A Visit on a Snowy Day

I don't have a studio.  I'm not an artist, and it's not false modesty that makes me say so.  I'm not making anything even slightly original.  I just like to sew.  I make quilts, mostly from scraps, using traditional patterns.  I also sew clothes and pillowcases and do mending.  This is my sewing room.

Let's move around the room from right to left.  This is my piecing station, which currently houses my Singer RAF 15.  She's a faithful workhorse that came to me as an electric from a junk shop.  Sometimes I switch her out for a Singer #9W (based on the old Wheeler and Wilson design), or for a #66 Red Eye.  The cabinet started out housing a #27 from 1904, which I may put back again sometime.  The heads that fit this cabinet are on a shelf in the basement.

This quilt hangs above the piecing station.  It's hard to see, but the light blocks all have transfers of antique sewing machines.  Until I fixed up the sewing room last summer, the quilt just lived in storage.  I'll probably change out the quilts from time to time.  No direct sunlight finds its way here, even on bright days.

Here's my bookcase, but the books are all in the downstairs bookcases.  Here's where I keep my wind up clock, my radio, sewing machine oil, various tools, and a few scraps needing to be sorted.  On the bottom two shelves are four bins with projects in progress.

Next to the bookcase is my pressing station, with the ironing board cover I wrote about previously.  As I stitch the rows of the string quilt together, I'm stacking them here. 

This is my cutting station, on top of my dresser.  It doesn't look like it from this angle, but I can open the drawers without coming near the ironing board.  The basket holds scraps waiting to be trimmed to the sizes I save for scrap quilts.

Above the dresser is a bulletin board, which is great for cutting instructions, etc.  I definitely need more light in this area, though.

My new electric Pfaff sits here atop an old desk.  My poor husband moved this heavy oak desk up two flights of stairs for me.  I call this my quilting station.  The basket in the back holds my safety pins for pin basting.  At the far right of the photo you can see my window shades, that still need to be put up.

I have a real closet!  On one side, I have tops waiting to be quilted, plus the backing for them.

On the other side of the closet are my sorted scraps, in bins and drawers.  I save strips and squares in sizes from 1.5 in. to 4.5 in. wide, with a few larger pieces.  I separate the bright colors from the rest, and use them mostly for quilts for kids.

Here's the first picture again, showing my "design floor".  I am so happy to have this space.  An hour or two spent here makes me purr all day.
Next time I'll show you where I keep my stash.

Just a question--does anybody else do this?

Above is a scrap bag I bought at Mill House Quilts.  Yes, I actually BOUGHT scraps.

I bought this one, too!  Sight unseen!  They were the same price, around $8.50.

This is what the first one had in it--great stuff!

The second one was even better!  I especially like using triangles when I'm making string quilts, because they work so well on the corners.

This weekend my husband and I went antiquing, and I found this:

It's like opening a present when I get these packages home.

This one had a short pieced section, and lots of strips and rectangles.
More scraps, more variety, more quilts!

I wish you the joy of sewing this week.

Start to Finish

Yesterday, I finished a quilt.  It's a small quilt, about 38 in. x 44 in., but it's quilted and bound and ready to donate to a child who needs it.

I got the pattern out of an old Quilt magazine.  It was pretty easy to do, just 4 patches made from 2.5 in squares for the centers, and triangles cut criss cross from a larger square (I think it was 5.5 in. or so) in either solid white or solid red, and sewn to the sides of the 4 patches.  I just love the print on the back.  I don't know what I've done with the magazine, so I can't check the measurements.

Until Monday night, when I decided to finish this quilt, here's where it lived:

Feel free to gasp.  This is supposed to be my on-deck projects pile.  Some of these quilts have been added recently (you might see the Celtic Solstice top in there) and some have been in progress for literally years.

But wait.  There's more!

This is the view across my sewing room.  In the foreground, beyond my awesome Davis VF, is a small pile of baby quilt tops (3 of them) that need borders.  I've even selected the border fabric.  They've been sitting in the on-deck pile for months.
Beyond that, folded on the table, is a layered baby quilt, complete with backing and batting, spray basted and ready to go.  On the ironing board is another baby quilt, also complete with backing and batting, that might get worked on today.  Behind the ironing board is a quilt rack, with my recent feedsack Flying Squares quilt in pieces.  The pieces are quilted, they just need to be joined together, bordered, and then I'll quilt the border.
We're just getting started.  Here's what I've actually been working on the last few weeks:

Two projects here, the string quilt (being sewn) and the pinwheel blocks waiting for their turn, leaders and enders style.

