A new lamp & my quilting room

I actually could have added this to my previous post today, but I thought I would leave that one alone. Went to SA and one of my purchases was a new lamp for my sewing room to clamp on the shelf over my ironing board.  The other one just got in the way.  I saw this pink one and knew it was the one I needed.

When we got home this afternoon I had to take the box out to the shop that I had filled from the reorganization of my stash shelves.  Pieces that were either very big or that were not 100% cotton did not need to be crowding my shelves.  We have been out of business for a couple of years now, but we still had lots of vinyl that we used for making signs and creating heat applied graphics.  We took all the vinyl and put it in bins.  Then I took the fabric that was in bins in the closet and put it on the shelves where the vinyl was.


I also have lots of books that needed to find a new bookshelf.  Most are older craft books that I agreed to move out to the shop, but now there is space in the house that has been freed up.  I will not agree to move my quilting books out there... at least not yet.

The embroidery area is around the corner from the quilting machine... across from the shelves with the fabric. When we closed the business I had lots of space in the shop to expand my quilting.  I now have taken over more with the move of the fabric and books in the place of the vinyl.

Last item today is a shot of my quilt wing out in the shop area of our garage.  Someone asked about this room recently.  The room is long and narrow and on the far end there is a doorway into a storage closet.  Nothing fancy, but it works very well for my quilting space.

Organizing my space

 

I made the decision earlier this week that I wanted to do something about my stash storage that sits above the steel bookshelves in my sewing room.  As sewing rooms go, I have a very small one, but it is pretty efficient.  I don't have to move very far to be able to access almost everything I need when I am sewing.  The problem with the bins the way they were is the fabric stacks were too high, so every time I wanted something, of course it was on the bottom of the stack and if I decided it wasn't the right piece, I could not easily get it back where I pulled it from.  So on Tuesday I emptied one bin and got a heavy piece of cardboard and cut slots on the side for the wire and snapped it in place and neatly put my fabric back in and was pretty pleased with myself, but as I backed up and looked at it, the cardboard was sagging in the middle.  I taped a few pieces together to make a support post and kind of fixed the front sag.  My husband wanders in and says that it was not going to work... before long my fabric would fall out.  We went to Lowes and bought some panel boards.  He got them home and cut up the board to fit the bins, complete with slots to fit the wire on the sides.  I have to tell you that it was a much, much stronger shelf, and it didn't need any support post on the front side.  I had also indicated that it would be nice to have a couple slide outs, so we bought a wire shelf that had a big lip on one edge and he cut that to size and put them in lip edge facing up on the back side of the bin.  Now I have some really neat storage bins for my stash.

I want to see about getting a different lamp today... maybe a clamp on so I can have a couple more slide out shelves.  The lamp illuminates my ironing board, so it is necessary where it is at this time.

While I was emptying and restacking my shelves, I only put back what was fat quarter size or larger.  The really large pieces and anything that wasn't 100% cotton I put in a box to take out to my shop closet.  I have clear bins on the shelves out there.

I'm really liking how the shelves look now. It always helps to make an improvement that makes you feel good about your space.

Half square triangles anyone?

Getting any quilts done has not been on top of the list for the last couple of weeks.  Last week I was part of a group with five quilters that went to a school to give a presentation for third graders on the art of quilting.  The class only had 16 students, so they were divided into 4 groups of 4 and we had 4 stations for them to rotate through.  One lady read a short story about quilting history.  The next station had two ladies displaying antique quilts and telling the stories behind them.  Next there was a demonstration of cutting using a rotary cutter.  Safety in the use of a rotary cutter was the main emphasis.  The last station was me sitting at my Featherweight and showing them how a nine patch is sewn together.  I even showed them how to use a seam ripper and take a nine-patch apart.  The overall purpose of the presentation was a quilt that they want to create as a class to use as a fundraiser for their school... it is a private school.  Each student is going to draw on a piece of muslin something that reflects their personality.  After they get these done, we will add nine patch blocks to create a really neat quilt.  It will be auctioned off at their gala in March.  I will be the one who will quilt it once it is all constructed. 

