keep you posted!  ♥