Finished string quilt blocks, plus some triangles for corners.  I have 65 blocks so far.

The little pinwheels, 5 in. square finished, in bright kid fabrics.  I have 56 of these done (and 12 more waiting by the machine).

And last but not least, the top I started at Debbie's house.  The blocks (224 of them) are done and sewn together, and I'm auditioning these two fabrics for borders.

If you're feeling guilty about having too many projects started, you're not alone.  Most of us struggle with it.  You can probably tell I'm not struggling too hard.  Why is that?  It's because I surrendered.

Quilting is my hobby.  It's not my job.  There are lots of things I have to do in my non-quilting life that must be completed in a reasonable time frame--paying bills, grocery shopping, cooking meals, cleaning bathrooms, feeding the dog and cat.  But when it comes to quilting, I'm the boss.  If what I really want to do is piecing, then that's what I do.  I know that eventually I'll be in the mood to set the blocks into a top, choose, cut and sew on borders, and quilt.  Quilting is an artistic pursuit, even for those of us who don't consider ourselves artists.  At its best, it's a flow experience that relieves stress and gives us joy. 

Eventually, the giant messy pile does start to bother me, especially when I've just been piecing and not finishing anything for a while.  That's why I pulled the baby quilt top out on Monday night.  I thought it would be a good test of the Davis, which has had an uneven track record lately.  It worked nicely this time (hurray!) so I'm hoping to get some more quilting done this week.

But what if I have more projects started than I can finish in my lifetime?  (This is a real possibility.) 

Then, honey, don't miss my estate sale.  There will be something for everyone.

You don't have to finish everything you have started.  But you CAN'T finish if you don't start.

So start something!

And think spring, like my little Gerbera daisy in the window.

It's blooming away, even though it looks like this outside:

(The orchid is looking for some sunshine, too.)

Wishing you sunshine and stitches.

In Which I Tackle the Basement

There is a sequential vortex of cleaning.  If you clean one area and remove the clutter, some of that clutter will go to another area and need to be put away.  This leads to noticing the clutter in the second area, and before you know it you are sorting and dusting and wondering what possessed you to buy all this stuff.  That is, if you are me.
The picture above is the junk pile I have accumulated after two days of sorting.  This doesn't even count the trash, or the crate full of stuff to go to other areas of the house.
I have not done this thorough a clean out in years.  I am blessed with a large huge basement room, which I share only with the furnace and hot water heater.  I have just about filled it with fabric, projects, sewing machines, and LOTS of miscellaneous.
It has gotten to the point of being actually stressful.  I am happier working upstairs not just because the spare room has sunny windows (which the basement does not) but because the upstairs is far less cluttered.  All this stuff is making me crazy.  I need things to be organized.  I need some empty space.  And clean would be nice, too.
These last two days I have made a good start.  I didn't take any before pictures (way too embarrassed), but here are some of the afters.  Well, after two days of hard work.  There is lots more work to come.

This is my bookcase, near my sewing machines.  (My books are on the other side of the basement with the rest of the family books.)  I have my knitting needles, buttons, pins, sewing machine needles (in the Singer tin, of course), hand needles, marking pens, thimbles, etc. handy when needed.

This is my piecing area.  The Singer model 12 is next to the junk pile.  It's the kind that opens out flat (as you can see).  The wooden surface folds up around the machine and locks.  The baskets are string scraps and mending.  The other machine is a Domestic, really a White Family Rotary.

This shelf unit is next to the bookcase.  These bins and boxes house my collection of vintage print fabrics from the 1930s to the 1980s.  The black banker's boxes are labeled, finally, so I don't have to keep pulling the wrong boxes off the shelf.  Right now I have a massive amount of 1950s and 1960s cottons.  I also have a Singer model 12 hand crank on the top shelf.  It's a Frankenstein, cobbled together from at least 3 machines.  It works great.  The yellow at the top of the picture is the insulation--there are no ceiling tiles.

