My Best Sous Chef and Iron Maven is gone :(

That would be my Mom I'm talking about.  I took her to the airport today.  While she was here my kitchen never had dirty dish in sight and dinner was ready in half the time.   She's a whiz at getting things done.  Pity I didn't inherit that trait from her.  We went for a walk every day and enjoyed a glass of wine before dinner each night.  We played many a game of cards and she finished every crossword puzzle she could find.  She does not however, have the quilting bug, yet.  But, I'm trying. 

Ya know that bag of  HST I have from the exchange?  I showed her "pressing" vs "ironing" and she took off and got most of my 1000 pieces pressed open.  (I joked that I couldn't take her to the airport until they were ALL done.  Hee hee.)  She showed me her favorites as she went along.  Then, she "graduated" to pressing block units while I sewed the Layer Cake block sample.  Wow, that was really fast.  I've never had anyone press while I sewed and let me tell you there can't be anything finer than to have those pressed pieces come flying back at you as fast as you can sew them together.   Did I mention the laundry is all done, too?  And, the ironing? 

I miss her already.

Visitor

My Mom has been in town visiting this week from New York.  So, I haven't been doing much of the usual.  We did see the exhibit at the Indiana State Museum entitled Frugal & Fancy Quilts.  It was worth the stop for sure but, I am a local.  The museum as a whole provided a nice day's outing.  No pictures, though, as I didn't think they were allowed.  And, I did get a quilt loaded and started.  I'll have a report at the end of the week and I should also have the next layer cake block up as well.  Hope to see you then!

More organized

I'm always reorganizing my home and my sewing space. This weekend I saw an article in the paper that gave me an idea to give me more storage space for the projects I'm actively working on; usually that's 3 or 4 or more. Typically, each project is piled here or there and has to be moved constantly (or stepped over) to go from project to the other which is hardly ideal. It's been bothering me for awhile. I was pretty sure I needed shelves on the wall but, it will be awhile before hubby has time to get to that project. So, here is what I came up with.  It's not pretty but I think it's going to work really well:

I took a small set of freestanding shelves for shoes from the coat closet, cleaned them up and set them at the back of my cutting station. Then I loaded it up with all my current projects. On the top shelf is everything I'm using for the Layer Cake BOM plus a couple other things. In the middle is the Easter Basket from ½” cording and a little quilt yet to be named. On the bottom are the fabrics for my Ohio Stars project and a bin for Clothesline projects.  I also have space to the right for 2 magazine holders for all my class ideas and to the left room for two more bins of stuff. Do you see the Omigosh pattern sticking up out of the blue bin? Now I can easily cut strips as I clean up from projects and throw them in the bin. With my cutting station clear I should be able to cut borders etc so much more efficiently! And, I didn’t have to buy a thing. I found all the tubs and bins I needed in the storage room. So, if your space isn’t working for you look around and see what you can find.  And save your money for FABRIC or BOOKS!