A time to create…A time to CLEAN

Last week was a crazy week in my studio…..

I was given some fabric that needed to be sorted, washed, ironed, and put away.
I did some thread-painting on the Botero project
I did some fabric painting on the Botero project
I made a backing for a finished top
I prepped the Angela Walters FMQ challenge piece so that I can start on it.

At the end of the week, my studio looked HORRIBLE……

The top of my cutting table was unseen…..

The yarns for couching were all over the floor…..

I even realized that quilts I had picked up from a show THREE weeks ago were still packaged up…..

I don’t mind having a mess when I am in the middle of a creative project, but this had gotten OUT OF HAND!!!

As Sheldon from “Big Bang Theory” says…..

It was definitely TIME TO CLEAN!!!

I set a timer for 30 minutes, turned on the audio version of Michael’s book…..

……and GOT BUSY!!

First of all, I got rid of all of the trash and put up the paint supplies.

I pulled all of the Botero stuff together and got it in one place, even finding some fabrics that will work great for the next phase of the project…..

I use the closest bathroom as a photo studio and this one had been in shambles for too long and it was time for a clean-up there as well…..

I found a place to store the batting roll that I purchased…..

I just have to remember to move it if we have guests stay!!

I decided to use a basket to store a few rolled quilts….

There is a bag of scrappy bits that can go to the Guild charity bee to be made into a dog bed and two quilts that need to be photographed when I go to the Botanic Garden this next week…..

Now I would love to say that all of this only took 30 minutes, but it was actually closer to 1.5 hours…..once I got started, I didn’t want to stop.

At the end of the afternoon, this was the renewed studio….

Look at that, there are even some table surfaces that are available to use again!!

And probably the best thing is that I organized a bunch of “in-process” and “want-to-do” projects so that I will be ready to start the next thing…

….once I finish the current ones of course!!

So what type of quilter/cleaner are you? Do you clean as you go or do you work in disarray until you finish the project?

Shhhhh…….

I am working on a challenge piece so don’t want to show it until Tuesday, but PLEASE tell me that your studio looks like this when you are in creative mode……

“Why don’t you???”

Just after we moved into this house, I built a design wall to go in my studio, very happy that it was about 24 inches wider than the one in my old house.

As I have been working on my queen size Australian fabric quilt, I commented to my husband that I wish my wall was a little bit wider. He then uttered those wonderful words…..”Why don’t you make it wider so that it goes behind the door?”…..DUH!!!!

So, yesterday I bought the needed supplies, and this morning Michael helped me to put it in place….

Now I have LOTS more room to work…..

What would I do without my hubby?????

Setting up for quilting

After I got the Flower Pot quilt basted (using fusible batting), it was time to first, clean up the studio……

….and then get set up to quilt a queen size quilt.

Ever since I bought the inset table for my machine, I had been thinking about the best way to set up my “quilting station”.

First step was to fold down the cutting table and move the storage drawers out. Then I moved in two small folding tables to form one large table…..

The only problem with this was that the machine table was about 1.25 inches shorter than the other two tables, so I trudged down to the garage and started looking for pieces of wood that I could use to bolster my table height, and voila……

I found a piece that worked perfectly except that it was WAY too big for the table. Out came the ruler and pencil, cutting marks were drawn and then back down to the garage to use the Jigsaw to cut the piece to the proper size. I think that I will eventually cover it with the rubber backings that you can buy for rugs.

I also thought about the fact that I didn’t want the quilt to fall off of the front edge of the tables, so I moved my cutting table to block it off……

As I picked up the quilt to lay it out and start quilting, I realized that it was really heavy and that my tables weren’t in the correct position. To fix this, I moved the table to my left down so that there was a place to support the side of the quilt.

Once I started quilting, I realized that it was still falling below the table so another trip to the garage brought two TV tables that fit perfectly beside my chair, thus giving full support on each side.

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To finish the support, I grabbed a cushion from one of the other rooms and put it in my lap to allow the quilt to NEVER drop below the edge of the table.

The only downside to my arrangement is that it gets fairly warm sitting under the quilt and pillow….but fortunately there is a ceiling fan so that solved the final problem!!

By the way, the funky cover on the back of my chair is to keep me from bumping the wall and putting black marks on it. I will eventually make a nice one, but this piece of flannel left over from the design wall is serving the immediate purpose

Flower Pot Borders

During the short times that I have had available, I have been working on the quilt top that Mom and I currently have in progress. I had sent the borders to her for applique work and she returned those just before we moved. She was worried about doing the edge stitch on the small stems so I added those with the sewing machine…..

I have the edge borders cut as well so just need some time to get back up there and sew them on……

I am enjoying using my new studio and have found one arrangement to work very well……

By placing the ironing board perpendicular to my sewing table I have a large area to iron on when sitting at the machine….

….. and then if I need to do regular ironing or other larger pieces, I can step to the other side and use the board in its normal orientation.

One of those simple things that makes life SOOOO much easier!!