Sewing Room, Day 4

Anne - honey, you can come shopping in my sewing room any time you'd like! LOL! I would be more than happy to have you over! Too bad it would be an impossible drive :p ROFLOL! How 'bout a transcontinental ferry???

I had study group at church last night, and left a bit early so I could swing by Hancocks. I salvaged about 10-15 more bolts, and bought some fabric. I know, I know - it's for Ellie's Halloween costume, though, and I'm going to have to get to my cutting table AND sewing machine today! EEK! It's not that bad, though ;o) LOL! I found a gorgeous embroidered taffeta Indian top, and she needs some pants to go with it. Oh, and a scarf - I promise I'll take pictures lol!

Today, I started on the big pile of misc. stuff. OMGoodness! It is a huge tangle of fabric, elastic, ribbon, thread, pattern pieces, half-done projects, and assorted notions. I managed to fill a giant lawn and leaf bag before the garbage truck came WOOHOO!!! Now my pile of fabric has grown again, and I'm slightly overwhelmed lol! I've got tons of scraps, perfect for quilting (which I don't do), or applique, and I'm gonna have to go through them all. Some are destined for the trash, some for Stacey who requested them ;o), some for me, and the rest, I suppose will be up for grabs... I have a distinct feeling that there is going to be a good bit of stuff I'm getting rid of lol! I still have 3 totes of fabric, but I'm pretty sure that they are fairly small pieces, too. Ugh. I really don't want to deal with them! Maybe if I bag 'em and bring them downstairs to work on while Noah is destroying the house, it won't be so bad. Did I mention that I found more big pieces of fabric, so I still need even more bolts than I did yesterday afternoon? Sheesh! This is ridiculous! I've got to get this fabric addiction under control! I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of it is due to my disorganiziation. I tend to buy things over and over when I can't find what I already have. Usually, if it's consumable in some way, that's not too big of a deal. But when you have more than 3 of the same size pintuck presser feet, there's a problem...

On happier things, I've been plotting what I'm going to do once I get it all cleaned up ;o) So far, I am planning to get 2 of the 8 foot plastic tables from Costco. One will be for my machines (and I may get a 4 ft. one to make an L-shaped work area, if there's room), and the other will get a plywood top to make my cutting table/ironing board. I'm planning to add 1x2s around the underneath edges of the plywood to keep it from sliding around on the table. Then I would like to cover it with a layer of low-loft batting (and/or Thinsulate), a layer of felt, and finally, stretch canvas over it and use a laundry marker to draw on a grid. That will eliminate the need for a seperate ironing board, but I will still need a sleeve board to get small areas. That presents the issue of what to do with my iron when it's not in use, as I'm planning to put the cutting table in the middle of the room so I can walk around it. I'm also planning to use bed risers, or something like that, to make it the right height for me. I would like to build some narrow shelves on the sides of my "window seat" area, and I can get cloth bins to store my patterns and put them there. I would also like to make a cushion for the seat part, just 'cause I can lol! The two tables will allow me to eliminate the ironing board,
my grandmother's ginormous buffet that is currently my cutting table, the desk that my sewing machine and embroidery machine are on, and the sewing table that the serger is on. It will also allow me to set up my "cheapie" machine as a full-time ruffler!

I had Adron pick up a couple boxes of gallon zipper bags to store incomplete projects. My goal is going to be to complete 5 a month until they are done. Right now, I have no idea how many there are, but I would have to say it's upwards of 50!!! That's crazy!!!!!!! Hmmmmmm.... maybe I'll give away UFOs here, along with scraps LOL!



Note: I typed this yesterday, then went back upstairs to work a bit more before I actually published this post. Wellllllll...... I *did* get a lot accomplished, but while I was upstairs, our computer died. I don't mean crashed, burped, or whatever. No, it is DEAD! I don't think the HD was affected, so I should be able to retrieve everything we had on there, even though it was backed up through Mozy. That might explain why it thought all my digiscrapping files on the external HD were gone. I'm crossing my fingers that this was the case!!!

On sewing room news, I managed to go through the entire pile of misc junk, and threw away one kitchen bag, and 3 large Hancock's bags full of garbage! I haven't even started on the mountain of fabric that is taking up a huge chunk of floor space LOL! There is also still a ton of stuff over in the paper crafting area, most of it belongs to that craft, but I know there is sewing stuff mixed in, as well. Then, I went through ALL of my ribbon, and wound 120 clothes pins, and Audrey was helping wind larger yardages onto empty ribbon spools. I don't have more than 5 yards of anything, I don't think, so storage is relatively easy. Right now, the spools take up 3 of my korker dowels, which are about 18" long, and I've got about 200 total clothespins wound with ribbon that are all in a box now, until I can get storage jars for them. Did I mention that the Linens-N-Things down the street is going out of business? Maybe I should go check that out!

I have a gallon ziplock stuffed with narrower satin ribbons (from 1/16" to 3/8"), and I know I'm never going to use them, so if there is anyone out there that wants them, let me know, and they are yours for shipping :o)

In addition to the ribbon taming, I also started bagging and tagging my UFOs. As of now, I have 34 bags with projects in them, for a total of 40 projects. There are some projects sitting on my cutting table, a few are mixed in with the fabric, and a few more are in bags with the pattern I was using on them. I'm hoping that there aren't more than about 10 UFOs left to bag! On the bright side, a lot of them are nearly done, just need buttons or neck binding =)

Today's mission is to clear off that cutting table so I can make Ellie's Halloween costume - sewing time on that should be less than an hour from cut to press ;o)

I'm not sure how long it will be before we have a computer again, or how often I can borrow this one, but I'll check back as often as possible - keep your fingers crossed that we can find an awesome new machine for an awesome price!