I had a very busy weekend working to get the garage-gone-project-room somewhat organized. Yes, the space is finished, and I'm really excited about it. I'm sure there are plenty of needleworkers out there who have their own space for pursuing their needlework, sewing, or art ventures, but I bet there are even MORE who use the various regular corners of their living space. The idea of a real project room is kind of a dream! Keep in mind, though, that this relatively small space is not merely for needlework!

I live in a tiny house with very little storage space, so this room is not merely for my needlework supplies, books, and so forth. It is designated space for all household storage, from off-season clothes, to paper goods, to beer and wine for company, to games and puzzles, to Christmas decor, to wrapping paper, blankets, linens - you name it, if it's not in immediate use in the house, it will be out here.

And all that being said, the room doesn't seem nearly so big and luxurious!



It's not a super-wide room. That space where the window and door are now used to be the garage door. The cabinets that line each side of the room are 24" deep, with 18" adjustable shelves.



And that's the other end, looking out into the (dead and winter-looking) backyard.



The cabinets are pretty roomy. The shelves are adjustable (I already said that) - they're not continuous down the line, though. They are split, so that in each cabinet, if more space is needed on one shelf, the whole wall of shelves doesn't have to be adjusted.



Saturday was a day of toting, toting, toting. Except for the bag and the storage containers at the end of the table, it's filled with solely needlework books. My ten-year-old nephew helped me tote books and stuff most of the morning! (I paid him at the end - two handfuls of change! It worked out well for him - and even better for me!)



Oh. I forgot to mention those books, too.



And things going onto the shelves! Ah. Yes. That does make me happy!

I'm cataloging my books before I put them on the shelves - that will be a fun project, and then I can post my library here. Then, if you are looking for a book and want to know what it's like before you buy it, if I have it, you can ask!

Once all is packed neatly and happily into the cabinets (that may take a while, because there's still a whole storage unit downtown to go through - can you say BIG GARAGE SALE???!), I will put a drafting table under the larger window, a large table in the middle, and sewing machine cabinet. Those, and some chairs, will be the only furniture. And then it's done.

Wow. I discovered a few muscles this weekend that I had forgotten about!

Labels: organization, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

Do you leave embroidery thread trails all around your house? I do! I usually sit on the sofa in the living room for "casual" embroidery projects, and when I snip threads, those orts (the thread scraps) end up on the arm of the sofa. I bet you know what I'm talking about!

Building into a good-sized, loose ball by the end of an evening, my embroidery thread left-overs will inevitably cling to the arms of my clothes. From there, they trickle off onto the floor... the living room floor, the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor. I'm forever leaving little trails.

When I think about it, I put a zip-lock bag in my sewing basket, but it's too much bother to dig for it when I'm engrossed in stitchery! Besides, once it's full, I toss it - and then I forget to add another to the basket... until I've got another thread ball building on the sofa.

Well, I finally decided it was time to do something about this! And so this is what I did:

About a month ago, I mentioned that I bought a couple placemats on clearance. I had this particular project in mind at the time, but just now had the chance to see my plan fulfilled:

A Couch Caddy!!!

I'm so excited about it. It isn't pristinely done, but I like it! I'm the first to admit I'm not an expert on the sewing machine! Patterns just aren't my thing, so this project was really perfect. It took me a whole 30 minutes. I had no plan - I just cut some rectangles from one placemat and its liner, and I sewed the stuff together.

Here 'tis:



[Oh dear. Pictures never lie.]

The first thing I did was take one placemat (less than $2 at Target on clearance) and separate the top fabric from the liner using a seam ripper.

Then, with the top fabric on the table just like you'd place a placemat, I cut it in half straight up from bottom to top. I took one half, folded from bottom to top, right sides together, and sewed up the sides. Then I measured 1.5 inches from the corner at the fold, and sewed a little triangle, so that the bag rounded out a bit, instead of laying flat like an envelope. Then I did the same thing with the liner, only backwards, and stuck the liner inside, and top stitched around the edge.



I still had half a placemat, so I cut out another rectangle and made a longer, narrower tube to put scissors and pencils in.



I still had a quarter of the placemat left, so I cut out tabs to attach the two pockets to the base, which was an in-tact placemat.

I didn't line the narrower tube, except by leaving the interfacing that was inside the placemat. In fact, that one came out rather sloppy - functional, but sloppy!



I made sure I sewed the tabs well into the outside half of the base so that I would have plenty of placemat on the inside arm of the couch to weight the thing properly and keep it from sliding.

I still have a little bit of the placemat left - I'm thinking about looking for a heavy-duty magnet I can cover with fabric and put on the top for needles and my embroidery scissors.

The whole thing worked rather well, took me about 30 minutes, cost me less than $4.00, and now I have somewhere to put those stray threads!

Labels: needlework tools, organization, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

This little canvas work sampler has been fun, but it's absolutely time to end it! The problem with "design-as-you-go" samplers is that sometimes, you just keep going... and going... and going. And that can be detrimental to a couple things: the overall design, and the ability to get anything else accomplished!

