Not blue

I'm not blue...I'm not blue...I'm not blue, thinking the studio will be, too...

We have finished painting the studio and I'm going to be moving in today.  I still have to finish painting the aquarium stand and it needs a new light kit.  But, it's up and running and it doesn't look like I lost any fish.  We only moved it 5 feet to the right, but I had to drain it down to about 12 gallons to make it light enough for us to lift.  And, we left the water level low while we moved other furniture in, in case we had to move it again. 

 

The table in the corner, when it's not holding the DVR, will have a drawer storage unit under it and on top will be my cutting board.  My huge ironing board will fit on it, so it can serve double duty.  Under the cutting mat you see on the right, there's a drop leaf dining table.  I can lift the leaf to extend that out when I'm quilting full size quilts.  And, if I put the extra leaf in, it extends long enough to make 84" drapes, which I'm going to need it to do soon, because as much as I love the clean look off that white blind, that window faces west and I need some insulation over it. 

 

There's still a lot to do and I'm sure I should feel more intimidated about it.  But, I don't!

 

 

 

Instead of the huge antique sofa that used to be in the room, now I have my Grandmother's barrel back chair.  Rob asked for a comfortable place to sit so he can come in and visit and watch TV while I sew.  This chair was in our bedroom, working hard as a support system for clothes  (don't deny it...we all got a place in our bedroom like that), and it seemed perfect for this room. (but where will my clothes go?)

 

I felt like Rebecca Grace.  I remember that she did this when she was re-designing her sewing space.  While I was emptying the room, I measured all the furniture and I got some graph paper and I drew out the room and I cut out the furniture and I moved it around about a hundred times without injuring either of our backs.  And, this was the layout that made the most sense and gave me the most floor space.  I didn't plan on the chair, so hadn't made a piece for it, but could tell it was going to fit in the space that was left. 

 

 

Everybody have a great Monday!  Think of me, getting a fresh start in my quilting studio, trying to find the perfect place to put stuff.  And, hoping I can find it later.

 

Lane. 

 

Finish lines

It was another weekend of moving out of parts of our house.  The repairmen come today.  Hopefully, that part of the process will be finished.  More about that later. 

We finished the guild's raffle quilt about a month ago.  A picture went out to the membership last week, so I can finally share it.  Now that I haven't worked on it in a while, it's pretty nice.  When I was working on it all the time, I couldn't stand the sight of it.  There's nothing like a hard deadline to sour me on a project.  I need to be able to walk away, get my inspiration back, then come back to the project.  When I have a deadline, there's no walking away.

 

I took a month off to recharge and finished my part of the incentive quilt.  The incentive quilt goes to the person that sells the most raffle tickets.  My co-quilter has pieced a flying geese border to go around it.  I handed it off to her yesterday.  I like how the lighter gray worked in the center.  It looks like the circles are sitting on a circle. 

 

 

I'm glad this project is done.  Now, I can focus on my stuff.  And, right now, my stuff is painting the studio. 

 

And, a little sewing.  I've made some progress on my random stars quilt by using it as a leader/ender on the incentive quilt.  I'm going to keep making stars until I run out of fabric.  I'm making 16" blocks.  That makes it easier to decide how to fill the space than trying to plan the whole quilt at one time.  I believe that will help me be more random.  And, it lets me work in more sizes, like the 12" star in a star in a star.  I'm looking at my stash to see how much navy and tan I have that I could add. 

 

 

This is where my studio is.  One large pile of sewing machines and chairs and tables and plastic drawer stacks. 

 

And, this is where it came from.  Next time you see this space, it will be green.  I've measured all the furniture and am going to lay it on graph paper to try to find the optimal placement.  But for today, they're going to pull the carpet back, jackhammer a hole through the slab and level it.  So, the only things in it are the green custom sewing table that the Bernina sits on and the aquarium.  We've already taken out the step stool and the desk chair.  We are overflowing some of my antiques into Syd's old room, so I will hopefully have a good bit more space in the studio than I've had before and I will be able to lay it out the way I want it instead of the way it will fit.  For one thing, my sewing machines are going to be in the center of the room and there will be a cutting station and an ironing station. 

The front porch is also empty.  They'll be working out there as well.  But, before we moved everything, I took a picture of these begonias.  We bought the wooden hangers (which you can't really see) on vacation in Arkansas.  Rob painted the pots blue to go with the front door and he plants begonias in them every spring.  The begonias can take the heat of the west facing front of our house and they fill the pots and we don't have to spend all our time watering them.  Surprisingly enough, there are three ferns that have been next to the front door and they've taken the sun well, too.  But, they take a lot more water. 

 

Y'all have a wonderful Monday.  I'm giving a presentation to my peers on Wednesday.  We are rolling out a new process that I built.  It's not going to be popular.  The original design would have been easily accepted.  The two earlier modifications would have been fine.  But, by the time I made the other team happy, what we were left with is going to be a pain in the behind for my team to get used to.  But, after a while, they will.  And, I am strong.  I can take whatever they throw at me.  (I think I can, I think I can.)

 

Aren't I just the little specialist that could.

 

Lane

 



Starts and stops

Life moves forward in a series of starts and stops.  More about that later. 

Remember those arcs I've been making?  This is what they turn into.

And, then those, turn into these.  I have the remaining 12 arcs pieced, now I just need to set them into their blocks. This is my "big quilt" for next year's shows.  I keep telling it it's a winner. 

But right now, I have to finish the second quilt for the guild.  We make one for the raffle and one as an "incentive" to give to the person that sells the most raffle tickets.  The quilter has the raffle quilt and now I need to finish my part of the incentive.  I passed the fabric to my co-quilter yesterday so she can start the border. 

Remember, I was painting a closet to display my quilts in?  The closet is too small to get them all in one picture.  But, this is the bottom half. 

And, this is the top. Most of these quilts are my work, but there are a few vintage quilts here and there. 

Labor day weekend, we started to paint the guest room.  This was Syd's room.  No more purple wall!!! 

Now, it's a lovely shade of green.  I've started emptying the studio so we can paint in there.  That's taking a while, but it's going to be this same shade of soft green and I can hardly wait...but wait I must. 

This is a very out of season Mock Orange blossom.  I love how it showed up in the dark. 

After we got that the room painted, we came out into the living room and found a new crack along the ceiling.  The part of the house we didn't have repaired now has to be repaired.  This made us very sad.  And, then the man came and told us how much it was going to cost and we became very, very sad.  But, we are soldiering on.  This time, they will be putting a pier into my studio, so that means the carpet will have to be pulled up in one corner.  And, two more piers in the living room.  We asked the man to do what he needed to do to make sure he never had to come back to our house.  And, that's what we are doing. 

Everybody have a great week!  Work is going well.  It's busy as all get out, but I'm managing the workload better each week. 

Lane