Planning a new craft room in 2020

 2020 is going to be a big year for me, crafting-wise! I am expanding my craft/sewing space from 144 sq ft to 400 sq ft. sometime during the year (some renos have to be done first) and I have big plans!

Currently my little sewing (bed)room is in a state with the aftermath of Christmas. I just put out all the cardboard and recycling that accumulated during the season, and can at least see some floor space.

Here it is in all its glory...

I can now get to the sewing machine...

but not the closet...

nor my ironing board! 

But that is not all. Sewing and quilting is my favourite craft, but I have dabbled in a lot of other things. I've been a scrapbooker for 20 years, and ran it as a business for many years. That has slowed down as my career as a mortgage broker took off, but I still meet with some of my friends regularly. Right now, I don't have a lot of space for that, so some corners of my living/dining room have been used for storing the various bags and supplies needed for that.

The cabinet under the counter is full of scrapbooking supplies. 

This cabinet is full of photos, and I try to hide my bags behind my chair.

And behind my sofa is all my stock for sale. 

How did it get like this? Well, I used to have the whole 2000 sq. ft., 4-bedroom house to myself after my kids moved out, and I originally planned to downsize. My oldest daughter and son-in-law originally suggested a swap of their townhouse, but it had a lot of stairs which I didn't want. Then we decided that sharing this house could work, and we split the upstairs and downstairs (it's a split level entry with a fully developed lower level). I kept the upstairs with the living room and full kitchen but that left me with only a bedroom for all my crafts and sewing, and not much room to store everything.

Now we are going to swap because my son-in-law does the majority of the cooking, and I don't entertain much except for when I get together with friends to sew or scrapbook, and I would like the space downstairs.

My inspiration:

https://jennifermaker.com/craft-room-tour-organization-storage-projects/

I discovered JenniferMaker.com, and her craft room is virtually the same size as the main room in my new space. Her colours appeal to me and I have many of the IKEA pieces already! 

To-do list:

• Make a floor plan
• Start sorting/decluttering/destashing
• Drywall has to be finished in craft room/mini-kitchen area
• Buy cabinetry, sink and new fridge for mini-kitchen area
• Paint rooms (similar to above)
• Paint pieces of furniture mostly white or coordinating colours (my IKEA Expedit/Kallax units are a variety of finishes right now)
• Decide what new pieces need to be purchased.
• Make framed pegboard https://jennifermaker.com/large-framed-pegboard-organize-craft-room/
• Make paper tower https://jennifermaker.com/12x12-vertical-scrapbook-paper-storage-organizer-diy/
•  Make the central table (with enough room to seat 6, if possible)
• Design wall

November goals

Some sewing happened in the last two months, but it was mostly filled with studying and a cruise to Hawai'i (more about that in another post). Tomorrow is my exam and then I can get back to the sewing room. Maybe then I can restart my personal 30 days of blogging challenge (what a stupid time I picked last time).

Goals for November:

Finish:
- Placemats for Nancy (my oldest friend)
- Row-by-row river landscape for Vicki (my sister)
- 5 mini Bionic Gear Bags for the grands

Start:
- a periodic table quilt with my grandson (his request) - he even offered me $10 to help pay for fabric (which I wouldn't take)
- Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt (day after American Thanksgiving)

Make:
- pyjamas for the grands

Leader and Enders:
- Moda's Christmas 1968 quilt using Riley Blake Bliss fabric
- Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake

Whew, that's not all of it - but those are the priorities before I have to start studying my next course. Both are work-related, in the field of investments (Exempt Market Products and Compliance Officer), and once done, I have secured my position until retirement in the next 3-5 years or so. It feels good to know that I can make those plans - after my divorce, I had two babies to raise and no college education, so my prospects of retirement before 85 seemed bleak. Even if it isn't Freedom 55, to be able to say I can retire by age 63 feels pretty good (not that I plan to do it before 65, but to know I can feels very freeing.)

Let's hope I can post regularly - it motivates me to do more!

30 days of blogging

Today I have challenged myself to post every day in September. I have been in the doldrums as it is the 20th anniversary of my mom's diagnosis of lung cancer at the very same age I am now.  I'm going to blog about anything that comes to my mind, whether it is sewing related or not.

But for now, what am I working on?

I have several projects on the go as usual:

•  cord organizer
•  packing cubes for my upcoming cruise to Hawaii
•  fix my new backpack lining (made it a little too big)
•  work on my Epic Halloween quilt
•  continue step 1 of Christmas Posy using Bliss fabrics
•  continue step 2 of On Ringo Lake

Tomorrow I'm taking my best friend out for a birthday breakfast.

Some finishes

I've been neglecting to update my blog, so I'm going to catch up with a few of my recent finishes. For Christmas, I made 3 I-Spy quilts: 1 each for my last grand-niece and grand-nephew, and 1 for a special little girl adopted by a very lovely couple - they had waiting for a long time to become a family!

