The clean-up continues

I spent a good part of the day sewing in Studio U. It was a glorious day. I had the windows open and there was a beautiful breeze. It did get slighter hotter in the afternoon when the sun moved around but it wasn't bad. I ended up putting up a small fan, but that was only because I had had a cool beverage and I was flushed because of that!  Thankfully, the sun is high in the sky at this time of year and there is very little direct sunlight comes in that room. I love the space. Thanks, M for moving out and letting me move in!

I spent the morning trying to finish a bobbin. Amazing how when you want the bobbin to run out that it takes forever and when you're in a hurry, the bobbin runs out all the time! But I'm madly working on my blog posts for QUILTsocial. I got a lot done and I think you're going to find the topics very interesting. I'll let you know when they are up.

I won't say more than that because I'm excited about what happened in Studio U yesterday.

Here are a couple of other things that I can share with you.

I worked on this at the retreat. It's the mini wall hanging for my Mom. It's the fall one in case you didn't guess. I had to trim the blocks and sew in the sashing. Then I removed all the paper (the blocks are paper pieced) at the retreat. A fun job!  I had fabric with me for the border, but I ended up not liking it when I went to put it on. I was rooting around in the stash room last night and found a couple that I'll audition later today.

Mini fall wall hanging for Mom

I have one more wall hanging to do once this one gets done. For now, this one is my priority. At least the other two that I made are being used. Originally Mom was going to put the wall hanging on the outside of their apartment door but then decided to hand it on the inside so she can enjoy it. I'm good with that. As long as they are being used!

Remember that zippered pouch that I made at the retreat? The blue/tan one? Well - it matches one of my tote bags. So now the zippered pouch is in the tote bag. When I go to class or wherever with the tote bag, I can put the small things in the pouch and I'm good. No digging to find the small things.

Zippered pouch to match the tote bag

If you're inclined to make the tote bag, here's a link to QUILTsocial where you'll find my very detailed tutorial. And here's a link, also on QUILTsocial, where you'll find the zippered pouch tutorial. Remember, the sizes can be changed to make either item whatever size you wish!!!

I showed you this table runner a while back but now the binding is made. So it goes into the "to be quilted" pile. That is when I can find that pile! 

Table runner with top, binding, and backing ready to be quilted

I'm trying to be very good and put things away once I'm finished with them. There are also items that have been sitting around and need to be put into their proper home. However, with the mess downstairs, it's not always easy to find the proper home. I had a couple of bags of fabric to put in the Quilts of Valour box. Hmm - where did that box go???  No idea. Then this morning, guess what I found???? Might be hard to see in this picture, but there's a box - almost dead center with a bolt of Canada fabric standing up in it. That's the Quilts of Valour box!!!

Quilts of Valour box

After I got tired of sewing, I decided it was time to hit Studio B to see what could be done. I feel like I made good progress. And as I unpack each box, I'm trying to formulate a plan to speed up the process and find homes for everything. I'm a bit worried that the extra storage room is going to get filled very quickly. So far it's pretty empty. I didn't take a picture of it.

But I did empty a few boxes of books and magazines.

The bookcases - partially filled

As you can see, the shelves are still very empty. Yes - there's still a LOT of boxes. Each day, I'm trying to get DH to help me move one of the cabinets into the right spot. That will help when I find the stuff that goes into the cabinet. I made space for two cabinets last night.

If you were to come down the stairs, it would appear that NOTHING has been unpacked. However, I've been pulling the book boxes from a hidey-hole in behind.

The floor!!!

I'm going to continue my way in the depths of that space and soon, I'll be clearing space so I can put my "to be quilted" pile back together again. That's going to be good as I need to get that long arm back in business and some of the "to be quilted" totes are behind the long arm.

I'm happy with my progress. Hard to believe that I have ONE WEEK before the sewing group arrives. Nothing like a deadline to make things happen.

Besides those huge bookcases, there were three smaller ones. My goal is to consolidate all the books and magazines onto the big bookcases. The smaller bookcases will get used for something else or be removed. We'll have to wait for that one.

Thanks to Donna who is going to get the yard for the Project Linus. Guess what? I was feeling pretty good about the yarn only to discover ANOTHER tub of yarn this morning. Yikes!!!  So I found more yarn for Project Linus if she wants it. That feels good to get it out of my house. The two bags are in the car and I'll meet up with her next week.

Yarn for Project Linus

Any dishcloth knitters out there???  This is the yarn that I bought to knit the dishclothes. Seriously?? When am I going to do that? So if there's someone who wants to knit dishcloths (I don't care if you make the dishcloths and sell them) - I know that I likely will not make any. Email me if you want this. REMEMBER -- this is NOT to be put into your stash. Take it ONLY if you're actively making dishcloths. No sense it going from one mess to another. I'll be following up to make sure!!!

Dishcloth yarn

Also found a bag of baby yarn. That's also up for grabs if anyone wants it.

Baby yarn

And I found two balls of chunky yarn. Good for scarves???  Know any young knitters who could use this up?? Maybe make slippers???

Chunky yard

This next item is NOT up for grabs. I bought a full set of expensive circular needles. Do you think I could find the darn things a while back when I wanted to make something? Nope - but now I found them. I also found a set of small crochet hooks which I had also been trying to find. Both of those are going in the knitting needle/crochet hook home. 

Knitting needles - found!!!!

I know that some of this stuff is going back on the shelf without a whole lot of sorting, but that's the way it has to be at the moment. What stuff can't be dealt with is going in that hidey-hole that I made. There will be a mad push next week as the sewing day draws nearer!

I've decided that I also need to get the stash room back in order since that's the room that I use the most as I shop Chez Elaine. So I moved a few things from that room into the big room. Then I can deal with the stuff on the shelves and try and get it into some sort of order. I DO NOT want that room to become the junk room that it was. I might even give "tours" of that room! No one was allowed in before - that's because it was dangerous to move around in.

In moving some shelving in the stash room, I found a container of corks. Saved to make some cool and funky project I'm sure. Now they are all going back to the beer store to be recycled.

Corks to be returned to the beer store

I managed to acquire two spools of thread yesterday for the long arm. So my goal is that this afternoon when it gets a bit humid, is to get downstairs and load and quilt a quilt. Thankfully, I had set aside the bobbin winder, all the electrical cords and my scissors. I was just missing thread!!!

On that note, I"m out of here.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!