Stash storage

Hi everyone!  Just a small post today to show off the next step in my new sewing room.  I unpacked the boxes from storage and here is (almost) all my fabric, in one place where I can see it all:

Somewhat anticlimactic for some of you, but this is just the right size for me.  And I am so happy to see it after most of it has been stored for more than a year!  I know I have to refold some things, but I'm totally looking forward to doing that.  I also have to put the scrap bins somewhere, but I think they'll fit behind the fat quarters up on the top shelves.  Then I'll be able to see everything I have and be inspired--either to sew or to go shopping.

Hello pretties!  I'm so glad you're home!

The storage unit is the largest Kallax unit sold by Ikea. (Where do they get these names?)  This was super-easy to put together, but you really do need two people.  I couldn't lift it up by myself and the boxes were really heavy.  It comes in smaller sizes, but I got this size because the closet in here is really small and all of my stuff fits on this one.  Even the books, there on the lower shelves.

The batiks came home, too!

With this put together, I have just one more area to organize, the tables where the sewing machines actually go.  Kind of important.  I have a lot of motivation to get that finished this week, though, because next week the renovation of the rest of the house starts in earnest.  Didn't I mention that?  Our new house was built in 1973 and only had one owner, who never really made any changes to the house.  It was on the market for more than a year before we came along, and I guess we were the only ones crazy enough (or desperate enough) to take on updating it.  Here's an example of what we're facing: harvest gold fiberglass shower.  Original equipment in great shape, but really, really bad just the same.  The electrician has already been here, but next week it's time for demo, so I want the sewing room to be done so I have a happy place to retreat to away from the dust.

Even St. Francis seems to like his new home!

Anyway, wish me luck!  I did cut some fabric today, and the last installment of the Intricate Stitches quilt is up on Tuesday, so I better go finish!  Hope everyone has a wonderful, restful day.

Sharing at Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.

Design wall

Hey everyone!  Just a small update on the sewing room.  No stitching yet (sadness!) but a major step forward-- I now have a design wall!  Whoo-hoo!  Odd how that can make me so danged happy.  Here it is:

Well, I wasn't going to take a picture of a blank wall, was I?  I put up the Grandma's blocks just to have something good looking and inspirational in there.  They're really lifting my spirits.  Plus it lets me rearrange them every time I walk by, which may or may not be a good thing.

This project cost me about $25 or so.  It's constructed of some styrofoam panels covered with an old--but clean and still useful!--flannel sheet. I used these panels, which I found at Home Depot:

I got these because they were the cheapest ones I could find, they were fairly thin, and they were easy for me to get in the car and to wrestle upstairs and hang.  I got two packages, which was 12 panels, and I used all of them except for a little bit that I had to trim from a couple of panels because of the way I arranged them.  I hung the panels on the wall with these Command hangers:

I used these in case I ever want to take it down or arrange it differently, but you could use small nails, or screws or maybe even hot glue.  (Just kidding!  Do *not* hot glue your wall!)  My wall ended up about 8 feet high and 7-1/2 feet wide.  I'll need to get a small step stool or something if I want to put blocks at the top since I'm not 6 feet tall, but I'm okay with that.

After I got everything up, which was really easy to do by myself, I hung the flannel by pinning it into the styrofoam around all of the edges.  Here's my advice for this step--enlist the help of a supportive friend.  The flannel gets heavy and it helps a lot to have someone hold it so it won't fall while you're trying to pin.  Note that I said "friend" and not  "spouse,"  because that person is likely to say something silly like "what you really need to do is. . ."  after you have done hard work and have everything the way you want it.  That never turns out well, does it?

Flower picture to add a little color!

Anyway, another step forward!  I put together the new sewing table today, so let's hope that I've used the machine by Friday.  Starting to get itchy without it, even though the work we've been doing is exhausting.  Hope you're all having a good, non-itchy week with lots of stitching!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social.

Unpacking

Hey, guess what?  We moved!  We've had a few hiccups (getting my name wrong on every single closing document) and a few big surprises (not a single appliance worked, leaving us with 40 gallons of water on the floor at one point), but altogether we are really happy to be here!

I haven't even come close to finishing unpacking, but there are a few things to show you.  First, the view from the new place:

I love it!  There will be a lot of leaves to rake, but there are also a lot of really cool backgrounds for quilty pictures.  Here's the other side of the house:

Sadly, the inside is not as great right now!  This room will be my sewing room very soon:

I'm planning to paint it this weekend and then there is some furniture to move in.  I'm thinking of painting it a pale yellow.  Or maybe green.  And yesterday I went and got some big construction foam panels for a design wall, which has me really, really excited.

So where is the fabric now?  Well:

If you said "garage" you were correct!  It's not as bad as it looks and there is a lot already upstairs.  I even started opening some boxes:

Backings!

Seriously, I could weep.  Can't wait to get this on the shelves!  I also found some notions I haven't see in a long time, some specialty rulers, a bunch of batting, and a box of books. 

Just so you don't think I'm slacking off, there has been some hand sewing happening:

More to come on this one!

Don't know if anyone was interested in this status report, but I feel good being back online.  Hope you're all feeling just as good, and that everyone has spelled your name correctly, and that all of your appliances work.  We're going tonight to buy some new ones, which I'm sure will not be as much fun as it sounds!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.