I am Conquerer!

Some days you are just in the mood to sew.... 

just for the pleasure of stitching pieces of fabric together. 

Today was a day like that.

Without a quilt design in mind, it was the perfect day to have fun conquering the scrap bag. 

My, there was quite a pile of fabric stuffed in that bag!

I began pulling out fabric strips. Who needs to buy jelly rolls of fabric strips? 

I was amazed at how many strips were stuffed into my bag.

Stitched and pressed, they went from trash to treasure.

I stayed with the brown color theme. 

(That does seem amazing to me, as I can't wait for the colors of spring after this long winter.)

I started to put together some larger pieces, re-cut the strip sets and add them in.

There is still no definite plan as to what I may do with the pieces I've made. Today, it doesn't seem to matter. It is the joy of stitching that drives me on. 

Isn't this fun?

Do you have any suggestions for my pieced sections? 

(If nothing else, the mess is conquered and it will be easier to fold and store.)  

Linked to Off the Wall Friday

Stepping Up

I've been taking some steps to meet my goals for 2014. They may be baby steps, but even baby steps will add up if I keep with it.

I did get the new needle into my machine. By the way, my machine was happy, happy, happy especially after I used my old needle to repair snow pants. (Yes, it was a big fat minus degrees again today, -16 degrees, I believe,)

And I cleaned my machine. 

It always pays to have quality tools. 

I can't believe with all of my better brushes, this one is still around.

This shelf certainly deserved make-over. 

Even tiny improvements brighten my day.

When cleaning the shelf I found (surprise) a small wall quilt, "Where Is Cornelia?" that wasn't finished. 

Now, I am having fun trying something new. I am adding color to the background with colored pencils.

This could open up new doors for exploring future quilting projects.

Oh yes, about that unquilted top.... well, I did buy a quilt batt. That was a positive step.

Now, back to those colored pencils.

If you are interested in making your own version of 

my pattern "Where Is Cornelia?"

it is available for purchase on my website.

Welcome 2014

I welcome the new year and with it the chance to start with a fresh slate.  Last year was, well, last year and I'm ready to start anew. The mistakes are forgotten, and the unfinished is forgiven.

This year I will do better. My goals include:

Finishing up Projects.

I can start by quilting this long-put-aside quilt top. I don't want to think of the length of time it has been waiting.




Cleaning and Re-organizing my Studio.

I can start with my sewing machine by cleaning it and putting in a fresh needle. Maybe I will master only one shelf or one corner at a time but little improvements will lead to great accomplishments.


Exploring with New Materials and Techniques

This may go from last to first. Sometimes, I just can't wait.

Will this be the year that I will be disciplined enough to complete all of my goals?

What are your goals for 2014?  They say writing a list is the first step.

Linked to Off the Wall Friday

Remember When and Would You Do It Again?

Who knows what I was searching for in my studio closet, because now my mind has gone off in an entirely new direction?

What came out of the closet with me was a box of squares all cut and ready to make colorwash quilt tops. Were you part of the quilting world in the 1990's when these were most popular?

I fell in love with the idea of blending fabrics when I saw my first colourwash quilt made by Deirdre Amsden. (This was several years before all the books came out so I was ready to purchase them when they hit the shelves.)

You can see I became obsessed with cutting squares and more squares,

until I had boxes full of them. 

Yes, I did turn many of these squares into quilts but that only fed my enthusiasm for cutting more.

When the boxes were full, they went into bags. 

So, today here I am with squares and more squares and even a colorwash quilt top tucked in the box.

What should I do?

Will I ever make another colorwash quilt? Will I even quilt the completed top?

Should I save the squares for future projects or do a massive spring fling and purge my studio?

Any suggestions?

Linked to Off the Wall Friday

Is Your Brain Frozen?

(If your body is also frozen then it's probably a good time to cover up with your quilts and get out of those sub-zero temperatures.)

But, if your brain freeze is due to a creativity block, then it's a perfect day to tame your scraps.

There are days when I want to be in the studio but my latest project has me stumped. These are the times that I dig into my stash. Maybe I just want to feel fabric. (This is justified when you are a quilter.)

The odd shaped sizes of some of my fabrics leaves much to be desired and they are often just shifted back and forth from pile to pile. I've found if I trim these scraps into squares, they find their way into new projects.

After I have collected a good number of like-size pieces, I can easily stitches these squares together on another day (a day when I just want to sew and sew).

I can use these squares to make blocks for creative quilts or they may become a utilitarian quilt that I can share to keep someone warm on a cold winter night.

How are you feeling today? Creative or not?

More Thread Storage Ideas

 After I blogged about thread, Sonia sent me her storage solutions. She has certainly conquered the problem in her studio and I wanted to share her ideas with you.

"My favorite way to store and select thread is to lay them (color in view) in a shallow drawer or covered plastic tray.  However, I now, too, have a variety of types of thread although I do not have an embroidery module for any of my machines.  (I make up for that with decoratiave stitching.)  I have two "racks" that I lightly varnished before I sorted my thread spools (by color) on them, one rack for cotton specialties (varigated, quilting), and the other for what used to be "cotton covered polyester" or ordinary sewing thread.  Then I have trays or shallow drawers for other varieties of thread for variety of uses, each type with its own tray or drawer.  I keep my serging thread in a small plastic dresser with shallow drawers with the serger tools in their own drawer. 

What trips my crazies, is when there are loose threads dangling and getting tangled, especially from bobbins.  Then its nuts to try to find the bobbin that "matches" a specific spool. To solve these problems, I ordered white plastic bobbin holders that would fit on a spool of like color, and wrap the bobbin with either a mini pony-tail thing-a-ma-bob (beauty department) or a half round pink plastic bobbin "wrap" that keeps the thread from wandering."

Sonia K.

Found It, Found It

I knew it was there someplace. After all, how could it disappear? It's not like it could leave, you know. I just had to keep digging and I would find it.

I had two rooms and the hallway full of boxes, and bags and miscellaneous piles when I finally saw it in sight. There it was.

The back of the closet.

What I didn't find was the unfinished project that I was hoping to find along the way. I did find other projects which may distract me as ideas start popping into my head. Some reorganization was definitely in order.  What will I finish?  Should I save this? What should I do with that? 

I found ten perfectly good pair of jeans that I was once going to make a jacket or several jackets from considering the amount saved. I no longer find this idea as appealing as I once did so tomorrow, the jeans are going to Goodwill. Hopefully, someone else can use them and I will have new space in my closet.

What led to the closet search and cleaning? Well, I was looking for that project (a pillow, no less). Did I discover it in my search for the back of the closet? No. But there are more boxes and corners I can search.............

Discovery

As I was going through a box of fabric, I found this landscape which I started many years ago. How it got folded up in a box of fabric I don't know. This is what happens when you clean, things get put away never -- well, almost never-- to be found again.

Many quilters would probably recognize the style of this piece. Natalie Sewell and Nancy Zieman have made it quite popular over the years. Although, it may not rank up there with some of the more detailed landscapes of Natalie and Nancy, I do like the piece and think it deserves to be finished. And, finished is always good.

I have already added a narrow strip of dark brown to outline the piece and will have fun thinking up unique borders.

Do you have a treasure waiting to be found?

I spent time cleaning and reorganizing in the past few days. I don't know how things get in such disarray. I don't plan confusion. But there it is, as I lift my head from my project. Things seem to love finding remarkable hiding places while I am busy working.

A few days ago, I found the roll of blue painter's tape that had disappeared for so long that I went out and bought two new rolls. It was in my fabric closet on a shelf next to some hand-dyed fabric. How did that happen? Was it bonding with the blue hand-dyed fibers? Or did it have its eye on that luscious grape silk?

This little tile was fun and combined several techniques. Do you see me in it? Wandering around, looking for my tools? I didn't start the project with that in mind but maybe its karma.

Cleaning up my Life?

In a effort to use some of that stash, I have been busy sewing. Since the thread didn't show, I went through my thread collection.

Is it a collection? Have I been busy "collecting" thread? Apparently, because I found many spools of thread that were almost thread bare (great pun!!) I hear you laughing at me....

I picked through the green and blues and pulled out and finished 13 spools of thread in one afternoon. No picture because I threw them away so fast... before I could think of any reason to save empty spools. You know, for some crazy crafty project.

Today, I'll move on. There are spools of red, yellow, and orange to look through. Not to mention all the neutrals.

And, I don't want to know the clever uses you have found for empty spools. They are gone!