Fabric Basket

I've been sewing away at some slightly secret projects -- but in between those projects I've found a place for the quickie project. This is one of my favorite quickies - a little fabric basket.

I sewed this up a couple weeks ago before going back to Ohio for a wedding. It was given to my SIL who is (patiently) waiting for me to design/sew/quilt/etc her wedding quilt! This little basket has cotton duck canvas on the inside, and uses my new favorite Ikea fabric on the outside. It measures about 10" across and 7" tall.

Blue Hair, Box Pouches, and Secret Sewing.

Well hello! I dyed my hair blue.

I've been working on several smaller projects the last few weeks. Truthfully it's still really hard to carve out the time for quilting while working full time (I miss my more part time schedule!). I've been working and quilting, and planning.

My ever growing quilt goals. I have so many of them -- but I'm slowly making a little progress. My ultimate goal is to be teaching. I'd love to teach classes locally, and I'd love to do so regularly. Getting myself out there is just the hardest part for me. It might be fear of rejection (many shops only hire their employees to teach - so it's pretty likely). Or fear of just not being good enough. Surely I know how to teach quilting, since I've been teaching my non-sewing friends for years, but something becomes more real when you're asking for payment in return.

Secret project

If I had extra space here at home I'd give individual lessons... that would be easier. I am not very good at the business side of requesting proper payment - from a shop or individual. Does anyone want to be my billing dept? 

FMQ practice on a quilted pillow

I am working slowly toward the goal of teaching, and toward the goal of sustaining my quilting habit through quilt related earned funds. I've recently been working on a couple magazine submissions, and I filmed another episode with Quilty. I'm super proud of these things. It feels good - like validation that I'm growing. I'm stacking up items on my "quilting resume." As a result I don't have a lot to share - these projects will be shown on blog hops, at quilt market, and in magazines in the future. I'm still holding my breath on some of them. We'll see how it all pans out.

I've been keeping busy and breaking up the "important sewing" by making smaller - nonsense projects (no thinking needed). The pictures in this post are all of these sorts of projects. Oilcloth boxy pouches, quilted pillows, and small little fabric buckets.

Fabric bucket

If only I were using this play time to make a dent in my personal sewing! My mind is so full of my next projects. I have a quilt in my head that will be for my brother and his new wife (!!). I also have plans for some fabric buckets and baskets - I'd love them to be intricately pieced - because what could be cuter than a very useful item that's intricately pieced? I also need to get working on items to sell - I need to amp up my Quiltcon fund before registration happens next month. I think I'll be making several oilcloth box pouches - and some sets of pouches. I'll probably sell them on Instagram so if you're into those sorts of things be sure to follow me there, my Instagram name is MommysNapTime. 

A face lift for my sewing room!

Last week I decided to spend some time doing a major re-organization of my sewing room. I had project piles all over the place and it was making it hard to find the inspiration (or space) to work on anything!

So I sat down with pinterest and found some great inspiration. Then I researched on Ikea's website. Did you know you can click items onto a shopping list and print it out to take with you to the store?? That helped keep me on track in the store! 

I managed to get out of Ikea spending only $30! That was the maximum amount I wanted to spend on this project. In all truthfulness I spent about $35 if you include the screws, wall spacers, and the 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags. Still that's pretty awesome right?

I'm still on the look out for a clear hanging toiletry hanger (or some cheap clear vinyl to make one). But that can wait since most of my notions are well organized right now. 

I'm really proud of that tool rail! Wally helped me install it. I used the drill and everything (thankfully my BIL had a drill). The tool rail and magnet rail installed really easily. I highly recommend them! Did you notice that magnet rail? It's supposed to be used to hold knives... but now it holds my metal bobbins and the feet for my Juki! It's so quick and easy to switch things out now - no more sorting through that Ziploc full of unraveling bobbins! 

My drawers came back into the room. So far Allie has stayed away from it all - I'll have to be super careful with her though. She knows there's good stuff in there! The first couple nights I removed the rotary cutters and scissors from the rail before bed (just in case) but she has shown no interest in them so I'll cautiously leave them up for now. 

The one on the right was made with fusible fleece - it is the best one -- unfortunately
 I only had enough of it on hand for the one. The others have warm & natural inside.

I also hung some art and some minis. Some of my favorite mug rugs are on display on the side of my wardrobe. The scrap box is off the floor and now stored in these adorable fabric buckets I made. They came together so quickly... I followed this tutorial - but didn't hand sew them. I did it all by machine. They're a little rougher than if I had hand sewn them... but I got the job done. The buckets sort my scraps: warm, cool, neutral/interfacing. 

All my sewing machines are on the bottom of the wardrobe and the WIP's are hanging on pant hangers (again from Ikea). I used those 2.5 gallon zip bags for this. They're wonderful! I can have several blocks, and a stack of FQ's in there without a problem!

I'm pretty inspired by this whole setup. I haven't gone back to re-fold my stash and organize that (it's in one side of that little storage desk there. Yes that isn't a lot of fabric is it? Be sure to tell Wally that I need more. :) See why I work with teeny tiny piecing? My stash is teeny tiny! 

(linking up to Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday)
As you can see in that last picture... not much progress has been made in those WIP's!! But I keep starting and finishing small side projects.

Fabric Basket and Journal Covers!

Here they are. Fabric Journal covers! I'm so excited about these! I had the idea in my head to do one of these for my Urban Home Goods Swap partner, and that's how I came to be making 2" stars... I actually could have made them smaller because in my head this top journal cover should have three stars on it! It all worked out in the end though because I just couldn't leave that last star alone, I made a cover for myself too! I love paper, and I love fabric! These journals have been sitting on my shelf for about a year, I bought them on clearance at the bookstore I work at (can't beat $0.50 for a journal with nice unlined paper). They were just crying out from my shelf to be covered in tiny stars! The inside cover of the light grey/navy one has some pretty tree of life fabric, and the navy/AMH Good Folks one has Owls on the inside. I used this tutorial, and it worked out great!! The interfacing gives the cover just enough sturdiness to make it feel wonderful! I can't stop looking at them. It might actually make me take up real journaling again (I have probably 2 dozen full journals from college... can't bear to get rid of them). Maybe it'll be more of a spiritual journal. That may be good. :)

Next up. You may know that I like to be as generous as I can with swaps... well this round of the Urban Home Goods Swap they changed it up making it manditory to only send two handmade items. I'm struggling with that. I wanted to make a bigger item (like a pillow or sewing machine cover) and a couple/few little items. I mostly wanted to do this to have an excuse to really put my heart into some little projects. When I make things for myself they tend not to be as polished as swap things I'd send out, example: this fabric bucket.

I took my time on it, I made it all pretty and even etc, but had it been for a swap I'd have made that band of navy a band of patchwork with embroidery and such. Nope. For me it's quick and easy. I guess it's just a good thing to try it out before getting all fancy, but still. So I'd like to make my partner a pretty and detailed (and much bigger than this) fabric basket, but I'm thinking of going the pillow route instead. To me a bucket just isn't a "big item." Will the swap police yell at me if I "accidentally" send three items? hehe. Oh and I want to make a hoop too. Scatterbrained I guess. PS: this bucket was made with this tutorial, minus the patchwork. It worked like a breeze. My little girl will surely like to put her little treasures in there.

By the way. We got some snow, did you? 20" is enough for me. I'm ready for spring!