New work space and a hot tip!

I mentioned recently that I have been moving stuff around in my sewing room and think I finally came up with a better arrangement for my sewing machine workspace. I am a messy project person with fabric all over the place and I have oodles of "projects in progress". I like to have them nearby so I can grab a project and work on it, if the mood for that project "hits me". :-)
I used one of my 4 x 8 utility tables and I made a cover for it. I wanted something utilitarian but also something pretty. :-) The "rose hearts" were the symbol I used to use on my business cards so I added them just because I like them. :-) This is the table before I put my sewing machine on it.............

and here it is when the table is all set up for sewing. And what's underneath? ....... lots of "projects in progress" and my supply of rick rack, bias tape, and a bin full of zippers. I really like this arrangement.

I have tried several tables and desk set-ups for my sewing machine but none worked as well as this one does. :-) Before I rearranged and set up the table, you can see my cluttered work area behind this clothesrack in the photo below. Yes, it's a good thing I rearranged. That's not what I want to focus on, though. Take a look at the rack..............

I have never seen a rack like this one but it's one my dad bought at an auction. The only time I use it is for displaying quilts at our library quilt shows. I decided it needed "new life" in my sewing room! One of the things I realized as I rearranged my room, was that I really needed some way to keep fabrics handy for projects that I am currently working on. Otherwise, I seem to be pulling fabrics for a backing or something and making a mess. This way, I can place pieces on the rack and see them at a glance!!!

Before I brought the clothesrack up to my sewing room, I cleaned it really well, and then........ I added the trick that will keep those rods from leaving marks on my fabric. I covered the wooden rods with heavy duty aluminum foil! That's right. The foil is a barrier to the acids in the wood!! I also cover wooden closet shelves with heavy duty foil. It's a tip I learned at our local historical society from then Curator, Megan Schaack. Several months ago, I asked her to verify the info for me again which she did and even double-verified it by asking Bob Herskovitz of the Minnesota Historical Society if "aluminum foil really is a barrier for wood". He replied......."Yes, it's absolutely OK. The foil is impenetrable for acid fumes/vapors from the wood. " So there you have it...............the best tip I can offer you to protect some of your favorite linens, quilts, etc. I've even used the foil to line baskets and boxes that will hold quilts and blocks in progress. :-) I know it works as I have used it for several years now. Prior to using the foil, I placed cotton flannel on my wood shelves but that doesn't work. I have discolored linens from the wood oils that seeped through the cotton and/or the tissue. I also wrap my really old vintage needlework magazines and patterns in foil before placing them in my dresser drawers. I just put a label on the package so that I know what is in it. I figure if it works to preserve linens, it can't hurt and might protect the fragile pattern pieces and pages. :-)

You will see in the photo above, that Kaiser the Wonder Beagle has found another use for my "fabulous fabric rack". He likes to sleep with his head under something and decided this was like a tent so he laid down to take a nap under the fabric. His nap only lasted as long as it took me take this picture and then I shooed him back to my sewing chair. :-)

Good Monday to you and hope this is the start of a great week!

Sandi

Lots of quilty fun to share.....

Oh, my, now that the flu is a thing of the past, I have been out and about and busy as a bee! I can't share everything that's gone on in the last three days because if you're like me, you don't have time to read every bit of news of every blog. I do want to thank all of you that stop by my blog. Sorry that I haven't posted the past couple of days but as noted, I was busy as a bee! Here's what kept me busy.........this past Thursday I taught a crazy quilted pincushion class at the Stans Museum in Shakopee. Now usually, we are in the actual museum building which is behind the house in this photo. But because of the opening of their new 1950's exhibit, we were set up in the Stans home which is part of the reasons for the Stans Museum. This house is the boyhood home of Maurice Stans, resident of Shakopee, MN and the former Secretary of Commerce to Richard Nixon. It's a charming little house and if you are in Shakopee, it is worth a visit. I'll share more about the pincushion in a day or so.

I was up early (yes, I really was) on Friday morning and I was............
GONE QUILTING!
......................well, almost. Actually, I went to see a couple of guys......Lenni and George that have a real quilting connection. :-) They are, of course, not really guys but that's their names. They are long-arm quilting machines. Heidi Kaisand, National Sales Director for APQS and other APQS (American Patchwork Quilting System) reps shared their enthusiasm for these machines. I decided to go because I have come to realize that there is no way I can hand-quilt all the quilt tops I have on hand and I have so many projects that I want to make! Plus, I like to do the work myself. I was impressed and when I gave the machines a try, I was surprised at how easy it was to use the them. I also knew within minutes that I preferred Lenni to George. To check out the machines just go to APQS !! And to check out Heidi's blog, go here.

The APQS presentation was hosted by Roseanne of Rosebud's Cottage in White Bear Lake, MN. She is so creative! And if you go here, you will find her blog and a post about Lenni and George. Her shop is currently located in North St. Paul but she will be moving to White Bear Lake soon. (Note to my local quilting buds........I see a road trip to her new shop in our future!)

