Studio Move Update

Studio Move Update

So A new month has begun! (okay the month had begun when I STARTED writing this post! Now it is over half over! Jinksies! Where DOES TIME go!?!? ) 

I JUST barely made the goal of getting the January Mandala of the Month done in the month…. And that was by calling February 1st January 32nd….. which is totally legit right? LOL

Here is what the first Mandala of the Month looks like if you missed it on Instagram:

Here are some detail views of this quilt.

This was a ‘planned’ improv quilt in that I had a certain layout I was going for that slightly changed from my original sketch, but not much. I just moved a couple of borders around.

I was emphasizing lots of boxes and simple shapes. Things feel a bit chaotic in this piece. I actually did want that to a degree, as this quilt was representative of our selling my Dad’s and our house and then buying this new one. All of that process felt out of control to me, even though in hindsight, things probably went very smoothly. But it didn’t feel that way at the time. The numerous squares in this reminded me of the boxes, boxes, boxes everywhere.

The blue, green, and grey theme were reminders to me of the water, trees, and grey skies of my new island home. The flying geese blocks were for our journey north (just a tad  😉  )  And since this piece is titled One Bite at a Time, there are bits of the elephant fabric from Kismet designed by my friend Valori Wells all over the place here.

And now on to the Studio Update…..

For the rest of this post, I am going to show you some bites of the ‘Elephant’ I am slogging through one bite at a time >> The Studio Rebuild (After the Move) {Whatever you want to call it!}

I started this post 13 days ago and just kept getting sidetracked. Part of the problem is that I have enough fabric and fiber out now, so I find myself getting distracted with fun things to play with. Plus I started building some shelf units for the studio in the barn as well battling the winter doldrums. The last two days it has snowed over a foot and I have found myself just sitting in the living room looking at the snow or going out in it to see what is up out there…. I am so easily distracted.

Here is a corner of the studio that will eventually be the bulk of my fabric and possibly quilt storage. (I am still not quite sure where I will be storing my quilts)

Here is the ironing station/design wall as of February 4th. I have already improved this! Had  room for a bigger design wall and just got it up last night! Woohoo!

My Computer area and books. Computer is mostly for the Day job right now, but I am slowing getting myself back to that  backlog of pattern writing. I expect to get a lot of things you have seen around here patterned up in PDF forms so you can buy them — including quilts that have been in past magazines!  Books are still all over the place and not organized. I have so many Kaffe Fassett and Gwen Martson books, but I know they are scattered about.

And Workspace Central – Brother Louie of the Holy Order of Mustachios lives and works here. SOOOOO happy to be back to sewing that is for sure!

This vista is contstantly changing still. I am building a little shelf unit for behind Brother Louie that I am pretty stoked about!

Slow Stitching Corner…..

I am trying to make this my Stitchery and pincushion corner. Still needs quite a bit of curating and fixing. But it is coming along and I love seeing my tchotchkes out. My plan is to leave the base of the dresser that bright yellow and paint the drawers blue with new knobs. (Second drawer has the new knobs for the bottom four drawers. Top drawer gets some fancy ornate blue one I bought on a trip somewhere with Linda) The wing chair I love and saved from my Mother In Law’s burnpile is here too for sitting by the window and slowing down a bit.

Window Dressings….

Not sure if this is staying.  I like it, but opening the blinds is kind of a pain with these hanging there.

I love these shelves above the windows. More of my treasures can take residence up there.  I had similar shelves in the old studio as you recall. I will need to go back and paint these…MAYBE…. but I was anxious to get stuff out of boxes so I could just not wait.

Mounties and Bees and Bears and a Log Cabin… I started collecting bears after I started collecting Bee stuff.  Bees are a big thing with Quilters because of “Quilting Bees” and all.  Bees, Honey, Bears… they seemed to go together….. Plus bees are just cool in general….Not Wasps though…. those are pretty evil…. and swarms of bees in a house…those are not cool either…..

I have more bee things but haven’t found them all yet, haven’t found where I want to group them yet either.

Black and White photo is my mom and Aunt Marilyn in front of cabins my Grandpa Joe built in the 40’s. I lived in one of those cabins for about 6 months my senior year of high school. I thought it was SOOO cool!!

That’s your tour for now. I have to get to that February Mandala of the month! And of course more settling and organizing here.

Also here’s a hint of more plans for this year. I have kind of resisted going virtual with classes and lectures, but there are advantages that I can see…..SOOOOO in the barn this year. We are building a film studio/slash guest quarters. Buy this summer… I HOPE, you will be able to take some virtual classes from me.  PLEASE pray and wish me luck, for as much as I love teaching and sharing quilting with y’all, filming myself is NOT on my list of exciting adventures…. until now… so as I try to embrace this shift, I hope you will be patient and come along for the trip.

As always,

Keep Sewing, Keep Happy, Keep Safe,

Scott

1 Comment

  • Ginger Marshall

    Reply

    Squirrel!

    February 18, 2021 at 9:48 am

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