Our Weekend!

This is the inside of one of our storage units - scary, huh? So much stuff!!! Can you find hubby in the photo? He's in there! We spent an evening in here looking for four specific items. We found three of them - score!

We are now officially unpacked at the cottage. No more boxes! We also spent some time over the weekend hanging pictures, making it feel more like home. My sewing room is really looking good!

Yesterday we took time out to go to the pool. I actually swam laps! We have three pools in our neighborhood - the heated indoor pool (where I swam), the adult only pool (seen in photo above), and a family pool that has waterfalls, fountains, and a tunnel slide. You can see the splash bar in the picture above - they serve delicious food (brisket burger, anyone?) and have live music every night. Yes, I'm liking our new neighborhood!

Today I'm going to start tackling my fabric stash. I'll be sorting, pressing, and cutting with my Accuquilt Studio. Looking forward to touching fabric!!!

No One Guessed It!

I thought someone would figure this out! But no! So here's the answer. It's my new sewing chair! Is this not the cutest thing EVER?! By golly, if I'm going to have a tiny sewing room, it's going to be cute! The part I showed yesterday fits at the base of the legs - see it down there?

I worked hard in this room yesterday and it's coming together nicely.  I plan to be sewing today  in fact!!!

I have to admit, a week ago or so I had a few moments of panic about our new cottage. Will all my sewing stuff have a place? Have we made a mistake by downsizing so much? But once I've started getting my things in place I realize that I have room for everything I need. Yay!

Did you read that? "EVERYTHING I NEED!" As I unpack things (whether it's clothes, or sewing notions, or vases) I'm bagging up things I really don't need to donate to a charity. I load these bags into my car immediately and the next trip out they are dropped off.

Yesterday hubby and I celebrated out 32 year anniversary! When you've been married this long you don't need a fancy restaurant to celebrate. We decided to get take-out Chinese and  enjoyed a quiet evening.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

What is this????

Here's a little guessing game for you! Do you know what this is??? Here's a hint: it will be in my new sewing room...

I'll send a prize to the first person to correctly identify this. And you must use its "proper name."

Robbie, one of my favorite readers (because she always leaves sweet comments), shared her small space ideas:

I too have a 'sewing' room that is quite small...but a wood (heavy! bugger!) baby bassinet works great to use the drawers for projects, etc. (you can see a pic here:  http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-between-stitching.html). I also have another wooden dresser (yep, another yard sale!) that also is great for cutting/ironing/storing! That one is here: 
http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/2009/09/space.htmlAmazing what we can do in such small spaces! But works for me! I have less steps needed to take! HA Always a plus!


Be sure to check out the links to see what she done!

Small Space Storage for Sewing Rooms!

I got the greatest comment yesterday on the blog from Linda:


"I just moved my sewing room to the old living room. No closet so storage was an issue! I found a perfect solution at IKEA. Take a look:  http://uggabearcottage.blogspot.com/2016/03/sewing-room-storage.html A look at my finished new room is in a more recent post. Congrats on the new room and new house!"

Wow! That Pax cabinet is amazing! Love the pull out baskets! Thanks for the inspiration, Linda!!!

Well, that got me thinking. I'm transitioning from a large dedicated sewing room to a smaller multipurpose room. And I'm not the only quilter who has a small space in which to work! So come on quilters - share your ideas for storage in a small space! I know you have some good ones! Leave a comment or send me an email (juliacwood@mac.com). 

So yesterday I turned my back for a minute and Cooper ate the instructions for hanging the shower curtain rod. Well, he actually just ate the English language section. I'm left with the Spanish part. Needless to say, it didn't get mounted yesterday...

I did unpack a bedroom box and ended up with three large garbage bags ready to get donated to a charity. Pairing down is good! I think I only have one more box to unpack! Woohoo!

Of course we still have to go through LOTS of stuff in the storage unit, but that will happen eventually...

What's in my Trunk?

What's in those bags??? Fabric! Yesterday a friend went with me to our storage unit. We bagged up some of my fabric - yes, I have a LOT of fabric - to bring to the cottage. Soon I'll be sorting, pressing, and cutting up this load into strips and squares. I'll give the tiny scraps to a friend who can use them for an animal charity - she makes pet beds and stuffs them with little scraps of batting and fabric.

I'm actually looking forward to diving into this mess! Creating organization from chaos will be nice. I won't be starting this today, but soon, I hope.

Yesterday afternoon I went with hubby on my first hike here in our new neighborhood. The trails are neat, with the ground covered in crushed brick. We walked a couple of miles with the dogs. The humidity was fierce, but I'll get acclimated soon.

This morning I'm trimming a friend's quilt and getting it ready to bind for her. And I hope to unpack a box and hang a shower curtain rod.  Making progress, slowing but surely.

Have a great day!!!

My New Sewing Room...Before

What a mess! I thought I'd share a few photos of my new sewing room - this is how it looks this very minute. There's my sewing machine in the corner next the the BIG TV.

And on the other side of the room there is Cooper's crate in the foreground with a BIG chair in the corner. (There will be lots of hand sewing done in this chair...)

And here's the view from the doors.

And now my challenge is:
1. Get Ikea table top and adjustable legs to go over the dog crate.
2. Add more storage where ever I can.
3. Cross my fingers that everything fits.

Fabric will be tucked here, there, and everywhere in the house. Yes, I have way too much fabric...but I have plans for it. Lots of my older fabric will be cut into 2.5 inch strips and 5 inch squares - yup, I've got Accuquilt dies for that! My newer fabrics will be kept in fat quarters.

Today I have a couple of errands - need a shower curtain rod for the guest bath, along with a liner and shower curtain, and bath math. And groceries.

We are down to only a few boxes left to unpack. There are a few things I'm missing that are somewhere in boxes within storage units - who knows when we'll find them!!! But we have the necessities. I can cook again! And I have clothes to wear. Important stuff!

I'm hoping to get back to patterning the next section of Bliss by the end of the week.

What to do with UFO tops...

Meet Kim. Sorry I cut you in half, Kim.

Kim talked to us about finishing UFO's at our guild meeting. First we talked about why we even have so many UFO's. One of the common reasons is that once you make a top you don't like the way it turns out.

Kim appliquéd a hundred colorful circles on black fabric. And then she hated them. So she chopped them up and sewed them together. What a great idea! And didn't the quilt turn out fun?

And then there was this quilt...

She made it for her son and hated it. So she chopped it up vertically, mixed the strips around,I I  and sewed them back together. Brilliant. And she loves it now! And so did I!

I left very inspired! Hope this gives you some ideas..

Hubby and I unpacked lots of boxes today - yay! I now have a good plan for my sewing room. One problem is that we are keeping Cooper's crate in this room. And Cooper has a BIG crate. Adding a large table for my Accuquilt cutter and a cutting surface was going to take up too much space. So my solution is to buy a large table top and adjustable legs from Ikea. Cooper's crate will fit underneath and I can use the surface for my tools. I think this just might work!