Still organizing

I accomplished a lot this weekend, but everything took so long.  In the sewing room, I'd have to first set up whatever tool I wanted to work with and then I'd have to clear off some space and put whatever needed to be moved into its new home (yes, there are still things on my sewing surfaces that need to find their permanent homes).  I cleared out bobbins and sorted and organized my hand sewing drawer, which left me with several empty containers to deal with...not throwing them away until everything is in its new place because soon as I toss that little tin that holds needles so well, I'm gonna need it. 

But, I did reward myself with some fun sewing.  I finished the next block for the star quilt.  I was out of ideas for the fourth block and brought it up in the car the other day and Rob just popped out the perfect idea.  You'll have to wait to see it tho.

My other sewing project was storing the crazy quilt.  This quilt is the real deal.  It was given to our friend Linda's aunt to repair.  Then, the lady that had asked her to repair it was killed in a plane crash, along with her daughter.  Nobody ever came to get the quilt and it ended up in Linda's hands.  It was in pretty bad shape, so I brought it home and did the repairs I could, but honestly, it wasn't worth it.  For every piece of silk I replaced, another piece shattered.  So, I decided it was best to preserve the quilt in it's current condition. 

It had been folded up for years, and I had been storing it folded and I knew that wasn't good for it, so I made a plan.

I took a small pool noodle and shoved it inside a larger pool noodle so I could get a large diameter roll, then I ran an old shower curtain rod down the middle to keep it from bending and covered all that in silky polyester lining fabric.  The string is so I could tighten that around the end and completely cover the pool noodle. 

Then, I cut a piece of the lining in the size of the quilt and serged it and we laid the lining down, then the quilt, face down on top of that so the quilt surface would be stretched instead of crinkled in the rolling process, and then rolled it onto the noodle.  It was supposed to get another sleeve on that, but after it was made, I realized I couldn't push this into the next sleeve without messing up the outer edge of the quilt, so will need to make another cover that goes on the outside and ties instead of being a sleeve.  That should be easy enough. 

Then, the plan is to hang the quilt by those knobs on the end so I can take basically all the pressure off the silks.  It's a good plan.  I'll have to let you know if it works, but it's been successful so far and I don't see any reason the next step wouldn't be, too.

I've also made significant progress on the Linus afghan.  Just a few more rows and I will have used up almost all the acrylic yarn I own.  What I'm left with is small balls, about 1.5 inches in diameter.  Those won't make a row here, but I'm going to use them to make a granny square afghan like Amy Farrah Fowler's.  It is bright colors surrounded by black so that the blacks join.  It's a beautiful afghan...and it's the best I can come up with to use the very last of that yarn.  Waste no, want not!

Okay, that's it for me.  This week is all business meetings.  Tonight there's a dinner where I will meet some of my co-workers and tomorrow morning a meeting with our retailers.  Tomorrow night, I'll have dinner in San Antonio to meet another set of co-workers and then Wednesday morning, another retailers meeting.  Then, Thursday, I get to have lunch with my friend Lyn. 

Everybody have a great week!  Lane