My Sewing Room - Part 5

Are you still with me?  You haven't fallen asleep yet?

Now we are getting to the part of the room that has had heaps of changes.

  Isn't that an improvement.  Let's take a closer look.

Next to Joey's bed are some more sewing machines.  I still have to find a decent home for these.  They are, in the green cases, an Elna Grasshopper (the first model Elna), and an Elna Supermatic from the mid 1950s.  The Supermatic is in rather poor condition, but will do until I find a better one. The machine cover in the middle was actually made by me for Mum's machine, but currently covers my bargain basement $5 Bernina Record.  The basket on top is accessories for the machines.

Next is the bookcase that came from Mick's Dad's place. I'm glad we didn't paint it, as I'm really happy with how it looks with the pretty boxes.  They lighten it up, but there is still the warmth of the timber.  The boxes, all from The Reject Shop over the years, mainly hold fabric.  There is a button jar, a few books, a makeup case with crochet inside and a couple of other pretties.  You will notice that I don't have fabric out on shelves much, as I don't want it to fade or get dusty.

The suitcase on top was Grandma's and I don't think it has anything in it.  I'm not really sure.

Moving right along, Mum 's cabinet works rather well with the book case.  

The baskets on top all have a story.  The big red one was Grandma's,  The little one in the middle I made at school in 5th class and Mum made the lidded sewing basket.  It is all fully lined and padded.

The two cubes on the top shelf on the cabinet don't look very good, but are perfect for storing yarn and wool projects.  Maybe, I'll come up with a better solution, but this works for now.  The next shelf has some pretty tins, sewing machine accessory boxes and bits and bobs.  The boxes you can see, and more boxes behind the bottom doors, hold fabric and other bits and bobs.

I haven't labeled anything as yet.  I have some nice book labels plates to use, but never had, as I was never sure how they would end up being used.  I will get around to it.  In the meantime, I have a written list telling me what is in each box and tub.  That is working for now.

Finally, after all these years I have my mini quilts on the wall.

The ones on the end of the cabinet were both gifts from Lou, over the years.

The top left two are some of my very earliest quilting attempts, both made for Mum.  The one on the left was a magazine pattern. I didn't know how to do binding the correct way back then.  The second one is just a printed panel and I did blanket stitch over the printed blanket stitch.  The batting is very puffy polyester.  No binding on this one.

The sheep below them is a design by Anni Downs that was in a magazine.  I made it as a gift for Dad for his spinning room.  

The windmill was a challenge in a quilt show held in Bathurst in 2003.  There is a fabric that looks a bit like a field of wheat in the middle near the bottom.  You had to make a quilt A3 size that included that fabric.  Mick designed it and I made it.  A very early attempt at foundation paper piecing.   We both think this is about our favourite.  

Below it is the one I finished in 2018, being a Nundle project from some years ago. 

The Champion Ribbon is for my blue and white quilt that won a prize at the Bathurst Show.

Verandah Views is the one at top right.  It was another very old UFO.  Started in 2010, finished in 2018.

The crinolin lady is a tapestry completed by Mum.  It always hung on her bedroom wall.  

I can't remember where I found the framed vintage stitchery.  I do love it, and would like to find more. I've very rarely seen one for sale.

The final one is the lovely piece that June sent me in return for the tea towel I sent her.

The bookcase underneath houses magazines and books, funnily enough.

The little red tin houses another little Elna.  I've had it for a few years now and still haven't done a show and tell.  I will one day.

On top are the last of my bobbins.  In the centre is a Clarks Anchor Stranded Cotton display case.  I use it to hold my collection of vintage stranded cottons.  Not just Clarks Anchor, but DMC, Peri-Lusta, Semco.....

The  cute basket is Mum's and I use it as a catch all for things that I have to take up to her at times.

I'm really happy with how this section has turned out. It has the warmth of the timber, but lightened by the pretty boxes.  It is also nice that so many things have a meaning for me.

More soon.

My Sewing Room - Part 4

Continuing around the room.....

Mick is so happy that we can see and actually open the verandah door.

The boxes that were stacked in front of it have now found new homes.

I bought two of these cube shelves as soon as we bought the house.  They fit perfectly either side of the windows.  All the pink boxes and magazine holders were bought from The Reject Shop some years ago.  They brighten things up.

The painting was done by my Dad's aunt when in her 80s.  She had done some painting as a teenager and then started classes again in her late 70s.  I've had it since I was a kid.

Mick's Mum lined the picnic basket on top.  It is perfect for storing small handmade items for gifting.

Initially, we had a vintage red chair in here. It made this corner look very dark.  We did a shuffle of three chairs, and it has made such a difference to the three areas where they were before.  This chair used to live in my Grandmother's bedroom.  It was blue then, upholstered by my Mum.  I'm not sure how old it is.  My Grandfather bought it at an auction in 1928 (just before my uncle was born - that is how I know the date) and it was old then.  When Mum took it to be reupholstered in this fabric in the 1980s, we saw the original fabric, underneath the blue.  It looked Victorian and had waratahs on it.  We requested that some of the fabric be saved for us, but that didn't happen. It had previously been in one of our spare bedrooms, but was too big for the space.  It works so much better here.  The cushion is a vintage one I found somewhere on our travels.  The cushion and pink boxes bring out the pink in the chair.  The armchair caddy was a gift from Lou.  

It is now a nice cosy corner and Mick can sometimes be found sitting here, reading, while I stitch away.  

We added these shelves shortly after we moved in.  Even when the room was a mess, these were generally tidy.

Hanging to the left is a canvas work evening bag Mum made while in the Embroiderer's Guild.  It was very rarely used, but looks fine here.

On the top shelf there is a Peri-Lusta embroidery thread box.  We found this is the middle of Tasmania and brought it home on the motorcycle......as you do......  The little Peter Pan sewing machine was found at a clearing sale many years ago.  The heart is just cute.

On the second shelf, the tin with the bunny playing ukulele had been one of Mum's button tins.  The picture in the centre is actually a 1970s notebook I found on the white elephant stall.  In front, the little iron was my Mum's toy.  Yes, a toy flat iron.  That is showing her age. When I was a little girl, I once had a go at iron hankies with it, down at Grandma's.  It was quite a novelty.

The bottom shelf houses my thimble collection, my low volume grey fabric stash and a notice board where I can make a project progress list.

Underneath is my cork board with pretty bits and bobs.  I have plans - or should I say dreams, of making a pretty one, but it never seems to happen.  There is even a vintage oak frame leaning against the wall under the table for that purpose.......one day.

My thimbles aren't mainly china ones, rather interesting ones.  I have quite a few metal ones with advertising on them, as well as those of my maternal Grandmother and my paternal Great Grandmother.  There are some tiny little child sized ones that Mum used when she learnt to sew and I subsequently used.

I very rarely use a thimble now.

I have a few boxes of fabric sitting on the floor under the window on the other side of my sewing table.  Joey has decided that this is the perfect place to sit and watch the world go by..........especially as I now often have the blinds open........I'm not hiding my mess away from the world any more.

The matching cube shelf sits in the other corner.

On the wall above is a picture I found years and years ago.  It is of sewing notions sitting on a shelf.

The jigsaw is a beautiful impressionist painting of a lady sewing.  When I turned 21, my aunt sent me $21 for a gift, which was a common thing to do back then. I used that money to buy the jigsaw, that I had been eyeing off at the local book store.  It has only been put together once, and Mick did most of it while I was at Tech doing a course.

I'm not sure where I got the pretty rose tin, but coincidentally, Mum has the same one in her sewing drawers.

The sewing machines are a part of  my growing Elna collection.   The one on top is Mum's Elna SU dating from 1979.  The bottom one is my Elna Stella that Mum and Dad gave me when I was 16, in 1981.  They both work beautifully.

You will, of course, notice Joey in his favourite place to sleep.

More soon.

My Sewing Room - Part 3

Enough of the "Before" photos, what about the finished product?

I'll start at the door and walk around.

