Keeping It Real: My Sewing Space

I do have to say that I am pretty lucky to have a room of my own to create and play. I house lots of fabrics, art supplies and other creative toys. I am constantly changing things around to suit my needs.

Here's a clockwise view:

A portion of my fabric stash and books.

More fabric, art supplies and other toys.

My craft table: where the magic happens.

My design wall. So happy to have one!

Sewing machine, Accuquilt and
other supplies.

I also have stuff tucked under the table and in another closet in the house. I plan to sort through it all this year and purge what I know will never be used. Since my resolution was to not buy any fabric, I hope to use up a lot of my stash and make room for new things in 2016.

I have plans to change a few things around in the next few weeks that will allow me to display more art work so stay tuned. I can't wait to post pictures when it's done.


Since my last blog, I made more bags including this one for my brother-in-law:

Tuxedo print boxed bag

Mustaches inside the bag!

 And I missed posting last week as I was busy celebrating my birthday!

Delicious Red Velvet Cupcake

My love splurged on lots of fabric for me. So much nerdy goodness with
Cotton+Steel and Tula Pink as a cherry on top!
How lucky can I be?

My friend Debbe had her fiance make this awesome ruler storage
for my craft desk. I saw hers and remarked that I would love one.
I was able to get two and they are almost filled.
Can you really have too many rulers?

My friend Leandra made this Tula Pink clock.
It brightens my design wall perfectly.

I also had great weekends before and after my birthday with my sister and friends that made me feel so special. I love my life and all those who are in it.

I feel ready to tackle a new year!

Just Made the Deadline

I finally sorted my Sewing Room and am so thrilled. It only took most of March to do. I had to come the realization that I have a lot of fabric. When you're shuffling things around, it doesn't seem like it's out of control. When you have to box it up to add/remove furniture, it's another story.

I am reaffirming my pledge to not purchase any more fabric for the rest of the year. (Said after I placed an order today to use my expiring vouchers at Pink Castle fabrics. I couldn't let that deal go!) I am done with online fabric shopping. For real this time.

Now that I have my long desired design wall in place, it's on! I still have to figure out how to get more time to sew but that's another problem for another day. I'll share pics of my room later.

So, I also needed to make my BOM for my Stash Bee hive due in March. Since I didn't even have a place to sew for weeks, I was able to work on it last night and this morning. Finally.

I just made the deadline!

Here's my March BOM for hive #6:

Super Scrappy Sunny Day block

I love that I was able to chain piece each section as I went and whipped it together pretty quickly. This was a lot of fun to make for Melodee.

Hope you've been making a dent in your stash.
Enjoy your week!

Resistance is Futile!

I tried to resist a love affair with Pinterest but have failed miserably. It's official: I like pinning things. I am a Pinterest Mistress.

Our network was down at work today so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I decided to give Pinterest another try and learn more about pinning things. I think I was making it harder to navigate that it actually is so I gave up on it a long time ago.

Today, started the long process of cataloging all of my bookmarks saved on this computer's browser. My sewing/quilt folder is so large that I've forgotten ones that were saved a long time ago. Seeing the image and sorting them into simple collections makes things quite easy. I just started a few boards and am sure that I'll need new categories for things as I go.

Here's what I have so far:

http://www.pinterest.com/sewnwithcurves


Are you on Pinterest? Any pointers for getting my bookmarks on here faster?

Weekend Review

Ok, I did get much of the room sorted but am not done yet. I had way more fabric than I realized! I used comic book boards to fold up my fabrics into uniform stacks. (Fat quarters are on on smaller boards. Bulkier fabrics were folded into separate piles or sealed in vacuum bags.) Here's what I have so far:

It's a marked improvement from where I started last Friday. I am eager to get more of it finished later this week. Finding some hidden gems underneath piles of fabrics was like Christmas in a way. I also sorted all scraps by colors into separate bins that are labeled underneath my sewing machine table so I can find them quickly.

I did manage to sort and organize my tools into pretty labeled drawers. It's nice to have them all in one section of my room instead of 3 separate areas.

I started sewing again today and am working on my idea for the Madrona Road fabrics from my guild. Our projects are due in March and I have a bit more work to do. I have a design in mind but need more hours in the day to work, sleep, eat and quilt. I'll take pictures and share those later this week when I have time to post.

I can't wait to get projects done now. I love the fabrics I've collected over the years and am eager to make great things happen with them.

P.S. -Is it wrong that I want to go shopping for even more fabrics now that I have a great system to sort them?

Weekend Clean Up

A Hoarder's Reckoning 

Somewhere along the line, my room has become chaotic with fabric shoved here and notions shoved there.  I really want to clean and organize my space this weekend so that I can find what I need. I want see all of my beautiful fabrics to inspire creativity.

Looking at pages of how others have stored their fabric made me ready to get my shelves set up this weekend. I've already stored bulk fabrics in vacuum sealed bags since they are not materials I would use for quilting. (I eventually want to learn how to make my own clothes but am not there yet.) I also have a great organizer with rainbow drawers from Christmas (Thanks Love!) that needs to be labeled so it can house all of my favorite tools. I have 3 shelving systems of needles,bobbins, binding and buttons that can be condensed into one, I hope. If I am to be more serious about my quilt work this year, I need to clear my space to make it happen.

Before
(Sadly, this isn't even all of  it. I need to fit
secret stashes in there, too.)

I wish I was at QuiltCon this week! (Although, I would be probably come home with lots of fabric and no where to put it.)