Swap plan and sewing room update

Okay, so last post, I shared the horrible mess my sewing area was.  And it's not any better yet.  It's kind of a long story.

A few days ago I noticed a "puppy accident" on my bookcases that hold my fabric and books that I built with my Dad a few months ago.

The bookcases my Dad and I built - See no feet

I say "puppy accident" because the perpetrator is neither a puppy nor was it truly an accident.  We had an electric fence put in a few months ago when we found the combined work of Ollie and Ellie trying to get the neighbor dogs.

Ollie riped chunks of the fence board while Ellie dug a hole.  Needless to say, Oliver didn't react well to the electric fence and we had to turn it off so he would go outside again.  When the weather turned nice again, I found a new fence board chewed away and at least two new holes.  So the fence is back on and Ollie again thinks outside is scary/dangerous and refuses to use his doggy door.  We're basically re-house training by convincing him he can safely go outside, just not every where.  Ellie, the puppy, has not had any problems with the new fence.

Anyway, so the bookcases I built didn't have feet because I couldn't decide on what feet to use.  With the spotted "puppy accident," it was clear feet were necessary to protect the lower shelf.  I decided on them and bought a new drill for me to use at home (our old drill lives at my husband's business).  I started to put the feet on and with the nicer weather and the fact that I'm on vacation this week, I decided I should paint them as well.

Bookcase with feet.

Ellie inspecting my work.

I took the book shelves back to my parents because Dad has all the tools and free paint.  They are currently there with two coats of primer drying, which means my sewing area is actually more of a mess than normal because everything on the bookcases is now on my cutting table.  I can work around it, but the total chaos is like a mental creative block for me.

The mess from behind.

The mess from in front.

In other news, I think I've decided on what to make for my swap partner.  It's been a challenge because I'm new and I don't know anyone.  Fortunately, she has a blog so I've been stalking to trying to figure out what to make.  Her style is a lot more colorful that my taste (most are!) so I was struggling to come up with something that would fit her taste.  While browsing the internet tonight it came to me, make a color wheel wall hanging.  I actually might make two, one for me.  A color wheel will be colorful and useful so I think it's a good choice.

The color wheel template.

I'm to try and replicate this color wheel and turn it into a wall hanging.  I think I'm going to keep the brown and black wedges.  They look like a bow tie.  Now the hard part, matching all those colors.  I may have a fabric addition (see the mess?), but I'm really picky about colors.  Some of these colors are likely not in my stash.  I guess I'll have to go fabric shopping...


Update:  I forgot to add on big thing I accomplished on my vacation.  I finally printed some of our wedding photos.  It only took two years, no joke.  When I originally tried to print them, Walgreens refused unless I had in writing proof that the photographer relinquished the rights.  She did, but I didn't have it on me and I was mad.  So this time I uploaded them to Walgreens online and they were printed with no issue.  I also made a wedding photo book in iPhoto.  It turned out pretty well.  Now, I need to dust off the picture frames I bought two years ago that ended up in the back storage room because I didn't have photos for them, and put photos in them.  Then I get to pester my husband until he hangs them (or I'll just do it).

Basement Decorating (Guest Bedroom/Bathroom)

Last summer, we finished our basement.  I love the way it turned out.  As part of the finish, we added a guest bedroom and a full bathroom.  While upstairs is minimally decorated, I'd like to get these to spaces at least barely decorated.

Here's the bedroom.  You can see other than the objects necessary to make a guest bedroom, there are no decorations.

Bed - Please ignore the fact that it's not really on a frame.

Window, bookcase, table/desk.  

I do have plans for the window curtains.  I bought some gray linen and plan to do some white sashinko at the bottom one day.

Not sure if that table is going to stay in this room yet.  Anyway, as you can see, this room is pathetically bare.  I've want to make a quilt and pillows and add pretty art work.  To start, I'm working on a shower curtain to go in the quest bathroom.  I'm using the patchwork shower curtain pattern from Stitch in Color featured in Stitch, Summer 2012.  Here it is on my design wall.  

Patchwork Shower Curtain Strips

I picked gray, yellow, silver/white, and turquoise for the colors.  I have a neutral linen to for the rest. Hope to start sewing it tomorrow.  I'm a bit nervous as my piecing isn't super accurate yet and I had trouble cutting it.  As you can see below, a shower curtain is definitely needed.

Guest Bathroom

But before I can begin sewing, I need to tackle this:  This is what happens when I start a project right before a big maintenance outage at work.  Total chaos.  I am weird and I have to have everything neat and tidy before I can work.  I swear all I do is organize my space.  I try to be good about putting things away each time so I don't have a huge mess to take care of when I want to work, but it doesn't always work out that way.  I'm still working on figuring out storage solutions.  When it's neat and tidy again, I'll take another photo.  I also need to decorate it!  (Noticing a theme?)

On a side note, here's some embroidery that I started back in February.  I worked on it steadily before I became too tired after work and haven't gotten back to it yet.  I printed off shots of a music video (it's Cold Hand Warm Hearts by Brandon Benson) and traced them with my light box, which is awesome.  I tried to start this using the iPad screen, but even through fabric, the touch screen got in the way.  I'll explain it when it's done.

Hope to post soon with progress!

Sewing Room & My New Toy

I was pretty upset when my Babylock broke, again.  Turns out the belt had fallen off and the shop didn't charge me to fix it, but in my impatience and need to sew, I looked at Bernina's.  I was thinking about getting a mid-line model, but the shop had an offer that was hard to pass up on the new 780.  Here it is!

The deal was for the Bernina 780 with the sewing table with lift and matching cabinet.  When I started looking for a different machine, I really started thinking about getting a better sewing desk.  I really wanted to finish my design, but since we don't have power tools at my house, it just wasn't happening.

Here's the sewing table.

I'm really enjoy having the machine level with the sewing table.  Just starting to play with the 780.  I've been having issues piecing, but I really think it's the project I've been working on.  I just took the quilt off the wall prior to these photos.  It's lighthouse by sweetwater and it has strips of biased pieced strips.  I made a serious beginner error with it and I'm just really frustrated.  Right now it's in a pile waiting for the seam ripper before I make another attempt with it.

Anyway, here is my sewing area in my basement.  Love it.  In the day, it's night and light and peaceful.  Please excuse the poor iPhone photos.  I need to find my digital camera and charger.

 The cutting table is a kitchen cabinet from IKEA that I got on Craigslist.  It works very well.  I buy mostly fat quarters (I don't do enough sewing for yardage).  I keep them in plastic containers on the shelves along with plastic containers for scraps.  I also have wire shelving that has baskets of fabric.  I'm trying to get my husband to cut a board to go on top for ironing so I don't have to drag out the full size ironing board all the time.

Since the quilt isn't working out right now, I've cut out the pieces to make an Abby Bag by V & Co.  Pretty excited about it.  It should give me a chance to really try out the 780 and hopefully not have issues due to unstarched/stabilized bias edges.

Off to bed, work in the morning and then birthday weekend!

Oh, Ellie's gotten pretty big, about 25 lbs.  Here's Oliver & Ellie at the vet.  They were both so good and tired from a day of doggie daycare.