A Little Facelift is Sometimes in Order

This was the before shot of my vintage sewing chair that I took last week before attempting a little make over... She was a little haggard, and in need of some TLC.

First I stripped off the parts with the old worn fabrics, removed the stiff, torn and exposed piping, and did a through cleaning/polishing of the wood.

 Some new batting layers were in order to freshen things up and add a little spring in the seat.

 And then the makeover really started to take shape.  I had a couple of fat quarters left of this button fabric, so I decided to use it up.

 Basically it was just a matter of wrapping and stapling the raw edges to the back of each chair part...

Then screwing the top back together ~ the seat just sits in place and can be lifted up to store things underneath.

She definitely has a new appeal and sits much prettier!

And here she is sitting in her new home in the shop ~ sometimes it's the little things that just make you smile when you walk into a room :) 

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

Some Empty Floor Space in the Studio...

So I've been busy in the wee hours this week re-arranging my sewing studio.  I'm finally getting everything put away, and I have a little extra floor space...

I do have plans for it...What do you think I'm going to put there?...

Check back later this week, my goal is to get everything finished over the holiday weekend.

...We'll see...

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

New Quilt Cave Coming Together

Well, we recently did some re-evaluation of my sewing spaces, mainly because of the machinery that I've been adding lately ~ and we came to the conclusion that instead of using several small rooms upstairs, It'd be better to move all of my sewing apparatus to one space in the basement.

That led to displacing my son who had his "Man Cave" in the basement, but he's happy to take over my "North Wing" upstairs....Although my son had no idea how much stuff I had stashed away in those walk-in closets until after he agreed to help me move ~ Ha!  My son-in-law, who came by for a bit to help with the move thinks I have a "problem"  ;)

So this is my new "Quilt Cave" ~ I gave up some nice views out the windows upstairs, but I'm loving my new space down here.  Some of the furniture like the roll top desk on the right, and the big wooden file cabinet in the previous picture, were already down here, so instead of finding them a new home somewhere else, I just incorporated them in...after all, they're heavy and we were getting tired!

I only have the one closet down here which goes under the stairs (upper left side of this photo), so there's a lot of big not so attractive stuff like bags of batting, stuffing, extra totes, and bins of misc. stuff in there. 

 ...But I do have a TV which I did not have in my small room upstairs!  (And a powder room right around the corner).   And plenty of space for friends, or daughters (and eventually granddaughters), to come and sew with me :)

Some of the things on the walls are hung in odd places because there was already a nail there from my son's stuff, I'll probably tweek some of that later and patch some holes.  There were a couple of easy chairs down here already, so I kept this one here for reading/knitting. 

Backing up to the other side of the room, behind the desk, I was even able to bring down my yarn and knitting stuff ~ previously this was in baskets and containers dotted all over the house (In fact I keep finding more).  This divider creates a nice little nook for my HQ Sweet 16 to sit between the yarn bookcase, and the black wardrobe in the next picture. 

Fabric stash fills this end wall, and that black wardrobe that was already here in the basement ~ to move the wardrobe upstairs we would have had to take it apart because it was built down here, and my son decided he had closets upstairs so it wasn't worth moving ~ and good thing because it turns out I really needed it down here!  (Even I didn't know how much fabric I had until it was all pulled out in my living room.)

Those white plastic drawers were put there to mark the place waiting for my new HQ Avante that was on order ~ I'm hoping they'll fit right underneath it... 

...Because it came in yesterday!  (And I really don't have any other place to put the plastic drawer units.)
It may be a few days before I have finished pictures with the Avante in place because life is getting in my way ~ I have to work today, and I have a Baltimore Applique Society Board & General Meeting tonight...but on the bright side, my patience is getting a good testing! 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

A Day of Smiles :)

I'm smiling while chain piecing today on my new acquisition...

This little lady joined my growing sewing machine family a couple weeks ago.  (My house is actually starting to look like an old sewing machine rescue center).