Although they have a lot of the same blocks, each one is a little different. I try to take the kids personality into consideration, so for example, there is a ballet dancer in one because my grandniece is taking dance lessons. Each one has a block that has the first letter of their name - it was interesting keeping the girls' quilts straight because both their names start with E.

I keep forgetting to take pictures of the finished product, and I've already gifted these so the before-binding pictures will have to do!

This next quilt has an interesting story:

My good friend and co-worker gave me a bag of fabric that she was clearing out. Most of it wasn't suitable for quilting, so the larger pieces got donated, but in amongst the pieces I found 15 log-cabin blocks already completed, and the scrap fabric. I asked her about it, and it turned out some the fabric came from her deceased mother's stash. She didn't want the blocks back as she is not a quilter so I made one more block, assembled the quilt and surprised her for Christmas. I called the quilt "A Hug from Mom" and she was overwhelmed. It is a true scrappy quilt, and Cathy remembered some of the pieces as being from her dad's shirts, some curtains, even old sheets. The blocks were all different sizes but I was able to square them down to about 14" each, and the quilt finished at about 55". It is not 100% cotton and one fabric has a really loose weave, so I'm not sure how well it will wear, but it was probably the most well-received quilt I have had the honour to finish. 

Down the Rabbit Hole (or how many projects can I work on in two days)

Welcome back, once again! I have been sewing, but neglecting to post - I must do better. Heads up, this is an extra-long post.

Thanks to an extra-long weekend, I was able to sew for two full days. I needed to finish the girls Easter dresses, so of course, I pulled out on old project to see where I was at! Talk about being a major procrastinator.

The project I pulled out was the 365 Challenge by Kathryn Kerr in Australia (https://www.365challenge.com.au/). This is what it will look like when it is finished - I'm doing mine in black/grey, red, and white/cream.

She started this challenge in 2016, and I did start it then, but intended it to be a long term project. Here's where I'm at so far - 35 3.5" blocks, and the centre medallion.

Each year she offers the same blocks, but sometimes in a different order. I decided to finish the centre medallion, so I started making the chevron/flying geese blocks when I realized I had some other fabric that would work perfectly with this project. .So far I have made two of the side strips. The fabric from the other project is the words on the right-hand side of the flying geese.

This is when I fell down the rabbit hole - that other project kept nagging at me - all of the fabrics would work so well in this quilt, so I pulled it out.

It was a kit I bought on sale for $25 at my local quilt shop, Hamels Fabrics, about 5-6 years ago. It was a panel and the two fabrics that make up the border. I had also bought some coordinating fat quarters and eventually a great piece of lime green from a different manufacturer/designer also called Wordplay - perfect to brighten up the black/white design.

First, I cut the panel into the individual blocks, then choose specific words from the lime green and raw-edge appliqued them on the blocks.

(my personal favourite...)

Once that was done, I placed strips varying in size from 1.5" to 2.5", log cabin style to bring the blocks up to approximately 13.5". 

Once I had the blocks done, I used my design wall (bed), added a few strips where a couple of blocks were short, and webbed the quilt. By that night, I had the top completed! (still need to press it and take a picture). Now all those fabrics are free to be used in my 365 project!

In between, I also worked on some leaders and enders - Step 4 of On Ringo Lake by Bonnie Hunter:

and 1.5" nine-patches:

 By now, it was Saturday night, and I still had to sew the facings down on the girls' dresses. I put the buttons on and set up their goodies for the morning visit.

We had an Easter egg hunt at the neighbours, and then it was warm enough to even pull out the small pool!

So how many projects did I end up working on? Five in all! If I could only do this every weekend, I'd make progress on my many UFOS!

Scraphappy Saturday - Yellow

I think I've pretty much used up all my yellow strings and crumbs - I might be able to squeak out one more string block, but I needed to clean up to work on something else.

4 more yellow 5" string blocks - I have no idea what I'm going to use them in, but at least those strings are tamed.

2 more yellow crumb blocks - these are eventually going to end up in a sewing machine cover.

And I finally fixed a blue crumb block that I trimmed too small.

Now I need to sort that pile of crumb blocks, and figure out which colours I am short on. My goal is to finish it this spring.

Linking up to scraphappy's linky party

Terri in BC

More gifts!

I was so lucky to receive a bundle of scraps from another blogger, Elaine Therriault of Crazy Quilter on a Bike,  which got lost in the chaos of the recent postal strike for a few months, but they were worth the wait!

Beautiful shades of aqua - my favourite colour - this is pretty close to the actual colour of the fabrics, by the time the blocks got down it was getting late and the colours don't appear the same. 

I've decided to put them to use right away in a new project, and started a Baby Jane (based on the Jane Stickle quilt in the Bennington Museum, Vermont). I've had the book, Dear Jane, forever and I think a 2-colour quilt appeals to me the most. I don't know if I will do every block or triangle, so mine become an ode to Jane.

I picked 3 to start with, 2 easy ones, and one to test my piecing skills.