Here's my Davis VF, ready to go.  I've got my wind up clock, thread scissors, and seam ripper, all prepared for a sewing marathon.

Between the two shelf units I have a rolling cart with thread and other notions.  The green library cabinet on top holds my collection of cotton rick rack.  The black tin box contains my embroidery floss.

This shelf unit has mostly boxes of solid colored fabric.  The vintage prints, feed sacks, and vintage quilt blocks work well with solids.  They are sorted by color.  I also have my Accuquilt cutter (which I LOVE).  The floral bin next to it holds the dies and mats, plus Accuquilt patterns and samples.  The red metal thing on top is a snap setter.  I bought it for making cloth diapers.  It's handy for kids clothes, too.
The sewing machine on the end of the second shelf from the top is an adorable hand crank, I'll have to take pictures of it when I get the mess cleaned up.  Her name is Rosie.

Hurray!  I can see the top of the desk!  I've got an old computer in the case, and orphan blocks in the wicker drawers.

I cleaned out all kinds of boxes and baskets, and put all my rulers together (in the basket with the handle).  I also put the instructions with them, for a change.  The round basket in front holds tools, like rotary cutters, blades, and machine quilting stuff.

To the right of the desk, No Man's Land begins.  I have just started work in this area.  The bins stacked here are all full of feed sacks--two bins of print and two bins of plain colored.  The small bins on top are strips and scraps.  According to the calendar on the wall, it's always 1897 in the basement.

On the other side of the room, I've finally got all my strips together.  Some of the quilt items on the shelf unit are soon to be for sale on Ebay or Etsy.  The big brown bin holds my novelty fabrics--guess I'd better not buy any more for a while!  You know this was bad if this is the AFTER picture.

The rolling cart in front holds strips of different widths, similar to the Bonnie Hunter scrap users system.  I modified it a little to suit me.  My strips are 1.5 in., 2.5 in., 3.5 in., and 4.5 in.  I also cut 6.5 in. occasionally, if I think I want them for star centers or Accuquilt pieces.
The white metal cart holds feed sack squares and strips as well as extra Accuquilt pieces.  To the right you can see the "on deck" shelf, where current projects wait for my attention.  Stored below that is my cotton yarn and a box of wool rug yarn.  The yellow bin is stuffed with two large failed knitting projects, to be raveled out for their yarn.

These bins are just for the kid fabrics.  Some are for strips, some for projects.  I can take these upstairs easily to work on.  The cabinet is an old treadle cabinet that needs to be glued back together.  The Domestic machine I use for piecing was originally in this cabinet.

Lastly, we have these 3 dusty sisters.  These are hand cranks.  I plan to dust them off, clean them, and find them new homes.  I'll reveal more about them soon.

I'm not going to show you the rest until I get it in better shape.  That could take a while!  It feels good to get started, though, even though I was ready to fall asleep right after supper.
It's a good thing I'm doing this now.  Tomorrow starts Quilt Show Season!





  

Spring Cleaning

I haven't sewn a stitch in days!  We have had a lovely week of spring break here, with family gatherings, outings, babysitting, and a sleepover.  Since my upstairs sewing room is technically what we laughingly call a guest room, I had to clean it up so it could be used.  

I took these pictures after our company left.  The only thing I had done was open the sewing machine and put the belt back on the flywheel.

This is the machine I currently have in the cabinet.  She's an RAF Singer from the 1930s.  I'm not sure if she's a 15 or a 115.  I bought her at the first Loosen and Lube TOGA in Barron, Wisconsin at a wonderful antique store/junk shop.  I did the motorectomy before we even got home.  She's reliable and hard working.

The other treadle in the room is a Willcox and Gibbs with the butterfly pedal.  Her cabinet needs a little work.    And of course I've got stuff stacked all over her.

This is the messiest part of the room (if you don't look in the closet).  The bookshelf holds my collection of vintage quilt patterns, some books, and my Willcox and Gibbs hand crank.
I just had to take these pictures while I could.  I know it won't look this good again until just before my mom comes to visit this summer.
I'm lucky to have a sunny spare room to sew in.  It's usually not too cluttered.  The real mess is down two flights of stairs.  As they said in a terrible old move, "Don't Look In The Basement!"  (runs shrieking from the room).