Someone posted a comment when I first uploaded my new studio photos asking me to post a photo after I was done working in it. Okay, here you go. This is a photo taken this morning, after I spent last night doing a little quilting and organizing. Yes, I am a neat freak. A clean studio is a happy studio. It takes me all of 5 or 10 minutes to put things away at night and take them out again the next day. Obsessive/compulsive? Not really. Look at it from this perspective...we all cook, but we don't leave everything open and out on the counters because we're going to cook again tomorrow, so why should the workspaces we create in be any different? (It also helps to always have fresh flowers in the room :) )This is a close-up of the lovely orchid on my sewing table. And yes, it is real. This was the second of my orchids to flower for me this year, and this one is stunning. It's been in full flower for about two months now. I think it likes the chi in it's new home. It strives to stay pretty to outshine the fabrics and projects going on in there, and it's doing a great job of it, don't you think?

Oh dear, just as we've left it for a couple weeks, the black/white/green sandwich. I really do love this quilt, but for some reason I keep putting off finishing it.

Oh look! We've found a use for the sewing armoire....it's the new ironing armoire. Again, number two on my 'Top 10 Things I'm Procrastinating About List'.......painting this armoire white (and then getting an embroidery machine to put inside it Ha Ha!)


My darling husband forked over some really nice long wooden golf tees for me to use to keep my thread spool and matching bobbins together.

And yesterday, at the dollar store, I found these ice cube trays (they make sticks of ice to slip into water bottles) and darned if they don't fit the 'teed up' spools perfectly. So when I'm working on a couple projects at one time, I can just lay out the threads I need in this tray so they're close at hand. Of course, now this means I need to buy the small spools of thread so they fit in the 2/$1.00 trays.....
This past weekend's projects.....The Friendship Star Quilt Guild block. Call me a geek, but I'm new to the guild and I intend to proudly wear my block to the meetings. I just need to find a cool lanyard to hang it from that I can put all my show pins on. Notice the hand embroidery. Whatever. I haven't embroidered forever, but I needed personalization and didn't think I could just walk into JoAnn and ask one of the ladies selling sewing machines if she'd embroider my name on this for me. Anyway, the block isn't too large, maybe 6" x 6". And I used my South African Indigo charm squares on it. Note the freemotion on the muslin. I glued on the teeny tiny piecing in the friendship star, and then I needed to meticulously stitch around each tiny piece when they started to fall off. (Duh! That's what I get for using non-permanent applique glue.)


And, in the spirit of finishing what we start (except for the black/white/green :) ), I've sandwiched and started the freemotion on the Maple Leaves of Friendship table quilt I was testing. I'm going to finish that up tonight because I am itching to start.......
NEPTUNE!!!!!!! Went to the Quilters Unlimited Guild show in Chantilly, VA last Saturday and saw this at the Cottonseed Glory (an Annapolis, MD shop) booth. O-M-G....the colors and the nautical prints are pure fabulosity. And surprise, surprise, it's from Moda. (Moda and me, we've got a thing going on).

Bought the pack of 13 fat quarters, a fantastically simple pattern, ordered some backing and borders from the Tula Pink Neptune line Monday (online sale - only $7.13 a yard), and can not wait to start on this. I think I'm going to bump it up in the queue. (Actually, I think I already subconsciously did, if you pay attention to the threads in the new little ice tray organizer pictured above.)