I bought her from a friend ~ it was her mother's machine.  I got it mainly for the really nice wooden cabinet that it's sitting in, but found that once I cleaned and oiled up the machine, she really sews very nicely :)

So today her and I stitched up my row for this month's Row Robin for the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.

...And I'm smiling as I'm ironing on this new ironing station that my hubby made from an old bookcase that I had in the basement to go in my new sewing space down there. 

...And while sewing I'm drinking my tea from this little mug that came in the mail yesterday ~ that's making me smile too :)

Don't forget to check out the Quiltmaker's Blog for Day 2 of the 100 Blocks Blog Hop, and come back here tomorrow for my day on the Hop and my Give Aways :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn 

True Confessions of a Stashaholic

Yes, I have a fabric stash...and sometimes it seems like my fabric stash has me!  It's actually stashed in several closets, among several rooms of my house.  (Stash is kind of a misnomer, because my fabrics are not just stashed away for some later date, I do use my stash on a daily basis).  Some of it is more organized than other parts...some of the closets are fairly easy to access.

 Some of my stash is sorted and organized in some sort of controllable order.  

 Then there are the days that it's just kind of taking over.  (By the way, this post is definitely NOT part of the Where Bloggers Create Blog Hop!)

 Sometimes it seems to be slowly invading like some sort of pest that needs to be eradicated.

But the very favorite parts of my stash are the small scraps that I have collected and overflowing in various baskets all over.  I think because these fabrics have all been used in some prior project that I made ~ so I must have liked them, right?

I love to root through my baskets looking for just the right little chunk.  I plan on cutting some of these into squares using my Accuquilt Go! to make them easy to sew up some scrap quilts while working on other projects. 

Well the good news is, if you have a stash of any size, Accuquilt is having a "Bust My Stash" Photo Challenge, and you can win these great prizes!  Have you stared at your fabric stash and wished that you had the time and energy to cut up your fabric for future projects?  AccuQuilt has the answer!  Click here to participate, or go to AccuQuilt’s Facebook page and click “Like”.  Then go to the ‘Bust My Stash’ tab under their profile picture and upload a picture of your fabric stash.  Submit your photo by Friday, July 22^nd and you’ll be eligible to win a GO! Mix & Match 12” Starter Set.  The photo with the most votes by July 31^st wins!  Photos will be voted on by viewers and fans of the AccuQuilt Facebook page using the following criteria: relevance, creativity, and originality.  Share with your friends during the voting period to increase your odds of winning!  Good Luck!

This old picture of Elsie illustrates why my scrap baskets are the favorite part of my stash ~ I think just for fun I'm going to enter this one :)

Enjoy the day!

~ Dawn

Finally a Little Time in the Sewing Room

Elsie is visiting here at Grandma's house while attending Vacation Bible School at our church each evening this week, and today we had a little free time so we decided to make some little fleece owls, one for Elsie and one to take home for little sister Abby. 

First we needed to make a pattern.  Elsie was very diligent at designing prototype patterns for Grandma to work from. 

Then of course she had to "design" some more on the pattern that we decided on.  (It's actually an enlarged copy of the applique owl template from my Abby's Owl Quilt Pattern). 

While Elsie designed, I fused and cut out some shapes for the owls eyes, beaks and bellies.  (...and of course I cut out owl bodies from fleece material for front and back for each owl, I just didn't get a picture of that ~ my little helper was keeping me kind of busy).

Then there was the fun of deciding where all the shapes should go.   We fused them in place, and I blanket stitched around the appliqued shapes.  (If using fleece for the bodies, just be sure to not set the iron too hot, and keep it moving slightly so as not to melt/scorch the fleece material).

After sewing around the edges of the owl body shapes right sides together, and leaving an opening at the bottom for turning right side out...we stuffed them :)

...And played a little too... 