The first one is A-6, named Uncle Homer and was a very simple 9-patch variation:

The next was almost the same, with narrow outer edges of the 9-patch. It is B-13 Four Corner Press:

And the last, M-8 Mama's Maze:

This one has 33 pieces in a block that finishes at 4 1/2"! Mine actually came out a wee bit bigger, I think I took a scant more than a scant 1/4".  I'm using an 80-weight thread on top and in the bobbin to try and minimize any pressing issues. I had to think about how to put it together. I first started with the top row across, but quickly realized that wouldn't work for the centre. I ended up starting with the centre block and then adding the strips to the top and then the sides until I had a rectangle, and then added the top and bottom rows.

And speaking of gifts, I received another bundle from my friend, Kim. 

 This is the second batch I have received from her of this same fabric line. I would have received more but I convinced her she had enough to make a jelly roll quilt from her leftovers first. So she managed to get a queen-size quilt and a twin-size quilt, and still had leftovers! I think I need to go with her the next time she buys fabric for a project so she doesn't overbuy. This is also why I let her pick from my stash, she has given me so much (that green piece on the bottom is over 2 metres alone!)

Still working on the cleanup of my sewing room, but it sure is nice to be able to get some stuff done again.

Have a great week, 

Terri in BC

Scraphappy Saturday!

Today is the last Saturday of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I finally feel like I am getting my groove back.  First, I had to find my room! It had become a dumping ground long before Christmas, and I only had enough room to sew some of those last minute finishes. More on that in an upcoming post!

Last week, I finally was able to start tackling my scraps. I thought this was all I was going to accomplish for the month:

Garlic Knots by Bonnie Hunter (not a free patern)

But then my best friend gifted me with her leftovers from a project, which just happened to include red (we have a deal - she agreed not to throw out her scraps, and I'll let her pick through my stash when she needs something):

And this morning I started cutting down the smaller pieces to fit in my scrap-user's system, and made one more block (in just 15 minutes!)

Then I filed everything away in my scrappy block box. I call it Crummy Monday because I used to tackle all my scraps created in a week on a Monday night, a habit I'd like to get back in to.

After adding my new blocks, I decided to document the progress I've made so far:

Boxy Stars by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville (Free pattern)

String Blocks (tutorial by Bonnie Hunter here) 

Crumb Blocks (adapted from Bonnie Hunter's Crumb quilt) free pattern

Polaroid Blocks - I'm not sure who started this trend, but here is a link to a great tutorial that demonstrates the way I make them when I have a lot of blocks to do.

 I'm also committing to posting more, for my own benefit. Here are some future posts I have planned:

What I can accomplish is just 15 minutes


How to "make" money when cleaning your scraproom

Table runner made with leftover blocks (a quick tutorial)

 Have a great week,

         Terri in BC

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2019

I'm joining something new (to me) this year! I love rainbow-themed quilting and have a number of scrappy projects on the go. I'm going to join the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by soscrappy and make some progress on these UFOs this year.

From her page:
Each month I will announce a color.  Your job is to use your scraps to make something.  A block, a few blocks, a small project, an entire quilt.  The details are all us to you.  Hopefully, by the end of the year, you will have enough blocks for a quilt, or a finished project or two. 10 Colors for 2019 in no special order: red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, dark blue, light blue, purple, pink, brown or black.

These are the projects I'll be working on:

Crumb blocks - these use up my smallest bits and pieces:

I plan to use these to make a sewing machine cover using the original polyester dust cover as a pattern (and base). I'll have to take some measurements and plot how many more I need to make of each colour.

String blocks:

I have a few different projects on the go that need string blocks. This one was made for Bonnie Hunters' Zuckerwatte pattern, found in her first String Fling book. You can see all the quilts here - I have several on my to-do list. I'm going to do this in all the colours, in a variety of sizes ranging from 3 1/2" to  8 1/2" - if I don't have a quilt in mind quite yet for a particular colour, I'll make them in the largest size, because I can always cut them down. I use old telephone books as a base for sizing.

Boxy Stars:

Another Bonnie Hunter pattern - this one can be found on her Free Patterns page (she is such a generous lady):

I started this one simply to use up some of my many 2 1/2" strips.

Maverick Stars:

Another freebie from Bonnie, these are great for using up those little leftover triangles.

I'm going to do some with light backgrounds and others with the colour as the background. I think is going to be so much fun to look at when it is done. 

I know I have many more UFOS that could also fit into the Rainbow Challenge, but these four will make a good start and conceivable be finished this year as well!

I also found out how to backup my blog today! After six years of blogging, I would hate to lose it all. Here a screen shot of where to go in blogger from your design page (follow the yellow highlighter!) 

Linking up to the RSC2019 for the first time! If you are a first-time visitor, my name is Terri and I live on the beautiful West Coast of Canada, about 2 1/2 hours north of Seattle, WA. I still work full-time (about 4 years before my planned retirement), raised my 2 daughters as a single parent and now have 3 beautiful grandchildren that live on the same street as I do. My blog name reflects the fact that I am the queen of UFOs (50 at last count) and the "all-knowing goddess of everything" according to one of my friends - my mind is full of Useless Bits of Information (UBIs)! Looking forward to seeing what everybody else is up to!