I think I have two curtains in my whole house, and one of them covers the door in the studio. I don't need folks peeking into my house, so I put a curtain there.
Those red things are tomato pincushions. The fabric is appropriate, except when I take a picture of anything on my design wall the curtain is distracting, so I have to crop it out. I thought I would make a curtain that was light, creamy and would disappear. I actually did some shopping online, but never got very far.
In my cleaning I found this, a curtain I had used in the last place I lived. I thought it might work, so I hung it up, and OMG I thought it was the ugliest, plainest, most boring thing I had ever seen. So I took it down and looked over at my stash. CLEARLY I didn't want beige or cream, but I also didn't want anything really really busy.
This is part of a line of fabric I fell in love with, and bought lots of. This is why I generally do not buy fabric I fall in love with. Because I never cut into it and it ends up being a waste of money. I might have had some vague plans for this but they never came to fruition. I think this will make a perfect curtain for the door. It will give me some privacy and it isn't too busy. Over the next few days or so, I will make the curtain. You know, eventually.
In yesterday's post, you may have noticed that the floor in front of the fabric bookshelf was clear of piles of fabric.
That is because I made an Executive Decision. I decided that it would take me WAY TOO LONG to sort through all that stuff and that I would lose my mind and my patience before I got to the end of it. Most of it is too big for the scrap bins, and too small to fold properly and store in the shelves above.
The bin on the top is full of all the leftover striped triangles from the Zebra quilts, along with all the scraps and strips from making them. The bin in the bottom is full of all the bits that were lying on the floor and cluttering up my cutting table. Now that it has been confined to one bin, I can sit down some day and sort through it and decide if it is worth keeping or not.
The big bin on the top of the bookshelf is all the leftover backing fabric from the quilts I have had quilted. (Yes, I am well aware that is not the best place for it, but storage is at a premium in this house, so this is where it will stay.) That stuff is long pieces of odd sizes that are hard to fold. There's all kinds of good stuff up there.
I got home last night and washed the last two windows, and the shelf, and then cleared the room of everything I could. I even moved the kitty condo. I got everything up off the floor, and let the Roomba (the REAL Roomba) do its thing. Then I put everything back.
NOW, it's clean. I have some backing fabrics I have to iron and get ready for their quilts. I have some other fabric that was draped over an armchair in my living room that needs to get ironed and put away properly. I have to organize the fabric in the bookshelf stash. I have a few other smallish things to do, but now I have room to do them and I won't feel angry or irritated every time I walk into the studio.
In other words, I can relax. I will give you the full tour tomorrow.
Thank you JustGail for complimenting me on showing my messy studio. Except I didn't. I did a lot of picking up and putting away before I took that before picture. It was much worse, and I was very embarrassed.
But I just had to prioritize. I had had readers begging for the Zebra tutorial, and I had some nagging issues I had to resolve before I could write it.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of negative reviews my tutes have received, and those are mostly because they did not read the description that said "these are not paper pieced." It's very important to me that whoever buys one of my tutes has all the information they need to make whatever I am teaching successfully. It takes a TREMENDOUS amount of work, and I had to keep figuring out how to get those great big striped triangles to fit together perfectly no matter who made them. So it was work on figuring that out, and the hell with the way the studio looked. Now that the studio is clean I can move on.
Note I did not say "back to normal." "Normal" for my studio would be somewhat messy, indicating creative work is being done.
One final note. I have been WFH - working from home - since mid March. I learned today I will be continuing to do so for at least another couple of months. In the CEO's words to me in an email I received a few hours ago "...we are being super careful and cautious about looking at everyone individually - health risk wise, extended family situation, particular role you are playing - and creating very tailored solutions on how we run the business and attempt to keep everyone safe. Sounds simple, but clearly not easy. But well worth it, it is the only way to do it."
And folks ask me why I have stayed with this company more than 30 years.
The next shelf is for quilting and sewing books. I have a few classic books on the history of quilts and a few basics, books by Michael James some books on Seminole Patchwork and quilted clothing.
Like most quilters, I never really think about how much fabric I actually have in my stash. Like most of you, I'd rather buy fabric than lots of other things. But all that fabric has to live somewhere. If I'm just buying for my stash, I buy half-yard pieces. No fabric makes it into the sewing room until it gets washed. Then I iron it, and it goes on this shelf, until (or unless) I cut it into strips. Actually, I just discovered the Happy Zombie Method of Fabric Folding. I like it... (this means I have some work to do...)
I love this wall mounted drying rack. It's great for when I am cutting strips. It keeps them organized, and flat.
When the rack is closed, it doesn't take up any space. I've got a TV and a DVD player and CD player in the room too. (You gotta watch something when you iron!) Projects that are in progress are stored in large ziplock bags (keeps the components together) in the drawers of the bureau. (yes, I painted the bureau.)
Once the strips are cut, they go on hangers in the closet. The hangers are all organized by color. You can see the quilt batting and my shipping supplies too. Out of sight are shelves with plastic bins with other projects or supplies or fabrics for future projects or old WIPs.
These bins are filled with my precut "chunks", organized by color.
