Starting over

While I love being at sewing retreat, it was good to get home. The weather was perfect yesterday - the sun was out, it was warm and OH MY - is spring far behind??

The girls, of course, were very excited to see me and Murphy even decided to help me unload the car. Once she got in, I had a devil of a time getting her out!

I was going to quilt a quilt yesterday afternoon but decided to take advantage of the sun in Studio U. I'll tackle the quilt this morning because I have another one that has to be quilted today. It's going to be a long day!

What did I do after I unpacked the car? Bag by bag, I took everything upstairs. I made the decision to unpack all the stuff from the retreat and put it away. There were bags of stuff, sewing machines, thread and a whole lot more. I love unpacking from a retreat. Make me see how much (or how little) I got done.

But knowing that stuff wasn't just where I wanted it in that studio, I decided to empty all the project stuff out of the room so I could start with a clean slate and ONLY have in there what I need to be working on.

This counter is perfect for the two embroidery machine. I whisked everything off of them and out in the hall.

A perfect work surface

Here are the two embroidery machines - ready to be fired up today.

Embroidery machines - ready to be fired up today

I used the storage in the purple cabinets for the bits and bobs from the machine. Bags of feet, tools, etc. So they are handy, but not sitting on the surface. Yeah - that felt good to get that area clean. There are scissors and quilter's awl by each station.


Here are the other sewing stations. Yes - there are FOUR sewing stations in Studio U.

Two more sewing stations

No - I couldn't have four people in that room - it's a bit squishy! Perfect for one. Except for my scrap blocks, everything else is put away. Again, each station has its own pair of scissors, seam ripper and quilter's awl. Hey - I'm going to be so productive!

The ironing board got a clean sweep as well.

Ironing board - clean

Next up was the cutting mat. That's all clean and tidy as is the bench under the window. All is tidied up - well moved to the hall.

The cutting mat is clear

This is all the stuff in the hall. Yes, it stretched quite far down.

All the stuff got dumped in the hall

I took bag by bag and emptied it onto the cutting mat so I could sort through the stuff and deal with it. I did line up some current projects on the window seat, but I don't think I'm going to leave them there. The sun is pretty strong and I don't want anything fading or getting bleached out. It'll stay for the moment, but I must deal with it.

Once I was finished at the end of the day, the hallway looked like this. There's still a long way to go, but it sure looks better.

The hallway after round one

While I did complete two quilt tops, I can't share either of them with you. But I did find these blocks which I can share. These are the big and little block from the gingerbread quilt. From Month Ten. That leaves two more big and two more little blocks to piece. Three applique blocks to finish off and then all the blocks will be completed. At this rate, it's going to take me the entire year to finish this quilt! But I'm OK with that. There's no hurry - the key is to not let it get put away. That's good enough for me.

The big and little blocks from the gingerbread quilt

I also finished two geckos. One needed to be stuffed and then both had to be sewn shut. Both are done. This one is for Shelly who provided me with all the shiny fabrics and the other one went to Ronda.

Shelley's gecko

It's a thank you to Shelly for the new wallet (and the fabric) that she made me. I'll tell you that story later this week.

Two finished geckos

The two of them were exploring the sewing room at Fireside Retreat. They were pretty active but didn't keep us up at night!

I did stitch out another one for myself but was going to try out another material for the stuffing. I know I have pellets in the house somewhere. I thought I knew where they were, but it turned out that was a bag of sand. I don't want that. But I have an idea where those pellets might be and since I'll be quilting later today, I'll have time to search for the pellets. If not, I know someone who has pellets that they want to get rid of.

I sorted through my scraps and the leftover bits from one of the quilt tops. The fabrics and scraps are all filed in their respective place in Studio B. It sure feels good to put that away especially since there was a lot.

Then I needed to find some Elvis fabric. I know I had some but wasn't sure where it was. Oh - that's a lie. I know where it is, I just didn't want to go through the massively overflowing laundry basket of novelty fabric to find it. Well, it's all about getting organized and I needed this fabric so I got a small stool and literally buried myself in the fabric as I emptied the basket. I came across three pieces of Elvis fabric, but not the one I wanted.

As I was doing this, I got to thinking that I may have given this fabric to Ronda. After I rifled through the basket and things were all back in place, I checked with Ronda and yep - I gave her the fabric I was looking for. I asked for it back! At least part of it. I'll take what I want and then she can have the rest back!  How's that for a friend! I know that she'd do the same thing to me so I'm not worried.

Now that I have the exact projects that I need to work on this week all lined up, I feel much better about the amount of work that has to be done. It's not going to be pretty, but I'll do what I can. And I have no one to blame but myself for putting it off.

I found these two things in Studio U. What the heck are they? Oh - I know they are feet to something, but what? And where are the other two feet since most things have four feet?

Feet to what?

On that note, I'm out of here!

Have a super day!!!


Ciao!