Tip Tuesday! Sewing Room Organization

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Sewing Room Organization

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

For a number of reasons, I have to reorganize my sewing space. 

I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time it scares the heck out of me. 

I'm kind of afraid to find some of the stuff that I just HAD to have and then forgot about them. 

I'm also a bit worried that I'll find duplicates. Have you ever done that? You buy something only to forget that you own it so you buy it again. Or worse, you buy it, can't find it when you need it and then HAVE to buy it again.

Ok, all of that is negative thinking so on to the positive side of this.

I'm excited to take some time to weed out what I can't or won't use anymore and pass them on to people who can or will. That includes fabric, notions, books, patterns, etc. 

So, what does all this have to do with Tip Tuesday!? 

I've been searching the internet for ideas (as has my sister Ann), and I happened across a site that offers lots of pictures of various sewing rooms. This is really wonderful "eye candy," even if you don't have the need or desire to reorganize. I have seen lots of pictures that provide inspiration for other rooms as well. 

So, rather than reinvent the wheel, here's the link to the site. Thanks Carol, for taking the time to compile this list.

I'm looking forward to sharing some of my pictures soon.  

ENJOY!

http://www.younge.com/sewing%20rooms.htm

Design Wall Monday

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted, but something had to give and the blog was the victim. 

I've spent the last couple of weeks teaching (both sub teaching and quilt teaching), catching up on work at home and for a couple of local quilt shops, preparing for an extensive guild program and also preparing for the latest Old Bags' Day Sew-In. (I'll post pictures of the guild program and Old Bags' Day soon.) So, posting to the blog had to take a back seat more often than not recently.

Despite my busy schedule, I do have something on my design wall. Jewel Box by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio. 

I fell in love with this wall hanging when I first saw it in Modern Quilts Illustrated #8. I was thrilled when the owners at M & E Quilt Shoppe asked if I wanted to make one.  :-)

I had one problem with the cutting (I didn't pay attention to the directional fabric placement), but that will be resolved tomorrow when I pick up a little bit of fabric to make the correction.

What's on your design wall? Why not share it with the rest of blogland via Judy L's Patchwork Times. 

Don't want to share? That's okay. Sit back, relax go to Judy L's Patchwork Times and enjoy the eye candy.

Mom - Mothers' Day

I love and miss you Mom!!

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Mom. The rowing team called her "Hard Core Grandma" after she braved freezing rain and wind to watch Nikki row at UC.

Here she is playing Pumpkin Faces with Sadie.

And a blast from the past with the salute on the deck of the USS Kidd

Thanks Mom!

Carolyn Schwab

August 12, 1926 - December 1, 2012

Food for Thought

Count your blessings, not your problems.

This is often forgotten and difficult, 

but it is ALWAYS important. 

Tip Tuesday!

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Spend Time in the Sewing Room, Not the Kitchen

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

This post may not seem like it has much to do with sewing and quilting, but it really does. I promise!

Since I've been working anywhere from three to five days most weeks (and I don't always know the night before that I'll be working), I've lost quite a bit of sewing time and I really needed to find a way to get that back. 

Besides some basic reorganization of things around the house and simply making some different decisions, I knew that I really needed to adjust the time I spent in the kitchen. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a chef and I don't spend hours preparing meals, but I felt like I was spending way too much time in the kitchen and not enough time in the sewing room. I really needed to change that.

A couple of years ago, Lynn and I spend an afternoon putting together freezer crock pot meals. 

Most of the meals were ok, a few were really good and a few others were not too good at all. It was a trial and it was pretty successful.

Now, jumping back to how this all relates to sewing and quilting...

Even if you only cook with a crock pot or other methods of "start it and leave it" recipes once a week or every two weeks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much time that frees up for you. You can choose to cook your entire meal in the crock pot or just a part of it. No matter which way you go, you can't go wrong. 

Here are a couple of my favorite slow cooker websites/blogs to help you get started.

http://stephanieodea.com/


http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/

Now, to do this effectively, planning is important. 

Decide which recipes you want to try and make a list of the grocery items you'll need. 

Cut up veggies and other items right away or they'll probably spoil before you remember that they're in the drawer in the the kitchen.  :-)

Put everything in the crock pot, go to work, sew or whatever and spend the time creating and not fretting about what to cook for dinner.

See, I told you it would relate to sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I'm making another version of my Dressed To The Nines. This one was made using Sweet Serenade by Basic Grey. (I love their fabrics!) 

The original quilt is hanging at M & E Quilt Shoppe because I'll be teaching a class there and I needed another sample for another program I'm doing. Since I like the quilt, I don't mind having a second one made, although this may not be finished until sometime next week because I'm teaching all week. I think this will make a great donation quilt and plan to use it as such when I'm done showing it at the program.

Since this quilt starts as a disappearing nine patch and there are fabrics with musical notes, etc. in this line, perhaps this version should be called 

A Quilter's (not Beethoven's) Ninth Symphony.  :-)

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.