Reorganising my sewing room

Judy and I have separated and are going our own ways.  I begged her to stay but she told me that her quilting frame was of more use at her house than at mine.  I disagree because I find it very useful at mine ;-) 

So, I suddenly found lots of space that was crying out to stay clean and tidy but that's not what's going to happen! My frame is now where Judy's was and my sewing machine has been moved to where my frame was.  At this point it was lovely and tidy and spacious and I decided to set up my machine properly which involved me giving it a good clean.  I love my Brother sewing machine but getting the bobbin case back in the right spot once you remove it is an absolute nightmare!  It really needed a good clean out though.  My friend Annie is probably gasping in shock at this fluff I found!  And yes, it took me about an hour and a billion attempts to get the bobbin case back in and working correctly grrr!

Well then I decided that I now had enough room in the sewing room, after moving my sewing machine, to add a second area for either cutting or pressing.  I've seen some IKEA hack cutting stations so I'm going to use the Kallax units I already have to make one.  This involves emptying everything, rearranging and then tidying it all back up again before I can even think about making the IKEA hack unit.  

This is where I'm up to.  I think it's going to take quite a bit of time.  I'm exhausted and over it already!  I have so much stuff I doubt I'll ever use again!  Why do I hang on to it all?  I was very good and started a throw away pile and a take to charity pile.  They grew quite large and then I made the mistake of looking at them thinking some things might be useful one day...

Jill is coming over tomorrow to put the last border on her alien quilt so I'll have a bit of a rest and then go back and attempt to clear a pathway for her so she can get to the sewing machine at least.  

Whatever was I thinking???

Sheep’s eyes

 My mum used to call Shepherd's Pie Sheep's eyes.  I'm surprised we ever ate anything in our house growing up!  I won't even hint what she called Spaghetti Bolognese! Funny thing is those names are now tradition and that's what these meals are called in my household! Well anyway, back to my sheep! 

How do you mark eye positions on black felt wool??  I do have quite a few white/pink/blue marking tools and they'd usually be ok on black fabric but they just didn't want to adhere to the felt.  

So I marked the eyes on the back of the appliqué paper and cut them out.  Because I only wanted vague positions I didn't try to find decent scissors and cut the circles out with a seam ripper.  

Then I placed the circles back inside the holes.

Then I stitched around the circles.

Then I satin stitched the circles and they ended up like ovals but that's ok.  Nice PJS Evelyn!

I showed my Mother in law and she said they looked spooky. 

So, back to the drawing board.  I blanket stitched the whites of the eyes and then added the black part with a who knows? stitch.  The sheep has a lot more personality now and he (she?) is not spooky now!

Why?!!

I blanket stitched around all the legs and that left me with a billion threads to knot and tidy up but it was cold and rainy yesterday so it was something I could do in the warm in front of the TV.

All my threads.

Then I went to start sewing the bodies on but got distracted wondering how I'm going to sew the eyes on.  My sewing machine comes with over 700 different stitches but not one single one of those is a satin stitch circle!  I tried eyelets, the letter "o" and different satin stitch options.  I tried hand embroidery.  Let's just say hand embroidery and I don't get along and leave it at that.  The best outcome out of all these options was a blanket stitch around the felt circles but the thought of sewing 24 teensy felt circles fills me with dread.  I may have to think about this for a while!

 

Another charity quilt

I'm not working on anything I'm supposed to be working on!  Here's another charity quilt collaboration. Annie put the quilt top together and I offered to quilt it.  It's very bright!

The top measured 54 inches so I had to piece a backing.  I decided it would be a great idea to use up all of the striped fabric and that took me hours of cutting, matching and sewing.  I'm my own worst enemy sometimes!

Ta da!

I quilted this one with my go to bubbles design because my system wasn't behaving itself and I ran out of patience.  I hand stitched the binding at WASPS (Wollert and Sunbury Patchwork and Stitchers) sit n sew and I made Annie come and hold the quilt for a picture.  Annie will be relieved to see I posted this pic and not the other one!  Naughty Annie!

I have been playing with my other projects.  Here are my headless sheep ready for stitching.

And I've started!  4 legs done...44 to go...

The camera quilt was coming along well and then something else needed the space on the design wall.  I'll get it done one day!