But I've come pretty much to the stopping point - I'm going to fill in one more tiny section, touch up the flaws, embroidery a tiny border around it, and call it finished.



It's a little... much! And all packed in to about 4" x 5.5" But the advantage to working on something like this is that you don't have time to get bored before you switch to another color and stitch.



I think this little section is my favorite part. I like the diamond pattern on the right side of the paisley, and the gold filling on the left side.



In fact, here's the gold filling up close. I probably used too many strands of floss - the stitches look pretty packed and pudgy. I used 3 strands of Soie d'Alger, in two colors of gold. The stitch is actually upright cross stitch, although with the dark gold, the top stitch of the cross is horizontal, and with the light gold, it's vertical. (I did that on purpose, just to see what effect it would have on the whole filling.)



I also like this little guy sticking up - an afterthought. Too many afterthoughts can spoil the look, but this one, I like!



And I like the little shaded curl. The backgrounds are half cross stitch, in alternating colors of light gold / dark gold, and light purple / dark purple. They also go in different directions. The golds are silk Soie d'Alger; the purples are stranded cotton (DMC); the greens on the curl are Eterna flat silk.

So that's that project, almost finished. I should be able to fill in that empty space tonight and put an edge on it.

And the hobby room is coming along well - should be finished by the middle of next week (I hope!). It was a single car garage on the back of the house. But I live in a small house, which has little interior storage space, so the garage is being converted into storage space for household stuff as well as for hobby stuff, and an area for working projects. There will be a large table out in the middle of the room and, eventually, a sewing machine and so forth.

So this is what it looks like:



Over on the right wall, those are floor-to-ceiling cabinets - there will be adjustable shelving in there.



That's the same wall of cabinets, looking in the other direction.



And that's the wall opposite the cabinets - which will also be lined with the same floor-to-ceiling cabinets. So the only wall space will actually be below the big window, really - a sewing table would fit there. The freezer is also out there, so it's not a LOT of space, but it is space, nonetheless!

I'm still troubling over a good organizational method - bins, or cubby-hole type small shelves - for fabrics, threads, and whatnot. Any suggestions are most welcome!

Labels: canvas stitches, hobby room, needlework pictures, organization, pictures

Click here to read the whole post & comments.

  Lately, I've been working on a fun embroidery project (you can see it here), but I realize that, during this kind of work where I'm not sitting at a frame or my regular workspace, I tend towards disorganization! Yesterday, I started thinking about disorganization, and how it can decrease the pleasure of working on a project.

The first rule when working on any project comes from my mom: "A place for everything, and everything in its place." As long as you have a place for everything (before you start), you should have a relatively easy time keeping organized, and really no excuse not to be organized. So that's the first guiding principle.

After that, though, I might sit down to work on a project (especially when I'm in a comfortable location like the sofa), and think it "easier" to take what I need from my supplies, rummaging about if necessary, and worry about straightening them up when I come to a stopping point.

Tsk! Tsk! It is much easier to keep things neat as you go! So that's the second rule: "clean as you go" (my mom's kitchen rule, actually!) When you take a strand or two of thread from a skein, put the skein and the rest of the threads back where they belong! Trust me, it's much better than leaving them sitting on the arm of the couch, only to get dropped or tangled up! A place for everything and everything in its place. Especially if you're working with expensive threads, it can be such a waste to allow a tangled heap of threads to build up, and then, in a moment of frustration or cleaning frenzy, just to throw them away! But whether your threads are expensive or not, the less waste that goes into your hobby (or livelihood, whatever the case may be) the better!

And those snippets of thread - the waste from your project? They need a place, too. If you're not well-equipped with little accessories, even a plastic baggie will do. Put one next to you, and put all your snippets in it. Saves having to crawl around on the floor or vacuum, if nothing else! It also makes a quick clean up a breeze. If you have a good-sized scrap of craft felt, lay it over the arm of your chair. Put all your snippets on it. They will stick easily. Then scrape them off when you're ready to put things away.

There's a really cool little combo thread-catcher-pin-cushion accessory that would be great to have at your elbow, whether you're sitting in your favorite chair or at the work table. Here are instructions to make one in PDF format. But, if you want one and don't want to take the time to make it, you can also find different versions of them for sale, like this one. I'm not sure I'm keen on the wooden base, though.

Lastly, you might not want to pack your project off to your closet when you still plan to take it up in the evening or whenever you can snatch a minute. At the same time, though, you don't want it cluttering up your living space. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Devise a place where you can keep your project handy, but where it won't be in the way, and when you know you will be away from it for a stretch of time, pack it up and put it in that place.

So, here's the thing: if you clean as you go, and if you have a place for everything and everything in its place, your pleasure in embroidering will increase a hundred fold!

Labels: organization

Click here to read the whole post & comments.