Weekend Wrapup

This past weekend I did some rearranging around my cutting table. No more taping designs to the wall - now I have a fancy new cork board ;). (Notice a few pieces of paper is still taped to the wall on the far right ride!) Hopefully this will clear up some table space and help me to stay better organized...hopefully...

I just noticed from this picture that all my designs are along the bottom of the board...then I realize that I will not be tall enough to ever reach the top.  Ha!  I'll need to move this board a tad lower...

I am also in the little-quilt-mood.  After some big quilt finishes I am needing to work on some smaller projects.  So with a few simple designs in mind and some fabrics I've been dying to use I am on a quest for little (re: baby) quilt fun.  First on the line up is a simple little quilt I call "Little Man's Best Friend"

All pieced and quilted :) - I am loving these smaller quilts!

On a slightly larger scale I am making color #2 of the Modded: Animals quilt. Remember the first one had the orange polka dots? The second one will have green:



Have a great and productive week everyone!

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How Do You Organize Your Binding/Tape?

I'm always seeking ways to my (tiny) sewing room more efficient and organized. One of the things I'm dealing with is organizing binding. I usually make enough binding tape for my quilts in advance and have about enough for a dozen quilts at any given time.

One of the ways I've been organizing the binding is by rolling it up and pinning it so it doesn't unravel:



A major plus for this method is the prettiness ;). I love rolling a few up and stacking them on my shelf. They look absolutely beautiful in my opinion. In addition to being a great decor piece, it is quite mobile and easy to keep organized.



Unfortunately the major flaw is that is takes a while to roll them up. After rolling up a few I usually quit and the rest end up in little stacks like this around the sewing room:



NOT good! Besides from looking messy and losing binding, it makes the binding wrinkly and unworkable. This results in re-pressing or having to make new binding...again NOT good.

So I have recently found the perfection solution ... at least for now ... at least for me ;)



Wrap it around an empty bolt board. It's super easy - takes less than a minute to roll up and tape the ends up, keeps all your binding organized and completely visible. I found this method very helpful and started to wrap all my binding up this way - a world of difference. Give it a try :).

Weekly Goals June 14 - June 20

Not bad results from last week. All except the Scrappy Pillow #2 was complete. I have no desire at this point to finish it, but I will keep it on the last 'cause I really don't want the 'unfinished' projects pile to development. Slippery slope and all that good stuff.

Here's the list for this week:


Notice I didn't put Sweet Blocks on the list this week. But I will finish pressing it then I will STAY AWAY from it until next week. I really need to crack down on:

1. Organization
2. Finishing Projects
3. ORGANIZATION!

Here's to a new week :).

Playing Around with Way to Feature Finished Projects

On the left hand column of this site I've already had a button labeled "Finished Projects" but it wasn't really mentioned or that noticeable. SO, I include pictures of recently finished projects as well as the button :).  It'll be an ongoing thing I'll keep up to track finished projects.  I think it's always important to look back and reflect and appreciate past projects.


(on the left hand side of this blog from now on and updated)

Recently Finished


Owls  Flatmats


Panel Quilt for Asher


Modded  (Brown)


Scrappy  Pillow #1


More Finished Projects:




<------This is on the left column all the time on all the pages :)

Adding to the Stash - Piece N Quilt

Had my first order from Piece N Quilt this past week.  Their selection is not that large but what they have is wonderful.  


Here's my purchase - 

Blush Cherry Cordial in Essence and Blush.

I couldn't find a good angle that would show off the beauty of these 2 fabrics.  Believe me the colors and prints are breathe taking.

Half Moon Leaves White

Totally out of my comfort zone getting this fabric.  I'm not quite sure what to do with it and I don't have other fabrics to really match for a quilt.  Maybe a small project?  Purse??? Hmmm...

12 Days of Christmas Charm Pack

Leslie - we'll have to exchange project notes once we figure out what we do with our 12 Days of Christmas pack :P.  My first time doing holiday fabrics too...well it's my first time doing Pre-Cut fabrics too.  I didn't want to commit to a bunch of holiday prints - mostly I'm scared it'll snow-ball.  But this is a nice way to do some holiday projects without over committing :P.

I didn't get around to taking individual pictures of the other fabrics I got (though you look very closely you could kinda of see it in the picture below):

• Bella solids in Cream and White
• Essence Fall Flowers Red
• Blush Be Mine Charmed
• Frolic Large Floral Cream

Of course - all these have been  tagged and organized.  Hahaha okay, they were my first batch to be organized, but hey it has to start somewhere right? :P


Cheers to new fabrics and thanks Piece N Quilt for a great shopping experience!  Can't wait to use some of these fabrics :).  New projects here I come!

The Slow Road to Fabric Organization

After struggling with trying to figure out which fabrics I had, how much, and even where in the house I have it at, I finally got fed up with it?  Meet the new me - at least the new me when it comes to Fabric Organization!



What is this?  It's a tag - made from stiff scrapbook paper (no I don't scrapbook but I do love the papers though :P, label sticker with the fabric into (including yardage), a lovely little piece of ribbon, and a safety pin to pin it to the fabric.  And voila!  One step closer to organization - I hope.  Well it can't be worse right?

