Ready to Sew - What to Sew?

My sewing room was cleaned up a little this morning so took a photo before it became it's usual mess. I have a great view out the large windows when I am sitting at my machine and they let in a lot of natural light - we had replaced the old bedroom window with this bow window when we remodeled and I love it. The other half of this room is the office that I share with John. Sometime when that half of the room is clean I will snap a photo of it to show you but right now it is a disaster and I wouldn't want you to think we are slobs.

I have some tall bookshelves for my quilt books and magazines on one side and on the other is the island we took out of the kitchen when we remodeled. It is a great height to use for my cutting board and I also sit my large pressing board on it. Right now there is an ugly piece of fabric laying over the pressing board to protect it from the spray starch I was using.

Behind the island is a closet with a bi-fold door. This room was originally my in-laws bedroom and the closet was one of the two they used for their clothes. I use it for sewing stuff but it needs to be cleaned and organized after living here for 3 1/2 years. When we moved in I put things where I thought it all should go but by now it all needs organized a little better and some stuff needs to be sorted out and disposed of.

I want you to notice the small pin cushion sitting to the right of my machine. A friend made that for me recently and it is really handy in that it is small and I can use it beside my machine or take it to where ever I am working. She purchased a heavy napkin ring and some fabric to cover a filler of wool batting. It doesn't take up too much room and the napkin ring is metal so has some weight to keep it from tipping over.

Yesterday I worked as a "white glover" at the Nebraska State Fair quilt department. I always enjoy the job which really isn't work at all. There are chairs to sit in but most of the time I find myself walking in the area I am assigned to and looking at the quilts, studying the piecing/applique designs and the quilting on each piece. I did take a lot of photos but they are still on my camera. Maybe I will get to it tomorrow.

As "white glovers" we tried to answer visitors questions, most of which were pretty basic and were there to help protect the quilts. Only had one incident where I had to say something and that was when a few teenagers thought they were going to chase each other and run between the rows of quilts by going underneath the quilts - WRONG! Most of them sheepishly left the quilt area after being told that wasn't allowed.

There were a few vendors (just general fair vendors - not quilt supply vendors)around the edge of the quilt display. Our shift didn't get over until 1:30 pm so we were all getting a little hungry and my last station was right in front of a roasted soybean vendor. I would not have bought any except he had samples to taste and after trying several kinds I knew I just had to have some to take home. I bought some cherry coated roasted ones and some lightly salted roasted soybeans. I probably would never had bought the cherry ones if I had not tasted a sample but they are really very good. Now I am resisting the urge to open the packages but I decided I would wait until we had some company. Neither John or I have much will power when it comes to snacks so we would probably finish them off rather quickly.

Tuesday I wanted to work on something/anything on my new sewing machine but didn't have anything recent started or any ideas for something new. Really need to get a new quilt started so I will always have something to sew when the mood strikes. Since I got this machine I have wanted to use it everyday I can but just ran out of things to do. I got out my box of UFOs and pulled out a block I had started many years ago as a Haloween walhanging. I had hand appliqued the black cat and pumpkin block then had decided I would set it into a circle of triangles kind of like Mariner's Compass PP block with fat triangles. I had gotten the circle pieced and stitched to the appliqued block but had never put the rest of the background around the circle.

The background piece was with the rest of the block so got it reverse appliqued on yesterday. Hmmm.....What to do next to the wall hanging? After searching my fabric boxes I couldn't find any more of the dark dusty green background fabric and don't have a clue if there even was any left so decided that it is finished the way it is! It will make a nice small (aprox. 16") wall hanging to hang in my kitchen in October.

Marked it with a machine quilting design that took half the afternoon to design to fit in the corners and now it is basted ready to start quilting. I used Sharon Schamber's method of basting which works really well for me. http://tiny.cc/PinlessBasting I did baste a lot closer together than she does since this small piece I didn't want anything to shift as I quilt. Now to pick the thread color and start quilting ! Am thinking of quilting the corners in Orange and the rest in a thread to match. What do you think?

Back to work now....

Lynn