I'm Sew Tired

Sadly, the machine sat idle all weekend. Too much going on. Ladies had Happy Night Friday, which caused me to be an extremely unmotivated camper most of Saturday, but we had friends over for dinner, so I had to snap out of it mid-afternoon and head to the grocery store and focus what little energy I had on culinary pursuits.

But while I was just pissing the afternoon away in the studio, I opened a box under my desk that contained some of my first blocks (Thangles BOMs)

But what totally threw me for a loop was that inside this box I also found

Five yards of this batik. Okay, FIVE YARDS! I can't recall ever buying five yards of anything, but what's even stranger is I also found

FIVE YARDS of this Kaffe Fassett Jungle Paisley print. BONUS!!!!!!! I'm looking at those blocks thinking, do I really want to use them with either of these fabrics? Do I even want to make a quilt out of those blocks, couldn't I find something WAY better to do with the Kaffe? You bet!

The hubs actually volunteered to pick up my small Drunkard's Path GO! die in Frederick on Saturday, since he had to drive right past there to go to the golf course. Saved me a trip, and also saved me from buying fabric to cut with the die. (not sure if that's really a good thing or not....thinking NOT!)

Of course, I did ring up the Christmas Goose Quilt Shop in Vegas and order two kits and patterns I had seen there back in August. Wallhangings that I'm going to use as table quilts. One is pumpkins, the other hearts. Pieced, not applique. Should be quick and easy. Looks like next week is going to be Christmas in the old mailbox.

Exhausted from the online shopping and the excitement of finding fabric I didn't know I had, today was another uneventful end to a weekend. I managed to vacuum and do a little carpet shampooing. Another trip to the grocery store for the ingredients for a crock pot soup (Alex Anderson's recipe in this months 'Quilt Life') and then, the horror....A TWO HOUR NAP!!!!! I must be getting sick. I have to be. I don't nap, I'm not usually this unmotivated, I'm not this slow.

My throat is feeling a little scratchy, come to think of it. Maybe I've caught something from one of the three rental cars I've been in this week (while mine is in the body shop -- don't ask!). Or maybe I accidently drank out of someone's wine/martini glass  (Lord knows, there's been ample opportunity for that to happen this week). Or maybe it's just been a long, taxing week.

All I know is I need to snap out of this and get some sewing done. Gee, maybe if I actually went to bed before 2 a.m. I might have a bit more energy. Think I'll give that a try tonight.

Reminder: October 1st is the start of Fall Giveaway. I'll be participating, so be sure to spread the word, and check back later this week to see what I'll be giving away.

I'm off to bed before I turn into a pumpkin (table quilts on the mind). Later gators!

Some Inexpensive Studio Furniture Ideas / Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Since Ginny asked about this in a comment to my last post, I'm going to share with you my inexpensive do-it-yourself cutting table.

The base of my table is made up of two shoe cubbies that I purchased at Lowes in their closet organizing department. Turned on end they are the perfect height to set a tabletop on for a cutting table--or an ironing table, or both..

My tabletop is 1/2" plywood that I had cut to approx 30x48 (to accommodate a 24x36 self healing cutting mat and the available space in my own small studio). The wood has been finished with a high gloss white baked on paint (it came from a company that builds convention exhibit booths). The guys at the shop painted the edges for me, but my plan originally was to purchase iron on veneer edging (also available at Lowes) to finish the edges. They used a thick high gloss paint, so the veneering wasn't necessary. Saved me some time and $$$$.

I fold my fabric to fit in the cubbies. Each cubbie holds about 30 stacked  fat quarters, or three folded 4-yard pieces. I've got yardage, FQs, jelly rolls in my cubbies. The cubbies are 12" deep, so you fold your fabric long and narrow for optimum storage. The fabrics aren't in the path of any direct light, and I do cycle through the fabric so it's not in any real danger of fading. When I vacuum my studio, I just vacuum along the stacks as well to keep them dust-free.

My original idea was to make a custom sewing table, with a cut out (suspended on L brackets) for my sewing machine, but the shoe cubbies were too short or too tall, depending on how you placed them, so I bought a lovely white trestle desk for the sewing machine and reworked my cubby idea into the cutting table.

Now, I had to purchase a 4'x8' piece of plywood, so the guys also cut me a shelf, and a desktop (so I can still make my suspended machine shelf desk), and I've squirrelled these away in my closet for future use.

On a quest for thread storage that allowed me to separate my threads out by content and color, and keep them protected from light and dust, I picked up these super inexpensive scrapbook drawers half price at Michaels, with an eye on dual purpose.

What you see are 4 3-drawer units that I've stacked two up. And to my surprise, they are the exact height of the base on my trestle desk, so at some point they will become the 'legs' for that desk-size piece of plywood.

The drawers are spacious and hold quite a bit of thread, and I've labeled them by content. As you can see, the spools lie on their sides (though they could stand), and the cone-type spools of embroidery polyester easily stand.

This shot gives you an idea of how much thread you can fit in a single drawer. You can lie 7 large spools, 11 small spools, or 6 Gutermann spools end to end. And you can lay at least 12 rows across the drawer. That's 72 spools of Gutermann per drawer. Totally out of the light, dust free, and multi-functional storage if you use the units as 'legs' for a flat surface on which to iron, sew, Accucut, embroider......you get the point.

Cost for these multi-purpose storage solutions...totally reasonable. I paid around $50 for all four 3-drawer units. They're sturdy, wood laminate, and they stack securely (pegs hold sets together).

The shoe cubbies were a bit more. They are 25 cube Closet Maid laminate organizers, and they sell for $40 each. The 4x8 sheet of finished plywood cost me about $28, so I got 50 cubes of fabric storage and a cutting table for just over $100. (and that also included a desktop; and a shelf for future use).

Don't be afraid to step outside the box and design things that work for you. There's a ton of inexpensive storage and work solutions that will work great in any studio, large or small. You just need to look at existing storage solutions with an eye at repurposing them to fit your own needs.

Oh Look! Tea Towels!

Pray tell Susan, why would you make tea towels? I honestly don't know. It was an impulse purchase in the quilt shop. My sister makes these for all the holidays. She'll fold them up and tie on a cute little themed cookie cutter with a piece of raffia or string to finish off a cute little hostess gift. Sometimes I just have this uncontrollable urge to copy what my sister does, I guess. I gave one to my daughter, and I'll likely hang one in my kitchen, though maybe not--I don't decorate Halloween anymore. Not sure what is going to happen to the third one (do I smell a blog giveaway?). Check back later this week and find out. (wink)

Looks like I've made some progress on Windmill Farm. As it's made with Moda's Pumpkins Gone Wild prints, it needs to be finished up and used for fall. I'm working on that, though today I got sidetracked and refolded a bunch of the fabric (with military precision) in my cutting table that was looking a little less than perfect. (Told you I had some latent OCD tendencies.)

I probably could have put the border on that quilt top in the time I was rearranging and refolding fabrics. Or I could have read the EQ7 manual, or set up the embroidery module and given it a little spin on the Bernina. I had a little problem with priorities today (sigh).

My 5 spools of Superior silk thread arrived today. It looks absolutely yummy. Thank you, Superior Threads, for having such a great giveaway. I did pretty good with the matchy-matchy to the dupionis off the website color chart. Good to know if you want to order some yourself.

Now, to come up with a plan to use a couple dozen half-yard pieces of dupioni ...