This is the only quilt I've completed in the past two weeks.  My friend did a great job putting this one together and had requested that I quilt it so that she could turn the backing to the front for the binding.  This is not my most favorite thing to do because it requires extra attention to detail when you are quilting, but when it was done, I was very pleased with the result.

Now on to the half square triangle.  I signed up to do a Batik exchange with a group of ladies on TheQuiltShow.com, an online group.  The sign-up time ends this evening so the final number of participants has not been announced yet.  Yesterday the count was at 129, which means that each person is to make at least 129 HST to send to the lady organizing this exchange, and she will sort and mail them back out to everyone.  What I am proposing is a mini exchange to go with the HSTs we will be receiving.  I do not have a specific quilt in mind, but there have been estimates posted to indicate a small quilt would take close to 450 HSTs and many more for a larger one.  If we get the number up to 150 in this exchange I am currently in, it would still take many more to make a quilt.  Variety is what an exchange is all about... you send out 150, could be all the same light/dark HST... and you get back 150 different ones. 

In the exchange that I am proposing I am looking for 20 quilters to send out 20 sets of 12 HST.  The sheets that I have for the 2" finished HST can be printed on your printer and there are 12 on each sheet.  So you would have to print 20 sheets and sew and cut them apart.  There is more information required to get this done, but I'm trying to find out if I can find 20 quilters to participate to add 240 HST to your collection of 2" HSTs.

I do not typically have lots of comments, but if you are interested in doing this, leave a comment.  I'm not going to set any dates at this point, just want to see if there is an interest. 

Featherweight treasure

I have owned a Featherweight for two or three years and I have found it to be an awesome machine.  The serial number on my Featherweight indicates it was produced in 1950.  That makes it at least 60 years old and it still works great.  They sure don't make machines like that anymore.  A few of my quilting friends have had their Featherweights much longer, and their raving on its performance inspired me to look for one of my own.  I searched and found a good one on eBay, and since then have bought at least two others for ladies in my quilt group.  I belong to two different quilt groups and if you were to walk in to either of them, you would find numerous Featherweights stitching away.

The machine pictured here is not the Featherweight that I have had for a couple years...  I didn't really need to be looking for anyone, but a couple weeks ago I browsed through the sewing machine listings on eBay, just to see what was out there.  I noticed this one and thought it looked really nice.  I put in a top bid that I thought would have little chance of winning.  Well here it is... I have a second Featherweight that is much older than the one I already had.  This one dates back to 1936, making it 75 years old.  Even though it is older, it is actually in better condition.  This Featherweight not only looks great, it stitches great as well.  I truly found a treasure and I intend to keep this 1936 Featherweight.  I will probably hold onto the other one for a while... until someone decides they need one too.  By the way, I took this outside to take the pictures in the hopes that the daylight would show off its beautiful shine... I think it worked.

I have been busy quilting up a storm... for my friends.  I have not put any more columns together for my Farmers Wife Sampler quilt.  I guess I will have to schedule in time to work on my own quilts.  The one here on the left was a scrappy quilt, and the lady only does a quilt now and then, but it was one of the best ones I have had to work on.  I'm referring to the construction, not the pattern.  She did an awesome job putting this one together.  I tried to do it justice with my quilting.  I think she was quite pleased when she came to pick it up.

There is one more that I finished a few days ago that I didn't get a picture of.  I created a pantograph of an airplane to use for the quilting on this vintage plane quilt.

On a roll

I got my camera out this afternoon to take some pictures of the last quilt that I didn't have totally finished yesterday.  I had the quilting done, but ran out of steam to stand there at my cutting table and trim the edges last night.  The backing on this quilt really showed off the quilting very nicely, but the picture made it look washed out, so I didn't include it.  Inside lighting sometimes does not do justice to colors.  You can actually see the quilting pretty good on the front.











