New Sewing & Storage Space

Getting a new sewing space has been months in the making.  There was one thing really standing in the way of it getting done…football season.  August – January at my home is consumed with football.  Sundays we host football for our 15-20 friends to come over and watch all their favorite teams.  Leaves very little room for construction projects elsewhere in the house.

After the SuperBowl we decided it was time to start on converting this three season room on the back of the house.  With the promise of pizza and beer our football friends trekked over and lent their Sunday afternoon to helping.

 

Old Storage Space

 

Outside of Old Space

While the boys worked outside, the girls worked inside to pack up my fabric stash, move my sewing tables, and start with the new set up on our enclosed front porch.  This was such a great space when I bought the house but we really had not put it to use.  I love all of the natural lighting the room has.

New Sewing Space
Just a bit disorganized right now.
New Sewing Space
Side by side sewing machines.

The last couple of weeks my hubby has worked on the back room when he has had time and light.  Note to self:  this room needs a light ASAP.  I would have loved to have done a crazy color on the walls, but if we ever go to sell the room can be marketed as a pantry or something like that.

New Storage Space

The floors coordinate pretty well with the rest of house.  Need something that works well and relatively inexpensive?  Vinyl plank.  We are all about it.  These ceilings are in both of the new spaces.  Such a nice touch.

Wooden Ceiling

 

New Storage Space
We put everything in there, just need to organize. Of course.

 

My wonderful mom is coming to stay last weekend and our main project was getting everything set back up.  Fabric sorted, organized and ready for use was the plan.  When packing up my current stash, she was amazed at the amount I had and was ready to ground me from buying anything new.

Instead we organized the nursery and got everything ready for little man.

Check back on Facebook this weekend for updated photos.

 

What to do with all of this?

I wrote earlier this year that changes were coming in 2013.  Over the last couple of months I have found myself going back and forth on what I want do with my business and blog.  In ~seven weeks I will be wearing so many hats, good thing I can take challenge on head first.

Mom, health educator, and small business owner will be a lot to handle.  So I decided to let you guys in on a secret.  I cheat!  There I said it.  I cheat when sewing.  Over the last few years I have been using Moda precuts to create many of my projects.  Even making some of my own with varying lines.  These quilts are made with just 5″ squares.

nautical baby boy quilt

neutral boys quilt

Mostly the same fabrics but very different looks.

Precuts are a great way to sample an entire fabric line with minimal investment.  My favorites are charm packs, jelly rolls, and fat quarters.  I may have a few in my stash currently.

Many charm packs
Many charm packs
jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, and a variety of other goodies.
jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, and a variety of other goodies.

Last week I posted about my scrap management project.  Oddly, this blog post was in my inbox the same week as well.  4 Easy Steps to De-Clutter and Get Healthy.  Good timing.  Maybe this project won’t help me get healthy physically but can affect my mental health, knowing I have checked something off my list.  Plus organization feels great.

Throughout the next couple of months I want to showcase projects to really use up my scrap bins and what I have. After this weekend’s adventure of packing up all my fabric into 5 large totes, one thing is clear.  There is ALOT of fabric in my stash.

If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed an influx of ideas on the boards.  Can’t wait to share the projects completed from just the stash.

Scrap Management

My scraps are taking over my sewing space.  It was verging on hoarding level, seriously.  With the upcoming move of the sewing space to another area in the house something had to be done.  My goal for February is to have my fabric and scraps better organized.

I created a system to go through all my scraps and sort them.  Big pieces of some of my favorites…keep, solids…keep, and everything else was cut into squares.  Given my love of precuts, this made it much easier to select sizes.  Squares were cut into 2″, 2.5″, and 5″ for my sanity in storing them.

scrap squares

cutting scraps

Thanks to the dollar store for the lime green buckets below.  Should make managing my precut sizes much easier.

scrap bins

While going through all of my scraps there had to be a cut off on what to keep.  Honestly, I feel bad throwing some stuff out.  It’s become apparent I can’t keep everything, I will never get around to doing something with it.

Thanks to my hubby for letting me take over his bar in the basement for this project.  If he wanted me around this weekend, it was his best bet.

I would love to hear how you handle scraps?  At what point do you decide to keep, cut, and/or purge?

scrap squares

News Thread 6.3

The race is on.  Actually, that was last weekend during the Indianapolis 500, but I mean a different kind of race. 

I’m in a race against the clock.  The clock is ticking on getting more items in my Etsy shop.  I am obsessed with Etsy and the outlet that it allows creative people to share their wares all over the world.  I have lots of stuff started to get on there, but I really just need more time in the day.

There are around 20 items that are started and in pieces in my sewing room.  Baskets would help me with organizing this mess.  Pre-cut batting, block sets already made, pre-cut backing fabric. 

Actually we have a cleaning lady coming in next week to give me a price quote to help clean the house weekly.  Why bother with cleaning when I can be sewing. 

As I said on Facebook yesterday…I sewed a marathon.  That means I spent the same amount of time sewing as it would be for me to run a full marathon (26.2 miles).  It was exhilirating.  Maybe I will have another marathon tomorrow night before we head out camping and will finish my race. 

Goals for the week:

  • Two more items up on Etsy. 
  • Backing to Birdie quilt pieced.  Getting it basted would be a BONUS.
  • Cut fabric for friend’s bridesmaid’s gifts.
  • Mail out completed Quilts for Kids completed quilt. 

Finding more time

These days I could use a spare set of hands to accomplish my list of tasks.

-Work

-Run

-Unpack the house

-Finish wedding details, I have 10 days to go!!!

-Spend time with family, friends, dogs, fiance

Where does this leave time for me to quilt.  I have not had the time to really put forth the effort recently.  I need that release.  How do you do it?  Make time for it?  I used to put 30 minutes each day to do something creative, but now I barely have 30 minutes to do my hair in the morning. 

Hopefully as May rolls around I will have more time, get my motivation and get going. 

Loved the picture, this is how my days feel now.