This is my ironing corner.  The dresser was my maternal Grandmother's.  When she moved into her new home in the late 1960s it was relegated to a shed.  We were gifted it as a wedding present.  My Mum can remember Grandma saving for the paint in the early 1930s, in the Great Depression, and then painting it.  Therefore, when the fashion was to strip furniture back, I just couldn't bear to do it.  I even have a couple of rather fragile runners that she embroidered that used to live on here.  The current runner was a Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift some years ago.

On the top shelf I have my button jars and on the second top shelf some of my collection of bobbins.  One year, once again quite a while ago, there was a fruit case full of them at the Oberon Swap Meet.  I asked the price.  It was $10 each.  "How much for the lot?" "$60!"  I'm not sure of the logic in that, but I obviously bought the lot.  This is the first time they have been able to be displayed.  The red trough is just a cute one I bought at the white elephant stall.  I have had potted daffodils in it at times.  

The top cupboard section has boxes of random "stuff".  One area that still needs going through.  The cutlery drawer is perfect for knitting needles and crochet hooks.  The bottom cupboard section has batting and some other bulky things.

My ironing board is wearing it's new, upside down, cover that I recently made.

 

The next section is what I call my "Circle Work Wall".  There are some of my treasures along here.

The little shelf on the left was made by me when I was eight, under Dad's guidance. We were going to do some woodwork at school, so I wanted to have a practice first.  The pattern for this came from a 1950s home magazine.  It used to live in my bedroom at Mum and Dad's.  None of the things currently on it are from back then.  

The three circles underneath are all d'oyley presses.    I've had the poker work one for years, but the others are fairly recent purchases.  I didn't want them, but at $2 each, I couldn't say no.  

I bought the clock for this room.  

I found the picture underneath down at Grandma's when I was a kid.  It had been relegated to the back of a wardrobe after they moved into their new house.  I took it home and hung it above my bed.

The round shelf was found at a garage sale about 30 years ago.  The items on the top shelf used to live on my little shelf in my bedroom as a kid. The Holly Hobby figure and the little figure sitting at her sewing machine were swap meet a few years ago.  The little tin on the bottom shelf is one I've had since a kid. 

The Holly Hobby plate is one that I won in a Holly Hobby colouring in competition when I was about ten.  I had a lovely time making up the patterns in her patchwork apron.  It lived in a cupboard at Mum's for many years, and suffered the same fate with me.  It has only taken about 45 years to be put on display.

The green picture underneath it is an embroidery that Mum did in the early 1970s, when she was in the Embroiderer's Guild.  She did beautiful embroidery, but didn't really enjoy the modern style they were leaning towards at the time, such as this, so let her membership lapse.

The cupboard underneath was used as a bookcase at our previous home.  I think it would have originally been the top section of a larger bookcase, as there is no plinth. Anyway, it works beautifully for my storage here.  The tubs are all from The Reject Shop. Cheap as chips and fit well.

On top, there is my collection of pincushion in the tiered stand and just little nick nacks on the rest of it.

Next along the wall is my fabric drawers.  I bought these at a swap meet and gave them a make over.  I blogged about it here.  They are just the right depth for fat quarters and half metre lengths.

The file drawers on top also hold fat quarters.

The little shelf on the wall was found in an op shop on our trip to Queensland last year.  It houses more of the bobbins.  My Dad used to spin wool.  The little spinner figure and sheep were from his spinning room.

The Edwards and Co tea tin came from Grandma's as well.  When we were kids it was our dress up box!  I opened the tin when were were moving things around.  Inside are some handbags from when I was a teenager.  The sad thing is, they are coming back into fashion.

That's me in the photo in front of the tin.

Also on top is a Holly Hobby mug I recently found with the saying "Happy is the heart that loves the simple things."  So true.

The patchwork ball was made by Mum years ago and always lived within easy reach of any small child that came to visit her house.  It is slightly worse for wear, but that doesn't matter.

The cubes were bought when we tidied the room.  Any potential spot for storage was used.  The two boxes on top have my English Paper Piecing bits and bobs.  The cubes are full of stitching supplies.

You can't see it clearly, but behind them is a little picture that I made at primary school. 

So that finishes that section. So many memories and things that have a meaning for me.  It's nice to finally have them on display.

More soon.

My Sewing Room - Part 2

After sharing the before photos of my sewing room, it is now time to tell you what we did.

I so wanted my sewing room to be nice and tidy and pretty.  I drool over those rooms you see on Pinterest that have nice white furniture and bright fresh decorations.  However, I know that they are not for me, as I have timber furniture that I do not want to replace, and I like vintage things. I  also have lots of treasures I wanted to display.  Nothing of any value, except for sentimental value. I was pretty sure I could make it look good with what I have and it would reflect my style so much better. 

Most of the furniture works quite well, except for one glaring exception.

See the sideboard on the left of the above photo.  It was Mick's grandmother's.  It lived in our dining room at our previous home and worked well there.  It ended up in here and is terribly inefficient storage.  Not only that, it isn't terribly attractive where it is.  We had seen one very similar given a chalk paint and stencil treatment that looked great and had considered doing that, but it would still not be a practical piece of furniture for the space.

The decision was made to donate it.

Mick's Dad had recently passed away and we had ended up with a 1990s country style tall, narrow bookcase of his.  Coincidentally, out in our garage was a display cabinet of Mum's that nearly matched.  What if we brought them in and gave them a chalk paint treatment? No, let's try again......Why not bring them in as they are........if we wait to paint them, it will never happen.  Also, the paint treatment may not be all that durable for taking tubs in and out of the shelves.

See that pile of boxes and washing basket as you look straight into the room.

Well, behind that are two tables in a T formation.  I use the other end of the one that doesn't have the sewing machine on it for my cutting table. That all works well, but even if the pile of boxes was removed, I would want to store tubs under the table and it would still be an eyesore.

Mick came up with a great idea.  What if we moved the chest of drawers that sit next to Grandma's sideboard that we donated (in the top photo) to in front of the tables and use it as my cutting table?  Don't worry about the dresser top sitting on them.  That can be removed, and actually belongs to another cupboard, which was sitting out in the garage not doing very much.  We had even been seriously considering getting rid of it.  That could possibly now fit in the sewing room.  Things were coming together.

We moved just about everything out of the room and worked solid for two days.  It was taking shape.

I then faffed around for a week or so more, before I was happy.  I admit that some of the storage in my sewing room still needs to be sorted through, but it isn't too bad.  

Also, some things have been stored in other rooms and the garage.  We are both OK with that.  It will be a work in progress.  But for now, I have a place I am happy to be in.

More soon.

My Sewing Room - Part 1

I'm not quite sure where to start with this, so the best place would probably be the beginning.

Back in 2016 we moved into this home, and for the first time ever, I have a dedicated sewing room.  You can read about it here.  I was a tad excited.

The beautiful big space.  The door leads to a little verandah to the side of the house.

So much room -  - 6 x 4 metres.

Starting to move boxes in, but still no furniture.  I blogged at the time that we would have to have a big sort through.

That is the last I ever shared.......for a reason.......

Fast forward to this year.  

Yep, it is a red hot mess, that never did get sorted and only got much worse.  Poor Joey even looks rather stressed in there.

It's rather embarrassing to share these photos.

Remember that door to the verandah?  Well, it's had boxes stacked in front of it since I moved in.

Oh, dear.  The sad thing is that I do have some lovely things, you just can't see them.

How can you enjoy making things or be productive here?  The simple answer is that you can't.

Sadly, I just didn't know where to start on sorting it all out.

So what changed?

In September I was booked in to attend a slow stitching class that was sadly cancelled.  I said I would have a day of slow stitching at home.  

Mick said. "I've got a better idea.  Why don't we try to sort out your sewing room."  Normally, I would have told him to leave my mess alone, but the planets seemed to align that we both had the time, inclination, and a bit of an idea on how to proceed.........and it would be so nice to have a nice sewing room for when Lou and Tony visited.

It looks just a little different now.

I love, love, love it and so enjoy spending time there now.  I'll pop back again very soon and give you a proper guided tour.

My January WOOFA Project and Friday Night With Friends

As I shared the other day here, my January WOOFA goal was to do something with a very old foundation paper pieced Santa block.

