Moving and Consolidating

Just so you know, this post is wordy and does not contain any quilt pictures. 

There is a reason I have been so absent on the blog lately. I am not sewing that much because I am attempting to consolidate 2 sewing rooms into one. For an admitted fabric hoarder, this has been quite a challenging task.

HISTORY: 

We have lived in this house since September 1992. Emma was 5 weeks old when we moved in. We have a 4-bedroom house, with the 3 kids' bedrooms having had many changes over the last 32 years. The biggest of the kids' bedrooms is roughly 27' x 14', and it is the room I currently use as my sewing room.

That big bedroom was originally Emma's, then Erin's, then Emma's again, before it became mine. Only Adam's room never changed through all those years until he graduated in 2001. 

All through those first 9 years, I did not have a sewing room. I sewed out of a large downstairs closet which was originally going to be a laundry room. 

In 2001 when Adam went to college, I moved out of the sewing closet and into his room for my first proper sewing room. It worked very nicely and I was quite content here. Over the next 10 years, however, I had more "stuff" than the room could contain, and I either needed to downsize my sewing stash, or move to a bigger room. 

In 2012, after Emma had been a year and a half away in college, she initiated the move between her room and the sewing room - switching the two. The biggest of the 3 kids' bedrooms ultimately became the sewing room. In early 2013, I fixed the room to suit my then-current sewing needs, and I am sure I never imagined that I would one day fill it to the brim. Refer to this post for a look at things in those early days (scroll down to the 6th paragraph).

In the fall of 2019, we removed one guest room and moved the long arm machine in. At that point, I had a sewing room AND a long arm room! Without a doubt, quilting had taken over as a major activity. 

This summer - 2024 - I find myself once again making changes to our bedrooms.

CURRENT:

I want to once again have 2 guest rooms. With both daughters having families, and grandbabies bound to be coming for overnight stays, it just seemed senseless to have only one guest room in a 4-bedroom house. I am consolidating the long arm room into the big sewing room. And gosh, this is a huge challenge for me!

A cleaned off cutting table resulted in removing the table, which is going into a garage sale. I have no further need of it and no room, either.

All the stuff lining the walls are the tubs that were previously under the table. It's not exactly visible in the photo above, but under the window is a dresser that has been moved to the wall there by the design wall.

Here is said dresser moved to said side wall, lifted onto risers and set up to be the cutting table. I hope it works okay.

 

And this view shows the space where the dresser was before. I shake my head at the layers of stacked tubs surrounding this room. I have so much that needs to be sorted and purged and down-sized. It overwhelms me.

This picture pretty much shows things as they currently stand. DH and I installed a ceiling fan OURSELVES!! The long arm machine is mostly in place. Once the remaining bars are on the long arm frame, I will get a feel for how much space I'll have to move about. It's hard to judge with all those tubs in the way, so perhaps I will have to stack them out in the hallway before bringing the machine to the frame. Once that machine is on the frame it will be too heavy to move, so getting placement right is super important.

This is the room in which the long arm has resided since 2019. It has served me well, but now this room really needs to be a guest room again, so onward I proceed. Once I've cleared this, DH will paint and steam vac before we set up a queen-size bed and night stand. (I am reserving the option of using closet storage and dresser storage in this room for quilting room overflow.)

A master organizer would have no difficulty with a move this gargantuan, but since I am not of the organizing ilk, the task has been a definite challenge. 

FUTURE:

I still have a lot to do - First, set up the sewing tables for Sharon and me. Second, deal with all those tubs and their contents. Some will be put in the garage sale; some will be trashed; some will be given away. 

Stay tuned for further developments. I simply have to see this through to completion in order to get back to sewing and quilting. The longer this move takes, the more time lost for those more satisfying endeavors.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

A Long-Awaited Reveal

The year has been filled with far more things than quilting, so 2024 is definitely seeing a markedly reduced number of quilt finishes. We are celebrating today the near-finish of Tiny Nine Patches! A whopper of a quilt, she needs only to have her binding attached and a label secured, then she will truly be finished. 

Many previous posts have chronicled the long journey this quilt has made from start to finish. Here's my Reader's Digest condensed version.

She was actually started before I knew what she was going to be. I was making 9-patch blocks out of a huge tub of 1.5-inch squares and strips - all scraps. The amount of scraps in this small size had gotten completely out of hand, so I decided that it would be easiest to just make 9-patches and then figure out what to do with them later.

