New Work Area/Studio?

Well after laying low to heal my injured hip, I am raring to go! Feeling much better today so we have started tackling the job of cleaning my work area. But it's more like moving my work area from a 3 x 3 square foot area to a larger and more private area that is all mine!  I have really enjoyed being able to just sit and sew on my "insanity" hexie quilt for three days, but I am really, truly excited about having all my quilty "stuff" together in one place!

The only problem with rearranging things is that you have to figure out where you are going to put the things you are moving.  It's kind of a domino effect, move one thing, the next thing needs to be moved, then the next and the next, etc.  Previously, the area I am repurposing looked like the picture below.

The bed in the picture is going out and that is where I am putting a desk, an ironing station and a cutting table. The area is pretty small but much larger than my 3 x 3 previous area.

Now I can take all my fabrics, quilts, patterns, threads, etc and put them into this space instead of being spread around in small areas throughout my property. 

All the plastic boxes with fabric will be put into the area above the air conditioner and in the cabinets behind the mirror on the right and left side of the picture.  Any leftovers will put into our new storage shed that my husband just finished building.  At least that is the plan . . . I'll update you as the work progresses.

It shouldn't take too long because I have been planning, folding, cutting, taking pics of fabrics and cataloguing for the last 6 months.  So, I think it will go very smoothly . . . I hope!

Spring Has Finally Arrived!

Three days ago we had snow in Guadalupita and the temperature was in 20's and 30's.

 But yesterday it was in the high 70's and today its supposed to be in the high 70's also.

My husband cut our lawn for the first time today!  YAY!  I have moved my hand crank machine to (what we call) "the new trailer". I will be working in there during the summer.  Of all our living quarters, it has the best views out its many windows.

I am still trying to sort, toss and organize my fabrics, patterns, knick knacks, what nots and other assorted stuff.  Now that our storage shed is almost finished, I decided to start bringing boxes from commercial storage in Las Vegas and sort, toss, etc.  This was our storage shed's foundation laying days.

I can do the sorting, tossing, etc. a little at a time and start converting from moving boxes to plastic storage bins and labeling and placing them in our storage shed.

The storage shed has walls and a roof, just has not been wired or the outside finished yet, but it's useable while they finish the outside.

Hexagon Adventure, Chapter 2

Well as mentioned before I had cut my plastic hexagon template from a 1 gallon plastic milk jug.  Great! Now I am ready to cut the hexagons and start sewing. . .wrong!

What on earth will I use to mark the hexagons?? In my sewing experience I have used chalk, chalk markers and #2 pencil.  But this is quilting! There are so many types of markers out there. I guess the only way to find out which is best is to try them out.

I had heard that you can print on the back of the fabric and then cut shapes out for your quilting. I did that but when I test washed the fabric the ink bled into the rest of the fabric.  I guess that's out. On to markers, I tried regular markers from the dollar store.  First, the tip was too big and chunky and second, they went through the material to the front of the fabric. Then I tried fabric markers, same as the dollar store variety. Then I bought this really expensive pen made for marking on fabric. I got the white one.  It was really neat and was a fine tip and showed up really well and didn't go through the fabric and didn't bleed when washed. So, what was the problem? For some reason, when I was writing on the fabric, the ink didn't show up for a good 30 seconds later. So, for each line I drew I had to wait 30 seconds to make sure the line wasn't crooked or that it had drawn with enough ink. With hexagons having 6 sides, that came out to 3 minutes to draw each hexie!! I had to draw hundreds of these . . .that was not going to work out. I thought I was doing something wrong so I did some research and found out that other quilters were having the same problem as I was with the delay in showing up.

So now I went to pencils.  Regular colored pencils were no good because they need a heavy pressure in order to draw on fabric and that pressure would stretch the fabric. The last resort was my trusty #2 pencil.  Very thin line when sharp, does not need a lot of pressure, washes out and is pretty cheap!  Later I tried a #1 pencil.  Do you know how difficult it is to get a #1 pencil in the mountains?  Practically impossible! I ordered a box of #1 pencils online and used it very successfully.  It is a very soft lead so very little pressure is needed for marking and like #2, washes out completely. Then I discovered that I could get a #1 lead in a mechanical pencil --- I was in heaven.

So here I am merrily drawing and cutting and forming my little hexies.  YAY! I went from wanting a dresser scarf to wanting a bed cover.  So I started looking for a workable pattern where I could use the rows that I had already sewn.  Then I discovered the "Insanity Quilt" made in 1/2" hexies!!!

Oh my word was it beautiful! I was in love! I immediately decided that the hexies I was making were too large . . .LOL! I decided to use my one inch freezer paper foundations that I sell on my website and start all over! OH NO, Really???

Stay tuned for Chapter 3 in my ongoing Hexagon Adventure . . . .

Everyone, keep on quilting!
Aveli

Working the string blocks, baby quilt and more!

Every morning as soon as I get up, I work on my string quilt blocks.  I go straight to the coffee pot, make hot water for my tea and while that is brewing, I sew my 4 1/2 inch string blocks. I have a large supply of strips of various size widths, colors and patterns in a drawer next to my sewing machine. I pull out the strips, sew it onto a foundation paper made from my old phone book and keep repeating until I have 10 blocks sewn. I end the chain piecing with a foundation paper sized 2 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches.  It is from these little "feeder" blocks that I made my granddaughter's "baby doll" quilt.

I know that sounds very organized, but trust me its not!  Sometimes I run out of fabric strips and have to run to my scrap box and clean cut the scraps into various sized strips to put in my drawer next to the sewing machine. I have several plastic boxes full of these scraps. I am trying to justify keeping them or "hoarding" them, as my husband calls it. 

These are scraps left from years of cutting butterflies, cats, hexagons, triangles for my customers' orders.  There are all sizes and weird shaped pieces left.  But, if I cut just so, I can get several strips of different widths and many, many triangles of different sizes! I can't even begin to think of throwing all that fabric away! If that makes me a hoarder, so be it!

I have already made enough blocks to put together a quilt top from these scraps that you can see here Click Here   But, it was not big enough to drape over the side of my double bed.  So that's why I am sewing more blocks.  Plus, after I finish this one, I am making 2 more for my other kids. I think then maybe, I will have used all the scraps in the plastic boxes, LOL!!!

In the meantime, remember the "baby doll" quilt?  Well I finally decided, I am going to quilt it on the machine.  Even though I am not very experienced in machine quilting, I think I will manage with this one because it is so small. I will post a picture when I am done, maybe on Monday???

My hexagon quilt progress will be posted tomorrow!

Have a great time quilting!

Aveli