The tools:

Safety pins, cut up ribbons, cardstock paper cut.  Not pictured but equally needed: magic tape and shipping labels.

After a little while of cutting tags and sitting up my Access database to keep an electronic version of my fabric stash I got 6 fabrics labeled and accounted for:

This is already making me smile and happy anticipating an organized fabric stash.  BTW - more info on the fabrics later - hint it's my next stash from Piece N Quilt.

Hopefully I could get the rest of my fabrics organized in the fashion - or at least die trying!  Just kidding.  But I do really hope that this makes me remember the name of the fabrics so when people ask where I got the fabric or what it is - I could then reply "It's Essence Fall Flowers from Piece N Quilt - it's another Moda fabric". :)

I'll update - hopefully not too long from now - on my completely organized Fabric Stash.

Shipment In - *New* Fabric (The Stash)

I usually use small prints, but I'm going to try something new - BIG prints. Here's the fabric I'm trying out:

Bryant Park Fabrics.  Two with sage tones, one with natural, and one with Rain (blue).  The two on top has big prints and the two on the bottom has slightly smaller prints but has a running border pattern on the length of the fabric.

It's from Bryant Park called Floral Sage Rain, Drop Dots Sage, Floral Stripe Natural, and Park Dottie Olive.
 
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be with these fabrics yet, but I really like the big, colorful, flowers. There are 2 designs with long bordering strips. These will probably be cut length-wise to maximize the design of the long borders. I've never done this before but I'm looking forward to trying something different.

In this shipment I also got a bunch of Moda Bella and Kona solid colors. Pictured below are the solids I got. Some I got in anticipation of needed colors I MAY need down the line - like the black and dark brown. Some I got to match the print fabric I just got - green or dark pinks. Others -light pink, light blues, greens - are for some more baby quilts I want make - getting to the age when a lot of my friends are having kids. But whatever the use, I’m pretty sure it’ll get used up very quickly.


A stack of solid cotton fabric from Moda Bella and Kona.

I get a lot of my fabrics online from various sources and some I get from small neighborhood fabric stores. I usually don’t have a design in mind. When I see a fabric I like I usually get it – not much, just a yard or two. If it’s a pretty basic fabric, like solids, I usually get a few yards because there’s more use for it. There are some many great designers and prints to choose from that I don’t want to commit myself to a lot of the same one. I’m sure one of these days I’ll find the need to bulk up with a particular fabric – like if I need to make a bunch of quilts that are similar. But for now I’m enjoying the variety.

I also don't usually keep track of the fabric name or even designer after it's been put into my fabric shelf.  I vow - though probably a vow that I'll break - to organize my fabric in a way that I could pull up designers and names of each fabric.  For now I make sure all my fabric are from reputable sources and for those that are not 100% cotton, it is labeled and organized as such.  The latter half is pretty simple - ALL my quilting fabrics and threads are all 100% cotton.  I do keep fabrics for other purposes - ie: curtains, patching up my children clothing, etc - in a separate area just so I don't get it tossed in with the quilting fabric.

My Sewing Room Setup

When I became more serious about sewing a while back, I decided to convert our current "everything goes" room to a sewing room.  Out came the boxes, extra clothes, old toys, and tons of other random items.  In went my desk-converted-to-sewing table, my 2 sewing machines (Brother XL-3200 and Juki TL-98Q), a ton of sewing notions, and my on-going collection of fabrics.  The room is still a work in progress but it is growing to be quite a busy little sewing room.

Here's my before and after pictures of the now-sewing room.

The before was a very random room.  It was used an occasional exercise room (re: sit on a exercise bike while playing video games :)), a room for boxes that had no other place in the house, clothes that needs ironing, and even a pinata that didn't get used for a party.  The whole room was pretty much like this.

The after picture.  Well at least part of it...
 
This is the opposite wall of the room.  The side from the original picture still has the exercise bike but not much else.  The wall shown in this picture is my sewing wall.  My husband put on those two shelves to store quilts in progress, notebooks and miscellaneous items. Below the shelves is my desk-converted-to-sewing-table.  It's a nice size table from IKEA that is sturdy enough for my sewing machine and very roomy.  Notice my printer, sewing machine, stationary setup, and quilts could all fit on the table. When I am working on a big project I do clear the table for more room.  On the front of the picture is a filing cabinet (also IKEA) that I use to store quilts that needs to be ironed.  I still need to find a good way to run wiring in this room - as you can see the floor is still quite messy.


I am still trying to figure out a good setup for all the fabric that I have.  Currently I stack it up by either color or design type in the sewing room closet - but it's also home to random clothes and gift wrappers and that sort of thing.  I'm thinking more shelving on that wall that the bike was against and reorganizing the closet.

Here's a picture of the sewing room closet setup...WARNING - it's a work in progress :P

Most of my fabrics are stacked in this closet - some are organized in boxes or in my living room waiting to be cut into quilts.  This part of the sewing room will need to be REorganized.

As you can see I have quite a lot of work to do on my sewing room.  But it's already turning to be quite a lovely little room with (a little) more room to grow :).