The Official New Studio Tour

 

The studio has been put back to rights. This is the view from the door.

Just inside the door on the right are my ironing table, bookcases, 

and fabric stash and design wall. Nothing there was changed.

At the far end of the room. I used to have a table in front of the window at the right,  but it became a place for stuff to pile up and I wanted to stop that. Besides, when I took the table down, I liked the space it freed up. I moved a bookshelf there that was previously at the other end of the room. The bins at right will go back out into the shed. 

Moving back toward the entry, there is my small drafting table. This is convenient for working sitting down. I often plan quilts, or work out the math, while sitting at that table. The top of this table, my sewing table and large worktable are all covered in white cutting mats.

My sewing table is right where it used to be, with everything arranged just the way I like it.

This is my large worktable, and you can see something you almost never could before - a rolling stool I could never use because of the carpet. I generally work at this table standing up, but when I am matching pairs of fabric strips, or pinning pieces together, it's more comfortable to sit.

I -NEVER- sit while cutting fabric. When cutting fabric I always do it standing up.

Behind the work table I've stored my portable ironing table, small step stool, my suitcase containing my teaching traveling kit and the rolling cart I have never used because it wouldn't roll on the carpet. I expect I will use it more frequently now that I can move it around. 

In the top shelf I have put the fabrics I have selected for the Gray and Pink quilt. I am pretty sure I know what I am going to do with that, but my very favorite nine-year-old on the planet (a/k/a DGD) has asked for a quilt and since all quilters live for requests like this, hers will take precedence. Fortunately I have some great ideas. The last time the two of us chatted I sent her pictures and she told me what she liked and didn't like. I have some ideas percolating in my head.

Giving the studio a deep clean cleared out a lot of clutter and made space for me to store things that used to sit out in the open, often gathering dust.

At the far end of the room, I've got a broom, a dustpan and dust-brush, and a Swiffer duster for cleaning up. 

Because a hard floor will be chilly underfoot in the winter, I made a trip to the local Skechers store and bought a nice fuzzy pair of slippers to keep my toesies toasty.

Tomorrow I have to put the books away in the office and restore the bathroom back to normal. After that I'm going to sack out on the couch with a good book.

MOOO-ving

 

There's no way to move the bookcase with my fabric stash unless I remove the fabric. And since I already know installing the new floor will create dust, I want to keep my stash CLEAN, so I put them in the large plastic bins. Good thing I had emptied them.

Haven't seen THIS in a long time. So where is the stash?

It's in the dining room. I actually had to go to the big box hardware store and get MORE big bins.

I have given a lot of thought to where I am going to put the stuff that normally lives in the studio while work is being done. You'll see over the next few days. I've also planned menus that require minimal cooking and preparation while work is underway.

And yes, I am fully aware I have WAY TOO MUCH FABRIC. What's a gal gonna do?

MAKE MORE QUILTS!!!!

I mean like, duh!

What Else....

 I've told you all that I'm working on a quilt for my son and DIL, but as I will be having the floor in the studio replaced in the next few weeks, I'm also going through everything in the studio to determine whether I want to keep it or not, and clean everything that's left.

This is the top of one of the small bookcases, Notice the dust!

I cleaned everything, the mugs, the items in them, and put it all back. Notice I put all the buttons I found as I cleaned into one of the jars I had kept.

I cleaned these two taborets and sorted through everything in them. I got rid of a big bag of sewing notions: zippers, findings, ribbons, trims, buttons and other stuff, then resorted the stuff I had stored in them, and labelled everything. (Ergo buttons in a new jar.)

I figured cleaning out this bookcase would be easy, but it wasn't. I have quilting books from when I first started making quilts, over 50 years ago. Th ere were a lot of memories in those books.

Sorting through them was tough, and I didn't keep all of them. I more or less sorted them into "historical" and "how-to" and put the ones I look at most often together. I also moved printed copies of my tutorials to this bookshelf, as they seemed to belong there.

Anyway, I've got all the stuff clean. Now I have to sort through the fabric in the bins and decide if I want to keep it. 

I've been alternating between working ON the studio and IN the studio. 

I have all the strip pairs sewn together for the Field of Dreams quilt. So that's moving along as well.

Back in the Studio

 

I finally got back into the studio. It was messy, so I was avoiding it. Anyway I cleared off the crap that was all the tables and put it all back where it belonged.

And you know, in for a penny, in for a pound. Having done my work table and the ironing table, I just went back in after lunch and did the rest. I love it when the studio is all nice and neat. I washed all the tables and I even washed the cutting mats. (I feel so virtuous! LOL)

 Then I got some actual work in. I prepared the bindings for each of the green quilts. I'll add the binding to the quilts tomorrow.

The Big Clean

 

Not only did I get the stash organized, but I cleaned the whole damn studio. (Well, 85% of it.) It started in this corner, where the return for the central A/C is located. It's getting to be that time of the year, and the heat has kicked on once or twice in recent days, so it was time to cover it up. As long as I was back there I decided to clean the area, and moved everything to do it. I also cleaned the shelf that runs along that wall under the windows.

You know how it is, you get on a roll and keep going.

This was what the studio looked like "Before." Sure, it was nice to work on the stash, but that was the least of my problems. This was late last Thursday.

This is the "After," taken just before midnight on Saturday.

SO much better. At least now my stress level doesn't INCREASE when I walk into the room.

This is good, because I picked up the Peonies Scrap Slab Triangle quilt from the long-arm quilter and now I have room to lay it out and add the binding to it. This quilt has a home, so I have to get it ready to go.

This is the eleventh Scrap Slab quilt I have made, and they are all different, and made from scraps. If you want to use up your scraps, this is a good, fun way to do it. You can get the tutorial here, if you are interested.

Cleaning the Studio!

 In order to get working in the studio I had to do some clean up so I had room to work. It turned out that I had to do some DEEP cleaning.

Because it is getting harder for me to reach things that are stored up high, I've put a bookshelf behind my cutting table. I've put all the things related to my tutorials there. It meant I had to move my work tables a bit, but the space there was wasted so now it isn't.

Next I cleaned everything on the long shelf under the windows. I cleared everything off, washed the big shelf, dusted the stuff, and then reorganized everything on it.

I lowered the shelf Philip lives on. Now he's at my eye level, and isn't in the dark. I also hung my selvage bag below it because I wanted to show it off.

Then I cleaned my work tables, and I dusted everything. Then I sat down and took a good hard look around. What did I WANT to sew? Well, I wanted to finish the pink bird quilt, and I could see where I wanted to add more small birds. 

 To do that I needed to make a set of small bird legs, so I made several leg panels. 

Then I made a small bird, although it's hard to tell. If you want to make one (or a few dozen, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

More Studio Challenge Birds

I did a bit more cleaning in the studio. I have more scraps from which to make birds,

I found a whole stack of batiks I used in my Colorwash quilt a year or two ago. The size makes them perfect for bird breasts.

Like this one.

Or this one.

I always say working with limitations forces you to be more creative. Running to the quilt shop to find the right fabric when you need something can be the easy way out. I'm not sure I would have combined the fabrics in this bird if my entire stash had been at my disposal. But it's a hell of a bird, and I'm glad I was forced to really LOOK.

And check out this bird. Yellow and blue, right?

You have to look at your fabrics not just for what you see initially, for what you think it is...

But for what it can BECOME... 

The answers are in the fabric itself. All you have to do (you know, that irritating "all") is to notice, to pay attention, to really LOOK.

We had a family barbecue this weekend, and we ate outside. This was the view when I looked up. A brilliant, cloud free blue sky and the wind blowing the trees around. Sure, ALL ("all") it is is blue and green. But yeah! How BLUE! How GREEN! And how brilliant they both are. 

Most of us know exactly what this looks like. Most of us know this so well we don't even see it any more. Consider this a kick in the pants to sit up and take notice.

If you want to make birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away. I made the birds above, with my scraps. You can too.

If you would like to submit one of your birds to my Student Bird quilt, I welcome it! Email me at PatcheryMenagerie AT Gmail DOT com for my mailing address. Birds from around the world are welcome. How about some of you make a bird that lives in your area and send it along?

Critical Mess

 

I hate it when my studio is messy. It can be a reason to keep me out of it, but more importantly, it makes it hard to work in. AFTER I finished the layout of the Blue Ice (or Ice Blue) quilt, this is what the studio looked like. I had had it.

My friend Buffy sent me an email Saturday morning, did I know VPR was broadcasting "The Marriage of Figaro" starting at 1 PM that day? I did not, but I quickly figured out how to get it, plugged in my iPad, and started to clean the studio as I listened. It took the better part of the day. On Sunday morning  I went back in, and started organizing the mountain of fabric scraps and leftover bits. I just couldn't handle all of it, so some of it went back into the bins to be dealt with another day.

But in the end, I got it to a place I could live with.

I brought out the big vacuum cleaner, moved things around, and gave the room a good vacuum. I even dusted!

So now I can take a deep breath, and when I go in there later to start sewing the Blue Ice* quilt together, I will feel much more at peace than I did a couple of days ago.

*Speaking of which, I looked at my final layout all Saturday afternoon, and all Sunday morning, and I don't think I am going to change anything.

The Door Fix

After I posted about the door last week two readers wrote to me to suggest I purchase an ODL Add-On Blind for the door. So I checked it out and found it at Home Depot. It wasn't in stock in either of the stores near me, so I ordered it online and had it delivered.

I had watched the installation video so I had a pretty good idea what to do.

It took less than 20 minutes to install, and I did it in my nightgown, before I even had breakfast.

The mini blinds are behind the glass, so they won't get dusty or dirty. On one side is a slider that raises and lowers the blinds.

On the other side is a slider that opens and closes them.

I am a happy camper.

I had forgotten I ordered this decorative window film as an option for the studio door. So I put it on the small window in the "water closet" part of my bathroom.

This whole project opened my eyes to window films. I did not realize that some window films could protect UV rays from fading fabrics inside the house, or to keep hot sun out in summer and hold the heat in in the winter. I ordered some to put in the skylight in my entrance hallway, where my Quick Brown Fox hangs. I am pretty sure it does affect the color of the light that comes into the house, so that makes it a definite maybe not for use in the windows in the studio, but I'll keep looking. Many of these films look like a mirror on the outside during the day, giving lots of privacy. I have three skylights so I'll be putting the film on the other two, but I don't have to worry about privacy there. If somebody is on my roof looking in I have bigger problems.

BTW, this post was written with the "Legacy" Blogger. I have done nothing to my pictures. It will be interesting to see if they are just as bad or better than the pictures in yesterday's post.

I have one more window to wash, and that's behind my sofa, so that will happen this weekend. The mechanism to swing the windows down to wash the outside of the windows is broken so that one may be a quick job. I might have to wash it from outside, and that entirely depends on my energy level and the height of my ladder!