Housekeeping!

If you know me well, you know I'm not known for my housekeeping,

lets face it, I'd rather sew!

But the situation was getting a little out of control ...

don't you think?

but I managed to achieve a happy medium

but there was the other side of the studio too!

and I had a little motivation, with a visitor expected ...

so a reasonable level was achieved with the frame being accessible and usable ...

and then this happened!

I sold my second frame, and its gone to live in the Valleys

so it was time for a little more housekeeping, and a bit of a change round

that's better, lots of working space, and a few more UFO's unearthed - Ooops!

but I ended up with an awkward pile of pin cushions and pouches from swaps and gifts that needed to be prettied in one place

so I sort of followed this tutorial here from the Stitchin' Chicken ...

I say sort of, I got the gist of it, and then did my own thing 

and made it my own size ...

it turned out exactly how I envisioned ... phew!

and was well worth the half hour to make :) 

so now, I have a full on mojo attack!

UFO #3 - Finished! And a question ...

Well, I finished my January UFO #3 in the nick of time!  Nothing like last minute, I finished the binding yesterday afternoon!  Yay!!!  I present to you, Anita's Arrowhead blocks quilt....

I think this one might have to go on the bed tonight!  hehe!

So for February my UFO is #8, this pastel stars quilt, which I loaded onto the frame, gave the machine a spruce up, clean and oil, and she's ready to go. 

What I realised today, working in my Happy Daize Studio was that I need never have my frame empty again!  It is so great to have all the equipment I need in one place! 

Speaking of equipment, one thing I've never had is a design wall, though my living room floor made for a fantastic space to lay out and create. 

So my intention is to turn this wall into a design wall....

So here's the thing, I'm thinking polystyrene sheets propped up against the wall covered with wadding (batting) or a flannel sheet, or even both.  The slight angle of propping will hopefully stop things falling off. 

How have you made your design wall?  What would you recommend?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, either leave me a comment here or e-mail, either way, make sure I can reply  :)

A also had a little play tonight ....

but I can't show you too much .... not yet anyway!

Happy Quilting!



Houston - We Have Lift Off!

Don't you just love a dependable tradesman you trust  :) Yup, the electrician was here at 9 am this morning and now we are all fired up and connected to the mains  :) 

All lit up like a Christmas tree! 

I moved the frame round and also put in my sewing machine.  The low voltage lights work really well I barely needed the daylight lamp I use on my frame. 

I had a rummage in the debris of the old office and found some thread, pins and my machine maintenance kit, and had to have a little play!

This is a table runner I've quilted up for a friend.  I hope she likes it!

Tomorrows task is to buy a new ironing board  :) 

I had visitors today too!  Not only did the electricians wife call for a looky see |(they only live round the corner), but Sweetiepie and Angela from Fenland Textile Studio came over for a catch up too!   Lots of chat and tea drinking, with great exchanges of idea, brilliant!

Happy Quilting! 

So Excited! - It's almost Electric!

I ran out on Wednesday morning and snapped these, it was dark when the Teenage Diva and I had move the frame and a few of the storage boxes out to the new studio! 

My friend Jean insisted we get a couple of quilts thrown up to see what they look like...

The frame looks pretty lost, this isn't it's final position...

cos the electrician will be here in the morning to connect up the supply!  :)  More happy dancing!

I got home Wednesday to find that my partner had moved all the stacked baskets around in the old office, so I have to work on creating my own version of a quilt cave.  Speaking of which, do you know Teresa over at Fabric Therapy?  No, oh, you are missing a real fabric cave treat!  She is the queen of organisation for sure!

Check out this post! 

Teresa, sweetie, you need to visit soon!

To Frankie - The Textile Tardis just may stick!

Happy Quilting!  I'll be back really soon!

They came, They built, They left ...

What can I say!  They arrived again at 7:15 am this morning, they finished off the building and were gone before 1 pm.  It's finished ... almost!

The electrician is due on Saturday, so hopefully we can be operational by Sunday!  Yippeeeee!  (and the blinds are to follow)

A very big thank you to all the guys at Booths Garden Studios for all their hard work to make my quilting studio a reality! 

The Teenage Diva helped me move my frame and a few things in there tonight, but it was dark so I'll try to grab a quick pic in the morning before I go to work.  Especially as my friend Jean visited this afternoon and insisted we put up a couple of quilts to see what it will look like! 

I have a plan for the old office space, and need to instigate that before the electrician arrives, so there will be lots of tooing and froing for a while till I'm settled :)  I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it pans out. 

I couldn't resist the urge to splurge on fabric any longer, perhaps it was the temptation of the up coming sale at the LQS.  Anyway, these arrived in post today, courtesy of Courtney at Seamstar!  Thanks Courtney, they are fantastic!  No regrets at all!

And while I was supervising the Studio this morning, I got a little work done on this top from the LQS workshop I attended last week.

Just borders to add, and I have a cunning plan!

Other exciting news, I've been asked to teach at a quilting retreat specifically aimed at machine quilters!  Thank you Martha!  You can find all the details here. 

D-Day! The Eagle has Landed!

As you know, I have a little sewing room, I've shown you pictures before, but just to remind you how tight 8' x 6' is....

So for a long time now  I've been hankering after a little more room.  And the Teenage Diva has been begging me not to take over any more of the house!  So I did something about it!

At 07:15 am this morning, two large vans pulled up outside my house and 3 very polite gentlemen proceeded to unload their tools and equipment.  Within two hours, the walls are going up!

I needed to pop out into town, it was about 11 am ...

And when I got back ...

It didn't take them long to start on the roof ...

And by 4:30 pm we are watertight, and they'll be back in the morning (yep, 7:15 am!)  to finish off!

So my guilty little secret has been a new quilting studio! 

All 20' x 10' of it,  can you see my grin?

In fact I'm still doing the happy dance!

And that's not all....  today is my Blogiversary!  2 Years today!

I even managed to fit in a little sewing and some cutting of these pretties ...

Seems my mojo might not be too far away!

Happy Quilting!