I am not fond of driving in Minneapolis/St. Paul as, like with most cities, there are miles of convoluted highways, entrance and exit ramps that drive me nuts. However, I managed. I even figured out how to easily get over to my son's place (in MPLS) and drop off birthday gifts for him and his girlfriend, Stacia. And bonus for me........he lives just two blocks from another Twin Cities quilt shop....Glad Creations. I had a specific purpose when I went in to the shop. I was looking for black and white fabrics to go with the ones in my basket. I found a bundle and a couple of fat quarter rolls that were perfect. The fabrics are for a crazy quilt wall hanging for Devlin. I'm not cutting into this til winter but at least now, I think I have enough fabric to do what I see in my mind. :-)

We got some very welcome rain and with that came some beautiful clouds. I love clouds and thought I saw an elephant in this one. What do you think?

Speaking of clouds, tonight I watched "A Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves and that is a really good movies. Trust me. If you see that it's on, stay tuned and watch.

I may be over the flu but Kaiser is still having allergy issues. He loves to be covered up. I think his name should be Baby instead of Kaiser. LOL! I am hoping we get a freeze this next week and that will nip the goldenrod and such "in the bud" and he will be able to recover. He's on allergy meds so that helps but not enough.



I'm not looking for really cold weather, just a nip in the air that tells me it's fall. It was so lovely outside this

afternoon, though, that I took a few quilts out to the line for some pictures. This one belongs to my mother and is one a few that she has that are crazy quilted calicos. This one has severe wear and tear. I like to thing the holes were made by being tucked along a bedframe and not by mice which is the more likely scenario. The colors are very vibrant and there's a green that is especially bright. Interestingly, the back of the quilt is almost as interesting as the front. It's really an amazing piece of textile and it's just too bad that it has such obvious wear.

I took some pictures of a couple other crazy quilts and will share those in the next couple of days. Looks like I better get to bed now. I have a busy week coming up with a road trip and then a class next week. More later. Off to bed now. Sleep tight!

Sandi

Emma's Quilt Update

I said it would be a couple hours and I'd be back but I called my mom because this would have been my Dad's 83rd birthday and then, also talked to my brother............but I'm here now. :-) I told my mom that I had posted the story about the flagpole to my blog and she said there had also been a nice little piece in the local paper. :-)

It's time for me to give you an update on the quilt made for Emma's Hope fundraiser. I have thanked everyone who made a block(s) for the Emma's Hope quilt and want you to know just how much your time and talents were appreciated!
The large quilt made $400 at Silent Auction. This was not nearly the amount one might have thought the quilt would make but the good news in this ............ the person who bought the quilt has presented it to Emma and her family.

As you know, I chose some blocks for a small quilt that would go to Emma and I did that for two reasons..........one, while I noted in my first post that this was to be a fundraiser quilt, some of you thought the quilt blocks were going to be used in a quilt for Emma. And two, I had a hard time making a quilt that was just for fund-raising and wanted something that would go to Emma so I laid out all the blocks and the ones that needed to be in the big quilt just fell into place and the more personal ones just worked in the smaller quilt. The large quilt was then handquilted and bound. The smaller quilt is being handquilted by Esther, the lady who organized the group for the larger quilt. Connie, Emma's grandma is going to back the quilt with the small lap quilt that was received in the block donations. When that one is finished, I'll post a picture. I also will post a picture and the names of each person who made each of the blocks. I think I will get to that later this week.

I loved the end result of the large quilt. The pictures make it look good but when you saw it in person, it was truly stunning. I don't say this just because I was involved in the process. I am hearing this from people who saw it at the post office or at the fundraiser. I want to make this same quilt and keep it for my family. As I noted earlier, I never really made a quilt for my father. I still haven't finished quilting that race quilt for my husband. The last quilt I made for my grandson was his baby quilt and that was ten years ago. I have a small wall quilt I want to make for my daughter and one for my son that will have a music theme. I think it's time to make quilts for my family. I've been involved in many fundraiser quilts and I have found that a lot of work is put into them and they don't bring that much in return. This doesn't mean I won't make quilts for other folks. Nope, because I have already set the dates for our Sew and Share event - Oct. 19 & 20 - where we will make quilts for local families in need and also Christmas stockings to fill. Plus, I have baby quilts to make for my niece and my son's friend. And I just finished one for our new Pastor's baby boy. There was a baby shower at church this morning and I haven't seen so many cute little boy things in years (as in ten years since my grandson was born). Here's Joe, the new papa, and Pastor Brigit, as they opened the gift I made. They got so many lovely gifts! It took several trips just to get them from the church to the parsonage!

I would post a picture of the baby but I didn't ask permission so I don't want to do it without asking.

