Feedsacks

Some years ago a neighbor gave me a small moving box full of feedsacks. They were in pretty good shape considering how poorly they had been cared for. They were fun to work with and I made a few quilts with them, but they really aren't my style so I soon got tired of them. I sold some and traded some but I still have some bits left.

I found them during my recent sewing room makeover. One of the bags not pictured above is a bag of small scraps.

I played this these a little yesterday morning and made two pin cushion tops. I've even got one of them already hand quilted.

I'm not sure why I chose to play with these yesterday. Probably because they were handy and I haven't seen them in several years.

I'll try to dig up some pictures of the projects I made with these feedsacks and show you those tomorrow or Monday.

UFO Bust Report

The only sewing I have done since returning from our trip is fixing the zipper on a sleeping bag for my husband. So I have made no progress on any of my UFOs, except my sewing room which is coming along nicely.

Yesterday I made a new design wall.

We had some foam insulation left over after our new roof and insulation project last summer. I took some of it and covered it with vinyl flannel backed tablecloths I bought on clearance at Walmart. I just used duct tape to tape the tablecloths, flannel side out, to the back of the insulation. So the whole project cost me $6 for a 96" by 71" design wall. Previously I had just thumb tacked the tablecloths to the wall.

I still don't have baseboards, new outlets, or blinds on the window but I'm really enjoying my new space. Goldie approves too.

I'm not sure how sleeping with your head hanging off the ironing table is comfortable, but Goldie seemed to enjoy it since she stayed that way for over an hour.

Sewing Room Makeover Day 6

I made a decision on my bulletin board fabric.

It's okay. Not what I envisioned but it's done. It will get covered up with stuff soon and then fabric won't be very visible anyway.

Yesterday I just took my time putting things away, sorting through stuff, deciding if I really need to keep it or not. I tried not to bring in too much stuff until I knew where it would go. I've decided that I need a longer and narrower table for underneath my window between the vertical shelves. I use the table as a desk, a secondary cutting and pressing area, storage for books and magazines I'm using and a place for the cat to lay and look out the window. When I'm free-motion quilting it also functions as a place for the quilt to rest as I sew on it. Here is how the room looks this morning.

I still don't have my blind installed so it is difficult to get a good picture at this time of day. Sorry. You can see the table I have in the first picture above. It is 46" by 30" and I'd like something that is 60" by 24". Time to start shopping again! Maybe I should look at desks. Having more drawer storage would be nice.

I'll leave you with a photo of Goldie, sort of - you can see her back feet.

We have grasses where most folks would put bushes in the front of our house. The grasses require less water than bushes and are more in-keeping with the rest of the plants in our yard. Goldie seems to like them.

Sewing Room Makeover Day 5

I'm at the "putting back the stuff" stage of my room redo project. This room had no baseboard to begin with and still doesn't. But that is something I need my husband's help with. Well ... truth be told, I need him to just do it. I also need him to replace the electrical outlets and reinstall my window blind. He has his own timetable for these things so I'm just doing what I can do to get myself back up and running.

I treated myself to some new shelving and baskets.

The wall color inspiration came from the gray (or putty color) trim on the fabric baskets. I've ordered more of these baskets because they also fit my vertical shelves. For now I'm just using the drawers from the little plastic bins I had before.

I'm sorting as I bring stuff back into the room. I don't want my closet to become the black hole of stuff it was before. I'm keeping one of the white plastic 3 drawer units I stored fabric in previously. It has wheels on it so I can store stuff in it, but easily wheel it out of the way to access the things in the closet when necessary.

I'm also using the hanging bar in the closet to store finished tops that need to be quilted. I pinned some muslin over the bar to protect them first. My rule will be, when the bar is full I must quilt some so that there will be room for new tops.

I have an old window frame that I use as a bulletin board. I just cut foam board to fit in the glass areas and covered it with fabric.

I took the fabric covered foam board out so I could repaint the frame. I want to recover them with fabric (I have LOTS to choose from in my stash!), but I'm having trouble making a choice. I may just have to use four different fabrics this time!

So far I have filled two 13 gallon size trash bags with trash and three bags full of stuff to take to my guild's in-house raffle and on to the thrift store if no one buys it there. My room is about 8 ft. by 10 ft. and I simply can't afford to give space to stuff I don't love and don't use. It was visually and physically junky before and I hated it. I spend a lot of time in this room and I deserve it to look nice and function well for me.

Sewing Room Makeover Day 3

Yesterday I got the walls and ceiling painted.

The color I picked is called Popular Gray. I have an old window frame that I use as a bulletin board. I'm repainting it white. I've got some small shelves that I'm painting the wall color. Here is a photo of one of the shelves next to the white window frame to give you a better idea of the color.

Today I'm painting the closet and the doors.

It's small but holds a surprising amount of stuff.

My husband kept saying how big the room looked empty. This is what our guest room currently looks like with all my sewing room stuff in it.

That's a queen size bed underneath all the stuff. The floor on the other side of the bed is piled to bed height with junk too! Do I really need all this stuff?! No! I hope to be able to part with some of this stuff instead of allowing it to take up valuable space in my newly redone room. I found three bags of bags in my closet! I will be parting with at least two of them. I like to have a few empty bags handy for in progress project storage but three bags full of bags is a bit ridiculous.

Goldie is supervising and seems to approve so far.

The doors should now be ready for a second coat of paint. Better get to it!

UFO Bust Report - Mom's Mystery Quilt

I started quilting Mom's Mystery Quilt before I left for our trip. This is as far as I have gotten.

The center star is is quilted as well as the "ribbons." I've done some free hand feathers around the center ribbon. Here is a detail shot. (Click on the photos to see them larger.)

I'm really happy with the star and the ribbons. The feathers are okay. It's my first attempt at feathers. I got better as I went around but there are definitely some places I'm not happy with. I'm not ripping it out though. I won't be making any more progress on this until after my sewing room makeover is complete. I'm busy painting today. See yesterday's post for makeover news.

Sewing Room Makeover Day 1

Before photos

It's a mess! I warned you. Notice the brown paneling in the first two photos surrounding the window. All of the exterior walls in this house had paneling on them when we bought it. This is the last of it to go.

The paneling comes down.

There is mold behind the paneling, as I expected. Every wall had mold on it behind the paneling. Yuck! Fortunately, this isn't too bad. Some walls were much worse!

A bleach and water mix and some elbow grease takes care of the mold.

It's not a fun job but it only took about an hour.

The mold is gone and hubby is filling in holes with joint compound.

That's as far as we got today. We need to let the wall dry over night. Tomorrow I will prime it with a stain blocker primer and hopefully get at least one coat of paint on the walls and ceiling. The ceiling needs painting as well and I'm going to be lazy and paint it the same color as the walls.