After all, at this point with a hole in the bottom for stuffing, they made great puppets!  After much owl puppet dialog, we finally did get them finished and the bottoms whip stitched shut.  Elsie goes home tomorrow, and Grandma gets back to some real work after that, but today was about fun, and it felt really good to get back in my sewing room, even if it was just to play :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Hubby Saves the Day Again

This is where I do most of my sewing ~ my little sewing nook in the corner of my humble sewing room.  I like it here below the slanted roof line between the front dormer and the side window.  I can look out from my upper floor perch onto different views of my little corner of the world while I sew.  My sewing table was a great thrift store find that I've had for a while, and besides the fact that it's a little bouncy when I really put the pedal to the metal, it fits the area quite nicely, and I like the size.  But I've been feeling a bit frustrated lately, as I do most of my quilting on this machine and a heavy quilt gets caught up on the attached table surface that's elevated on this machine.  I've even shopped for very nice, and expensive sewing cabinets that I could sit my machine down in to make it flush with the surface for quilting, but none of them were quite right for my little nook...and like I said, I like my little sewing table. 
 

So when I went to the Lancaster Quilt Show, I ordered one of these from a Bernina dealer there to fit my model of sewing machine.  They shipped it right to me (very nice service I might add), and I turned it, and my little table, over to the capable hands of my Super Hero (aka My Hubby)...seriously, he is always saving my day!

After a few days of measuring, cutting, routing, sanding, laminating layers of wood together, and varnishing this is what he has returned to me!

Not only does my machine sit down in there perfectly, but he braced everything up so there's no more bouncy bouncy when I really get carried away with the sewing.  So tomorrow I guess I'd better go bake dessert for him or something :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Ahhh!

This is the closet of my Sewing Room Annex/Design Studio (aka Heather's old bedroom).  I usually leave the door of this walk-in closet closed because it usually looks like a tornado has gone through it. 

But today, my lovely daughter came over, shared her wonderful organizational skills, and helped me go through it all.  We did a lot of sorting, moving, and a little tossing...(yes I was very good!)

The closet is definitely furnished on the cheap.  This unit was built out of plywood to hold paper and supplies in an old office closet, now it's holding scrap booking papers and supplies pretty effectively. 

I can actually get to my fabrics now (there used to be piles on the floor in front of these book case units).   And No, this is not all of my fabric stash.  I have to admit, I do have another closet full of yardage in my original Sewing Room next door. 

...and more piles used to be in front of this bookcase where I'm now keeping works in progress and current projects that I'm gathering. 

These storage bins and drawers have been gathered from all over the house to complete the final wall of the closet.  Here I'm keeping future projects, kits and yarns.  Note the labels on the bins/drawers :)

It's not really attractive, or anything special, but now it's organized and functional, and all I can say when I look in the closet now is, "Ahhh!".

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Something Old is New Again

I like old things...Don't get me wrong, I like to buy nice new things too, but there's just something about an old piece of furniture that makes me feel good.  This piece was un-earthed from my father-in-law's garage after he had passed away a few years ago.  It's a record cabinet, and belonged to my husband's grandmother, who as he remembers, kept old 78 rpm records in it. 

It was in pretty bad shape covered with scratches and paint splatters, and almost went to the dump.  But I kept looking at it, and when no one else wanted it, I decided it would come home with me.  First I gave it a through cleaning to get rid of everything that was growing on it and living in it, and then I put it in my basement to maybe refinish one day.  Well the more I looked at it, I decided I kind of like the scratches that were from the everyday use of Grandma Stewart and her kids, and the little paint splatters that I'm sure are from my father-in-law working on and around it in his workshop ~ which he loved to do.

So the other day, after it sitting in my basement for the last five years, I had my son carry it up to my sewing wing.  I did a little re-arranging, and now it sits in a place of honor right next to my cutting table with a new use.

It's a great storage cabinet for all of my Accuquilt Go! Dies and mats!  I think I've pretty much decided to put off the refinishing, and for now I'll use it in my "workshop" doing what I love to do, and probably add some more little scratches and dings to pass along to my kids and grandkids :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn