No Quilting For Me

 A huge shoutout to everyone who noticed my vanishing act! It warms my heart to know you’ve been missing the weekly quilty updates. I had grand plans to check in nearly every day these past weeks, but by the time the day ended, I was too pooped to do anything but kick back and chill. Sewing progress? Virtually nonexistent. The last thing I managed to sew was on September 19th.can you believe it? Wow!

Every day, I promise myself I'll get out there, sew a few blocks, or cut fabric for my Yo-Yo quilt, but by the time the day is over, that motivation has packed its bags and left town.

What’s been keeping me so busy? Painting, unfortunately, not the masterpiece kind, but the kind everyone dreads and procrastinates on. We (a.k.a. me, myself, and I) decided it was time to paint the laundry room, kitchen, living room, and sewing studio.   All rooms will be painted the same colors.  Antique white for the walls and White Cotton for the trim.

And as always, painting is never just painting, it’s a scavenger hunt for things that need fixing or upgrading. What started as a two-week painting adventure has now transformed into an epic saga stretching well into the unforeseeable future.  HAHA!  One of upgrades/fixes is this window into the kitchen that is in corner of my sewing room.  We think my sewing room was a carport at one time.  The floor was concrete before Mr. Podunk added the ceramic tile.  The rest of the house has a crawl space an the typical plywood subfloors.

My sweety is a Mr. Fix-it.  There's almost nothing he can't fix.

However he's not real handy with caulk or drywall mud. What you see below is my work after he "tried" his best.

The walls in the sewing room are textured.  Neither of us like it but making the walls smooth is a DIY nightmare we would like to avoid.

All of the fabric has been moved to the spare bedroom.  Well, all except the scrap bins and three project boxes.  My plan was to sew a little each night. LOL!  Silly girl.

The spare bedroom is a chaotic haven of fabric, bursting at the seams with so much color. I can't help but confess that I visit this room daily.  Those clear bins filled with colorful treasures make my little art heart skip a beat! 

For now, everything else from the sewing room has been stored in my fabric cabinets. When it's time to paint this space, all of it will be moved into the living room.

The sewing room has officially retired from stitching and now moonlights as a door-and-trim painting studio, doubling as a cozy storage unit for my painting supplies.

The sewing machine table has turned into a catch-all. It’s a bit disheartening, isn’t it? Stay strong, Lea Anne! They say absence makes the heart grow fonder!

So that's it, my quilting friends. How about weekly updates on the painting saga?

 

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Mountains Of Scrap Fabric

 Hi-diddly-O Friends!  The beautiful piles of scrap fabrics are continuing to grow.  I must say I love walking into my studio and seeing the burst of color.  Eye Candy for the quilters soul.  It gives me a little giggle to think "My very own Cotton Candy Shop".  

As they are being sorted into piles of fabric by size my mind is working up plans for new quilts.  During break time I'm on Pinterest looking for ideas.  Years ago when bright happy fabrics were very popular, I started a Pinterest board called Scrap Happy Quilts.  I have found when I click on the images it brings up even more bright happy quilt ideas.  So I started pinning more new to me scrap happy quilt ideas.  Over 1000 pins of scrappy quilts on this board and I can't decide which one to make first.

Of course the powers that be keep reminding me about the many UFO's I planned to finish this year.  How does the power that be work?  Here's how... HST's are popping up in some really strange places.  Why would orange HST's be in with pink fabric?  Yes, something very strange is happening in here!  A little gremlin is planting these HST's as a reminder of the thousands of HST's I have yet to make into anything. I would never put orange HST's in with pink fabric. It's a gremlin at work, I'm sure of it!😉😁

Miscuts and test pieces are another issue, I need to think about how to use them.  Do I simply sew them together as orphan pieces?  Or try to use them as fabric scraps? Only time will tell. These will be added to the many other miscuts and orphan blocks collected over the years.

Today, is all about deciding what to do with the 3 drawers of random fat quarters.  I need a new way of storing them.  Thrifty Lea Anne says "make fabric storage bins".  The not so practical Lea Anne says "a shopping trip to Target for small clear stackable storage bins and sort by color".  

While the two Lea Anne's battle things out over fat quarter storage I'll be sorting the low volume fabric stash.  

And then the last of the fabric to sort will be the scrappy work baskets.  These are the baskets I keep on the cutting table at all times.  Most of my quilts are all the same colorway, bright and scrappy.  I work from the baskets and add to them as needed.  With all the changes going on in here it might be time to change this system as well and start with a clean slate. Perhaps anything in these baskets that is less than a fat quarter should be added to the scrappy fabric bins stash.

The only problem I see is, storage. The small scrap storage is pretty full.  More drawers might be needed.

Of course letting go of some of the tiny scraps would also work.  I'm saving them for a masterpiece applique quilt that MIGHT someday be made.  "Waste not, want not" is a polite way of saying "hoard everything".  Does this put me in the same category as the crazy cat lady? 

On a more positive, not so crazy side of things, the box of charity fabrics has now also become the box of quilt tops and fabric I can let go of for making charity quilts.  It's growing rapidly with both fabric and quilt tops.  So maybe this balances out the fabric hoarding craziness.  I'm looking forward to digging into the the box of not so loved fabric and making charity quilts.  

Well, now that I think about it, me longing to work with unloved fabric sounds kind of crazy too.  

Maybe I should change my blog name to "As The Crazy Quilter Quacks".

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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Sifting Through A Quilters Hoard

 Hi my name is Lea Anne and I think I might be a hoarder of anything sewing related.  Does a person really need seven irons? Did I know I had seven irons? Do I plan on getting rid of any of them? No, no and no.  Does this mean I'm a collector or a hoarder?  What if I label them as useful decor?  Sounds good, right? Okay, these can stay but I must find some less useful things to donate.

Funny what we can let go and what we want to keep.  The table at the end of the arrow is going.  It's not an item I ever wanted I just made it work in my Studio for the last 10 years.  It was part of a two truck load estate sale haul.  $200 for two truck loads!  Over the years the expanding quilt table has been modified and parts repurposed.  At this point it's clutter, doesn't work in my space and needs to find a new home at a thrift store.  The pile in the yellow square will also find a new place to live. 

The next two items have already been gifted to my friend Judy who collects old sewing machines.  The machine below was one my grannies(dad's mom) sewing machines. She had MANY.  It's beautiful and it works but the only action it see's is the rare dusting.  So it's time to let it go to someone who will love her and take care of her.

Next to go is this toy Singer I purchased a few years ago.  Again, it's cute, it's functional but I'm tired of cleaning the clutter.  It'll be in a good home with Judy.

I'm pretty proud of myself for filling up a 55 gallon trash bag of things that will actually be trash.  Most of it is cardboard fabric bolts and boxes.  What is my obsession with boxes?  A sign of a true hoarder is saving things that can be easily replaced for free.   The teal trash can is full of mini quilts.  All need cleaned and some need the binding sewn to the back.  They were glued in place and never stitched.

Progress is slow but it's progress.  I feel like sewing so I think I'll tackle the trash can quilts today. 

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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The HUGE Project

 Hey Quilty Friends!  Today is the start of the next big project.  It's not a quilt but it is happening in the Quilting Studio.  

The Studio needs a little makeover.  It's been 7 or 8 years since I last updated the look or did any deep cleaning like moving all the furniture and dusting behind the cabinets.  The reason for the change is this door below.  I know it's odd to have an exterior door in the Studio.  That's not the only odd thing about this room.  You can see a full tour of my Studio by clicking here.  We think this room used to be a carport or garage.  It would be nice to be able to open the door and let in more fresh air.  Right now it's blocked by my quilter. Until recently we didn't have screen doors on any of our exterior doors.  Crazy, right?   Sure it cost money but in the long run it will save us money on central air and fans.  I know a lot of newer homes don't have screen doors.  This is an old home and I'm an old gal that wants fresh air.

So I've started clearing things out.  Not only am I rearranging and cleaning but I also plan to declutter and simplify.  The less decor, the less cleaning.

The quilts that hung on the walls and the trim that went around my design wall have been down for months. Yes, this has been a plan for quite awhile but I was procrastinating.  Imagine that, me procrastinating HAHA!

  This window (hole in the wall) into the kitchen is another odd thing in my Studio.  The kitchen sink is on the other side of this window.  We have super small galley kitchen.  Basically it's a hallway to the back part of the house.  That's why you see a knife block and butter dish in the window.  I have very little counter space.  When I get to cooking big meals the coffee pot also sets in this window.  We've consider closing up the hole but it does let light into the kitchen and makes it feel a little bigger.  The other arrow is pointing to paint that needs to be fixed.  I don't want to paint the hole room.  I hope the can of leftover paint isn't dried out.

So there it is, my Studio in a huge mess.  It amazes me the things I've let go over the years.  Take a look at the outlet that is being held in place by painters tape.  At least it's a pretty green instead of the horrible blue painters tape.  I also need to do something with the lights.  This room originally had one light in a ceiling fan.  The fixture says no higher than a 60 watt bulb.  Seriously?  6o watts for a one car garage or in my case sewing room?  I'm thrifty and impatient so my quick fix was Amazon and these lights.  We'll see what we can do about the light cord situation later.  Right now there's plenty of other things to keep me busy.

Well it's time to get back to work.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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