During the process of completing the 'niners' I found a fun sew-along or a challenge hosted on Instagram by Taryn @reproquiltlover. It looked like a very doable effort, so I joined in. This post describes my initial sewing as well as discovering Taryn.

By February, I was well into the 300s for completed 9-patches. I'd also purchased my background fabric. I loved it in the store, I loved it laid out with my blocks, and I still love it in my quilted finish. It has the look of a faded old quilt and it so nicely sets off all the little 9-patch gems.

I didn't begin sewing the blocks together until we came home, and when I did, I couldn't believe how quickly the entire top went together. I even changed my mind midway into creating a straight-set quilt, opting instead an on-point quilt. Read about that in this post.

Making this has taken me on so many reminiscences! I come across a bit of fabric here and there and there and am reminded of the quilts I made with them. Most have a story, and don't get me started if you are here and we begin pointing out different blocks. I have fabrics from my old projects plus bits from my grandma, and also from a handful of friends. Some represent quilts I have gifted, while others are quilt tops hanging in my closet waiting to be quilted. 

The quilt measures 100x80 inches. In previous posts, I talked about making it a square quilt, but I cut one side down a bit so that I could get it on my long arm machine! 100 inches is just way too big! I calculate that there are over 5400 pieces of fabric used in this 22x20-block quilt. I also have 1.5-inch pieces in the 4-patch border. 

I've linked up with Cynthia and her weekly Oh, Scrap! link party. Go have a look at other scrappy endeavors!

Happily, my small scrap bin is nearly empty!

Yay for a finish!

Hope you have a great week! Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

September Has Arrived

Never one to be mindful of timely posting, I am just now getting around to posting my first-of-the-month missive in which I recap last month and look ahead to all that September promises to offer.

My August collage is short on quilts, isn't it? But gosh we did have a ton of fun with family and friends. Here's the rundown of highlights.

TOP ROW: Even though her birthday is at the end of July, we celebrated Sharon early in August. You see her here admiring a gift of some 3Sisters fabric. Pappaw Kevin gets in a little swimming with granddaughter Cate, who takes to the water like a fish. We had a family gathering one Sunday afternoon, and the final picture in the top row shows 3 little cousins - Boone, Cate, and Archie. Absolutely adorable kiddos!

MIDDLE ROW: At that same family gathering, our older generation posed for a picture. Seated in front is my Great Uncle John, my mother's uncle. He's in his mid 90s. Behind him is his daughter Marilyn, Mom's first cousin, then two of my aunts - Carol and Ann - who are my mom's sisters-in-law. Finally, there's Mom. The center picture shows her again, this time with Cate. What a treat for Mom to spend time with her great-granddaughter! The last picture in the middle row is of the quilt top made with Inverted Fat Quarter Stars. I wrote about it in my last post.

BOTTOM ROW: I attended a quilt retreat with some dear quilty friends and made a super-simple quilt with some remnant yardage I uncovered in the sewing room. On the final day of the retreat, I worked on the stars in the middle, and as the month closed out, I was heavy into taking out the big sewing desk I've used for the last 10 or so years in an effort to make room for the long arm machine to come into this room.

And that consolidation effort continues. I have the aforementioned desk moved out and headed to a yard sale. I have taken everything off the cutting table (shown below, but loaded up with stuff!) and it is ready to be moved out. Once it is out, I will dismantle the long arm machine and move it to this room. That will all be accomplished in - perhaps - another week. I hope!!

This picture shows you the other end of the room. Gosh, I have things piled high! The good news is, though, that this table is now empty and much of what you see here has been sorted and reorganized. And, of course, the work is ongoing. My goal is to put a lot in the yard sale, or make significant donations to Goodwill.

The long arm machine cannot be moved until this quilt is finished and removed from the frame. Tiny Nine-Patch Challenge has been loaded for over a month, sadly. I was having issues (seems like that happens a lot!), but I finally have corrected the problem. Yay! I stitched quite a lot on it yesterday. It will be my goal to finish the quilting today.

The Frankfort girls will be here for sewing tomorrow morning, so I will need to stop the upstairs sewing stuff long enough to tidy a bit downstairs and make some refreshments.

Time waits for no one! I might just now be getting around to welcoming September here on the blog, but I am keenly aware that the month is marching on! My main goal will be to finish quilting this quilt, bind it plus another one waiting in the wings, and - most of all - complete the major portions of the consolidation of 2 sewing rooms into one. That will be quite enough!

Oh, yes. One more thing. We are due to gain a granddaughter in about 3 weeks, too! Yippee!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne