Hello old friend...

Today I had a day off. 

(I've been so behind on blogging recently that you all don't even know that I'm working full time again now. No more 2.5 days a week. :( but on the plus side that means we have an easier time making our bills!) 

Part of my new sewing area! Bigger table, tiny stash shelf, drawers of notions. I also kept my old wardrobe for big storage.

I shouldn't blame the lack of sewing / blogging on the increase in work hours... but I guess that contributed. 

Sewing table! My new table is so much bigger -- that's an 18" x 26" mat. Whew!

Also - we moved! Whew - I'll be glad if I don't have to do that again anytime soon!

Today while Allie was at school (a new, fabulous, awesome school -- the major reason we moved)... I finally sorted out my sewing space. It's a shared space with our bedroom - which luckily is a nice big room with lots of sunlight!

Jelly Belly's help with FMQing!

So. I sewed today. 

I grabbed a "project bag" of scraps that I'd sorted by color palate way back before the move, and I set off to make a doll quilt. No sense in trying to tackle any huge project right off -- it had been more than two weeks since I'd sewn, and never before in this house -- so simple and non-thinking seemed about right.

I really wished I had had more of the Moda Bella Strawberry, but those little bits were literally the last bits I had on hand! Other than that I love how this turned out. I used only what was in the project bag, and those were tiny scraps! 

I managed to finish the quilt with enough time to take pictures before Allie got home from school! This little one finished at about 11" x 15" 

Hopefully this is the start back to quilting several times a week, and blogging just as often! :) Thanks for bearing with me while I got my stuff together!

Playing with the lights...

I'm hoping this makes a huge difference in the amount of real sewing I can get done. For the past month I've been doing a step here, a step there, of projects that I need to photograph each step. I sew at night and my pictures are TERRIBLE at night. So after a chat with Sara the other day about her set-up, I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a couple new (cheap) lights. 

It just so happened that my walls and wardrobe are white. This saved me from really having to do much else. I used a random sheer curtain panel from Ikea to diffuse the direct light. The light bulbs are "daylight" bulbs like Sara used. I think the next step is to paint the other side of my blue board white. A pillowcase worked in a pinch, but it was hard to get it pressed exactly flat. 

Here's to being able to actually get whole projects done late at night! Wish me luck while I start crossing projects off my list! 

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.

Where do I start?

The above image is a detailed look at my sewing room - a year or so ago (from when I guest blogged here). This was before we moved, and although my new sewing room was set up similarly, it's not that way now. So what happened?

Well the three year old in my life made it a necessary to move those cute drawers to the top of my tall dresser (not in the sewing room). Things don't get put back away when you have to hide everything from the three year old! 

Here's my challenge. I want to get my room back in order. I can't afford to buy different/more storage supplies, so I'm going to have to figure something out. I want it to be put together and pretty again!

But where do I start? lol. I really don't know. I need a system for WIP's, since I like to have half a dozen projects going at once. And I need to re-hang my minis - maybe I'll add quick turn corners to all my mug rugs - then I could hang them without them eventually falling. 

Does anyone have tips about organizing and maintaining a sewing room? If it helps my room is in what would have been our dining room - so we walk through it a zillion times a day (hence it's hard to keep little fingers away!)