It had been my first attempt at FPP and the top left corner dipped down too far.  From memory, I was going to make a pot holder.  It was all too hard to reverse sew the pieces, hence it became a UFO.

I thought I may still have some of the background fabric, and was delighted when I found it in the first place I looked.

It was such a big job to add a little to the corner.  Why I didn't do that at the time, I'll never know.  I dare say I didn't even think of it.

Yesterday, after chatting with Lou (Manxgirl) I decided to join in with Friday Night With Friends for the first time.  This was the obvious project to work on.

So what to do with the block.  It looked rather bland, and also quite dated. After chatting further with Lou, I decided to make it into a mini quilt.  Now to hunt out some fabric that would suit the colours already used......ie, also rather dated.

I found a couple that I thought would work.  But it was still bland.  Then Lou suggested adding some decorations to the tree.  Now we were cooking with gas!

This is where I got up to last night.  Borders added, no binding, just batting added, stitched around the edge and turned through.  I even remembered to add some little triangles to the back for a hanging rod.

Some simple echo quilting was done.  It was starting to take shape.

This morning, I did a bit more quilting and added the embellishments.  A vintage button for Santa's pom pom, a bell that came around the neck of a Lindt chocolate Easter bunny, a star button that I found in the deep dark depths of my stash and various, random buttons from my jars for the tree ornaments.

For a block that I went to throw away several times, I'm pleased to now have another little decoration for Christmas. It measures 16 inches square.

This has now met three of my goals for January:

1. I have not only worked on, but finished a UFO;

2. I will have at least one finish for OPAM; and

3. I have made a Christmas decoration for Lou and my little stitch along.....even if it isn't an ornament.

Also, everything came from stash.  Bonus!

I'm pretty pleased with that.

My January Stitching Goals Check In

It's the start of the year and I have a new blade in my rotary cutter, a new needle in my machine and it has had a good old dust, so I'm ready and rearing to go with my January goals.......there are a few.

Firstly, there is my One Monthly Goal - I know that I won't get the opportunity to get much stitching done in the last week of the month, so am trying to keep this one relatively simple.

I plan on making two Splendid Sampler 2 blocks and I think I have made a decision on the setting.  About half the blocks have a white background and the other half have coloured.  Some blocks are a tad undersize, so I need to have something where I can do some tweaking without it being too noticeable.  I will put a one inch border around each block.  White around the coloured blocks and a soft 30s green around the white blocks.  My aim is to select and source that green fabric, so I can start working on sashings next month.

The colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January has been announced.  It is green. 

This year I don't plan on making a quilt, rather two cushions. They will both be 18 inches square.  One will be the pineapple block, which I have never made before, with a white contrast.  The other will be drunkard path circles on a darker background.  I have made large drunkard's path blocks, but never small.  Conveniently, I have the templates, which were a giveaway with a magazine subscription many years ago.

I will have to go and hunt out some fabric for these.

Working on, or finishing a UFO is a new challenge this year.  I could never commit to finishing a UFO each month.  I know it wouldn't happen, but at least making a bit of progress is a good start.

I wasn't sure what I would work on, but when I went digging in a tub I found this forlorn orphan Santa block.  This was my first ever attempt at foundation paper piecing from a very long time ago, maybe 15 years.  Sadly, the top left corner dips down more than the seam allowance, and to do lots of unpicking was all too hard at the time.  I'm pretty sure, if I go looking, I'll find a bit of that background fabric, or something very similar to add onto the corner.  Goodness knows, Nothing ever gets thrown away, so it may just be there.  I will turn it into something.  Maybe a hanger, maybe a potholder (which I think was the initial intention), who knows.

This will also meet two other little goals.  I WILL finish it, so it will be able to be reported to Kris for One Project a Month and Lou and I have decided to make a Christmas decoration each month.  Nothing like killing three birds with one stone.

Of course, I will work on my Leader and Ender Black and White Quilt as I stitch away.

Wish me luck.

I'll be linking up with Elm Street Quilts and So Scrappy.  Pop over and see what the others get up to.