Here is picture of the quilt that I took outside yesterday afternoon. It's all flannel pieces and then fleece border and backing. I took some detailed photos as I stitched it together and tomorrow I will do a post on it in case any of you want to try this. And then..............I am going to begin taking you through block designs so that I can make my own red, white and blue quilt and you can, too. I'm giving the quilt a new name..........."Grace and a Prayer" and on Wednesday, June 18th I'll present the first blocks and some variations of blocks so that we can make a nine block wall quilt or a lap quilt or a really large quilt. Gather up some red, white and blue fabrics (and I opted for some green and purple, too) and get ready to quilt along with me. And if red, white and blue aren't your colors, choose ones that you like but I do think that keeping the colors to three or four makes for a more attractive quilt. I'm going to make a nine block wall quilt first, so that I can finish it and take it to the Care Center in July and then I'll also be making blocks for the larger quilt for my family. I will be offering some block patterns and those will be posted in my SeasonsBOM Yahoo group. If you are not a member, you can click here to join. All block designs that I give instruction for are blocks that are in the Public Domain and/or my original designs. I have a cool design for a heart that used stripes so be sure and have some stripes in your fabrics.

So, now the day is almost over and I have just a couple more photos to share. I have never posted as much as I did today, but I had loads of stuff to share. I took a break and ate lunch out on the front porch. I took my "front porch basket project" (this Thimbleberries runner will get done by the end of the summer!) and stitched for a bit after I finished eating.

Here's what I would see when I would look up from my stitching. It was just an incredibly beautiful, warm summer day!!!

Even Kaiser, the wonder dog, was enjoying the scenery.

Yes, it was a fine day and it sounds like there will be more of this weather the rest of the week. There might be some thunderstorms but the rain is needed and so it will be welcome. That's all for now.

Sandi

A visit to Happy Joe's!

The past few days were really, really busy! Our son, Devlin and girlfriend, Stacia, came out for a visit and arrived Friday night. Devlin had a project he wanted help with and needed his "crafty momma" to help him. We got started on it that night and made our prototype. We were very pleased but I can't show you what we did until sometime in June and then I will post it as a tutorial. :-)
Stacia had the idea to go to Happy Joe's for lunch on Saturday and we would meet up with Collette (daughter), Daryl and Jacob. Great idea because it is really hard for all of us to get together now. Plus, I love pizza and especially a place where there is a pizza buffet!!! After our lunch, Jacob went in to play Skeet ball (or something like that) and then Grandpa gave him a lesson on how to get the ball in the holes for more points.










Jacob paid careful attention and you can see he's got just the hook needed to get that ball in there...........and yes, it was working! He got more points!!











Devlin and Stacia were playing some kind of pinball game and earning tickets that they gave to Jacob. I was new to this system but some of you probably know that you get tickets that you can redeem for prizes. Jacob is watching carefully as Stacia feeds the tickets into the ticket-eating machine. Jacob didn't spend his tickets that day but instead got a card that indicated how many were turned in and he can add more to it next time he visits. We all had a fun time and enjoyed the food and just getting caught up with each other!!!

We made a quick stop for some supplies for Devlin's project and Stacia picked up supplies for a class project she is working on. She is working on her Ph. D. at the Univ. of Minnesota and yes, the paper and chenille stems and colored foam pieces are all part of the project. I can't tell you what it is until after she takes it to her class.

This is Devlin working on the project we did together. Stacia is watching carefully as he drew up the final pattern template. We only had to tweek the prototype item just a bit. He has need for 15 of the items and he got them all cut out and I got started on my part which involved fabric and Heat 'n Bond lite fusible web. That's all I can tell you now as this has to be a surprise for the recipients and they will not get the items until early June.

One other thing kept me busy these past few days..........it was Kaiser. I'm not going to go into all the details but about three weeks ago he picked up some little bottle cap thing and started chewing on it and I couldn't get his mouth open to take it out. He kept chewing on it and eventually swallowed it. I told Steve what he did and he's eaten so many things that this was small in comparison. We forgot all about it. He started acting funny Thursday night, constantly wanting to go outside and eat grass which makes him throw up. And lo and behold, up came the bottle cap the next morning. He was acting pretty sick so we called the vet and he checked him out and gave him some Pepto Bismal and found no ill effects from the experience. He told Kaiser he probably should not eat "foreign objects"!! Kaiser was very subdued all weekend and slept most of the time. He was his old self by late this afternoon with nose in search of something to sniff or chew on!!

My last post was about CSN Rugs and their promotional offer. I think I have decided on the rug I'll choose. I'll e-mail the rep and will let you know after it's approved.

One last thing, my post the other day about frustration with blocks was because I simply do not do well when blocks involve triangles. And I seem to have an awful time with keeping my seams 1/4". I should probably buy a quarter inch foot for my sewing machine and I wouldn't have that problem anymore!!

That's all for now. We received much needed rain here and everything is turning green, green, green!!

Sandi