Nesting??? (A tour of new my sewing studio)

I think this impulse of mine to clean and organize has something to do with the appearance of these.

Daffodils… Hooray!

It’s official – I have spring fever. We’ve been extremely blessed with temps in the mid-70’s for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been soaking up sunshine and airing out the house with all of the windows open. Ahhhh… It’s so nice. In other news, I’m scheduled for surgery on Monday. M-O-N-D-A-Y! I’ve been cleaning and organizing like a mad woman knowing I’ll be very much handicapped for weeks. Somebody should tell my bones it’s almost Spring, for crying out loud! They don’t have permission to misbehave this time of year. I’m yearning to get my hands dirty. But, that’ll have to wait. This time, my new neurosurgeon will be using bone from my hip to give my neck some extra help with the mending process. I’m hoping this will be my last surgery. Enough of that… would you like a peak at my new sewing studio?

I’m not quite finished with it, but I’m happy with how it’s looking so far. The paint color is Faded Ink by Martha Stewart. I adore the color for these walls.

I pulled out my favorite fabrics from my stash for display (and hopefully some inspiration.)There’s so many projects I’ve been wanting to tackle, but my neck hasn’t been cooperative. I’m optimistic that’ll change soon.

If you don’t yet have one of these nifty storage caddies, go out right now and get one. They’re perfect for holding sewing notions and patterns. The best part? I can roll it right over to where I need it. Bliss.

I love looking at everything all organized and color coded. It brings me joy.

It’s all about the simple things people.

This little gem has wheels, too. I am a blessed seamstress.

The bottom shelf holds all of my knitting needles, and the black cabinets hold my children’s art supplies.

Wonder of wonders, I actually enjoy sitting here again! This space has been in disarray for months.

I don’t know why I waited so long to do this…

Oh wait, that’s right. My neck. But now that I know they’ll be fixing me up Monday, I figured it didn’t matter if I wiggled something out of place!

I adore old mason jars. They’re wonderful for storing so many things.

I actually use them to store dry food goods as well. (With new lids, of course.)

If I happen to be sitting here, I most certainly have Pandora blaring. Coldplay radio. Give it a listen.

First up when I get my neck in working order is this precious memory game. That Alicia Paulson is one crafty chic!

I highly recommend Stitched in Time if you enjoy sewing for your family. Love it.

Before I let you slip away, I just have to show off this bench and shelf my sweetheart made for me.

Isn’t it wonderful? I think so. And best of all, we now have a proper place for our shoes and coats.

(And a temporary place to put sleeping bags until they make it to our weekend backyard campout.)

As promised: quilt pics

It’s been a long time coming, but here are the promised pictures of the whole cloth quilts I made for Daniel and Sara Lynn this past Christmas. I really enjoyed the entire process of making my first quilts, even if there was no actual piecing involved. I have to say, I was feeling much better this time last month, and I am ever so glad I took advantage of those days to give my little loves something mama-made. It feels so right.

Here’s a close-up of the quilting. I chose to do a grid pattern on Daniel’s quilt and straight lines for Sara Lynn’s quilt. I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out. I just adore the puckered, antique look. It’s exactly what I was going for. And I’m happy to report they were very well received.

A Handmade Christmas (and my first whole cloth quilt)

I’ve wanted to learn to quilt for what seems like forever. This Christmas, with one week to spare, I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet. I made each of my children a whole cloth quilt (mostly because I had no time to make a proper quilt and partly because I was scared I’d mess it up) as an early Christmas gift. We took them with us on the long drive to Disney and now the quilts have been rightfully dubbed our “Road Trip” quilts.

I really love the way they turned out. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken the time to photograph the finished quilts and it’s raining out. More pictures will come later. I’m most in love with Daniel’s quilt. I simply adore the fabric combo and colors. All of it was purchased at Hobby Lobby where you can print out a coupon online that’s good for 40% off (in-store purchases) most weeks. Oh, yes. I’m nothing if not frugal.

I really enjoyed making my first two quilts, even if I was a bit pressed for time. I completed both quilts in less than one week. I finished the binding of my baby girl’s quilt on the oh-so-long trip down. I believe hand-finishing the binding was actually my most favorite part. Stress relief at it’s finest I tell you. There was also a good bit of knitting done on this trip, but I only have one UFO to show for it. I’m still trying to get the hang of knitting, and I can’t tell you how many dropped stitches I’ve had to deal with. I should probably frog it and start over. It sits abandoned in my knitting basket for now.

This is exactly what I felt like when I was halfway through marking the lines on Daniel’s quilt.

And this is what I felt like when I finished. My mom gave me this cute pencil sharpener. I love it.

Good gravy… that was a lot of marking!

In case you’re interested on getting started in quilting, here are some tutorials which helped me tremendously:

http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/ You’ll find links to picture tutorials of all the basics in Amanda Jean’s sidebar.

http://anyonecanquilt.typepad.com/my_weblog/machine-quilting-tutorial/ This is the method I used for basting - easy.

Gratitude

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

So, she still sews…

 

Yeah, but not very often this time of year. Summer is for digging in the dirt. For being outside as often as possible.

For picnics. And camping. And swimming. And canning.

 

But when the need-to-sew bug bites, who am I to ignore it?

I started making these little potholders as practice for quilting. I’ve wanted to make a quilt for a long time.

But, the whole process seems so intimidating to me. I’m a small project kind of girl.

I love to whip up Sara Lynn an outfit in an afternoon. I’m not so big on those non-instant-gratification-projects.

I purchased the fabric for my first quilt well over a year ago… maybe even 2 years ago. Time to bite the bullet.

And break out the handy-dandy walking foot.

It wasn’t so bad after all.

Except for that darning foot. Little bugger.

No matter how hard I practiced, I was simply awful at free-motion quilting. (As evidenced in the bottom potholder above.)

Oh, well. I guess that means my quilt will have nice little symmetrical lines. That appeals to me. What a relief!