This will be used as a table topper.  I used a few different techniques on this one and I like how it turned out. 

I was reading about sewing rooms and how some people are envious of the space other people have.  Of course that is the ideal situation to be in... to have a sewing room that is so large that you have plenty of room and all the nicest accessories, and some even have a wonderful view.  Well, I have a sewing room that is very small, and I have a quilting room that is probably equally as small, just configured differently.  I utilize the space I have to the best of my ability... and I am happy with what I have.  There is no way to make any more room in my sewing room, and the quilting room works just fine the way it is.  I actually have a storage closet off my quilting room that I use for my stash overflow... it is used for stash that I might not use tomorrow, but I know it is there if I can't find what I'm looking for in the house.




Everything is convenient, I turn around from my cutting table and the ironing board is right there... two steps to the left and I can sit at my F600, or if I'm getting ready to load a quilt onto the leaders to take out to the quilting room to put on the frame... I step just to the left of the F600 and sit down at my TL98 that zooms through the straight stitching at top speed.  If I want to finish off a seam, I move my little accessory box and slide my serger forward.  Now how much better can you get.  Did I mention that I can view the back yard no matter which machine I happen to be working on... so I have a room with a view.

Now turn around at the cutting table and look out into the hall and there is the design wall.  To the left of the door is the metal cabinet that I covered with fabric because it was starting to rust on the outside.  The wire shelves on top allow me to hang my selvedge strips.  The hanging baskets hold my batting scraps.

Now here is where most of my stash resides.  I did not go in and straighten out all the stacks because that would be way too time consuming... besides give it a few days of pulling pieces out and it is right back to looking disorganized again.  I keep the two sets of zipper leaders for my quilts on a hanger that hangs in front of my book shelf.

My ironing board is a real oldie.  It has a lever underneath on the front that pushes wings out to make the front of the board square.  Hard to envision I am sure... but it is a really cool ironing board that you will not find one like it easily... it belonged to my husband's grandmother.  It is in pristine shape for its age.  Oh yes, I changed the chair I use at my F600 because the back of the other one was hitting the ironing board.  This older chair has a lower back that clears the ironing board. All I had to do was recover the seat and it works great.


It is not always totally neat, but most everything has a place and I'm quite comfortable in my little sewing room.  Being content with what you have is a good thing.

Three quilts in one week

I have been busy trying to get some of the quilts on my list done.  These are not quilts that I pieced, but I did quilt them.  I only have pictures of two... the third one I just finished this evening and my legs won't hold up to stand so I could trim the edges and take a picture.

I'm going to try to do a photo journal of all the quilts I do this year.  I only quilt for friends, but some of those friends have more than a couple quilts.  I try real hard to remember what I did the last time I did a quilt for them, and sometimes that isn't so easy... memory isn't quite what it used to be you know.

 These two will be treasured quilts for special little girls.

 Hope to keep up my momentum.  When I finish a quilt... even if it wasn't mine... I feel like I really accomplished something.

Finished the blocks for my FWS

I have been busy during the last few weeks trying to get my Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks done so that I can start putting it together.  First of all I am not finishing all of the 111 blocks from the book... at least not for this quilt.  The layout I am going to use is not the traditional one that the book illustrates.  The blocks are on point, but they are in columns with sashing separating these columns.  There are 9 blocks in a column and there will be 8 columns, which comes out to 72 blocks... I actually completed 77 blocks.

I am going to make a big effort to finish this one in a timely manner, now that I have enough blocks done.  The last 8 that I worked on are below.

My big scare after I finished the first column was that I would not have enough of the red I chose for the trim around the blocks.  It looked like I had alot of the red, but as I was cutting and getting all the sets done, I think I have about 8 of the 6 1/2" strips left.  That was close, but I had not planned on using the red or even trimming around the blocks.  When I auditioned fabric from my stash that I thought I had enough of, the red really looked best from what I had, and I was sure there was more than plenty.  I made it, but it wasn't by much.