Adios, 2011!!

Not that I have any particularly bad memories of the year, it's been ok.  I think it will go down in my memory as the Year I Learned to Control the Dyes, thanks to a week with Carol Soderlund.  Worth all the other fabric related classes I've taken, and then some.  I'll be taking Part Two with her in July.

I've work short hours since Christmas, and have been BUSY!  Shannon and I made scrubs to give as gifts:

Pumpkin spice brown sugar scrub (smells yummy!)

Sweet orange salt scrub- another heavenly smell.

All nicely packaged and ready to gift- Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub, Sweet Orange Salt Scrub, Lavender Salt Scrub.

We made kolache, a scrumptious, highly caloric cookie I only make at Christmas.  Butter, cream cheese, flour, and apricot filling- that's it.  But they are to die for.

I decided it was time to get the mis-dyed color swatches done for my Dye Bible.  These are the last of the dozen or so I did, ready for the washout.

 

And I decided it was time to clean up the studio, I have a Tangled Textile piece I need to get started on this week.  And, what better way to usher in the new creative year?  Wow, I can see the floor of my fabric closet!  I managed to get rid of one plastic storage bin that was taking up valuable storage space, and get other stuff better organized.  And yes, I threw out stuff too!!

Woohoo, Utah just pulled off a win in overtime against Georgia Tech!!  (Sorry, Judy!!)  What a game- BYU won their bowl game yesterday, which meant I really wanted Utah to win theirs.  College football and New Year's- what better combination!

I'm wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year, with blessings and creativity.  That's my prayer for the year!

I love it. . .

when I can look back and check off tasks and projects completed. This weekend has been a good one- I not only finished the small quilts I've been working on, but my studio is cleaned out and re-organized. And I still have Sunday left!!

The small work will be in a book- I won't say any more until publication, and I don't know when that's scheduled. This project already has me looking around my home figuring out where I could hang a similar piece, and what colors would work. Might even try my stash of metallic threads, which look spectacular with this type of quilting.

My stash closet is done- I got the shelves from Ikea, cut them down, and even had enough of the uprights left to make another long, low shelf just by buying a 1 X 12 and the hardware. I've gone through my big bins, pulled out stuff that I'm not likely to use,and designated for the garage sale. My church is holding a series of garage sales to raise money to buy a building for a congregation in Uganda, and we've been slowly sorting through our home to collect for it. The dye room table is still stacked with all the items I'll be donating.



Anyway, here's the closet, cleaned out with everything accessible and easy to get. I LOVE being able to see all my fabric at a glance!



I took my cone threads out of a drawer, and mounted them on the wall by my Bernina. My growing stash of threads required another thread holder, so that was mounted on the right wall. I have some room for more thread, but not a ton!!



And look what I found for my beads! It's a simple little carousel with six bins that attach around the side. There's another bin for beads on top, and more storage under that. I was able to get almost all my beads in it, nicely sorted by color. Shows immediately where my holes are (purples), and makes it easy to see at a glance what you have. The only downside is the single lid on the bins instead of individual lids on the compartments. The little stacking containers to the right are the only ones I couldn't get in the new system.



Even with all the de-cluttering and 'stuff' reduction, I did get some goodies for surface design. Our subdivision had a lot of garage sales this weekend, and I found these stamps at one. Too cool to resist!



I also entered the 21st century- I now own an iPod, purchased at the same garage sale that had the stamps. A nice little iPod Shuffle that I can wear around my neck or clip to my belt. I'm still a techno-dummy when it comes to music, so Shannon downloaded some of my CD's to iTunes and loaded the iPod for me. We'll see if having the music improves my free motion quilting!

And, I'm finishing the final steps to getting my small private practice off the ground. I have space, my LLC is registered with the state, I got my business license with the city, and my business cards arrived. The last step is getting the malpractice insurance, also in progress. Scary but exciting!

I haven't disappeared. . .

I've just been on a business trip for the past week down in southern Utah. Tried to post before I left, but our internet connection decided to go on the fritz Sunday, so I couldn't.

I have been dinking around with my fabric storage again. My space is limited, but with the right setup, I think is adequate for my stash. I've used different sizes and makes of plastic bins- which I have now outgrown. And, I'm tired of having to remove lids to see what's inside.

I recently found these cheap, no-lid bins at Walmart, and decided to give them a try. I bought just enough to try out the idea, and decided that it would work fine. I love being able to see the fabrics!



I needed to find a way to manage all the large bins I have sitting on the floor. There is enough space there to put more shelves, if I could find something low enough. At Ikea yesterday, while shopping for a desk for Shannon, we found a set of wooden shelves that was perfect. They show it tall, but I'll just cut it down, to make two sets of low shelves. So that should take care of that. I'll post the final result when I get it done.

I did take a quilt-related trip while down south. I had some free time Thursday, so I visited Superior Threads, which is headquartered in St. George. I was happy to find out they welcome visitors, and even sell from their inventory! I have access to Superior at a couple of local shops, but nobody carries the entire line. I had fun wandering the aisles of the warehouse, picking a few spools and even some hand-dyed silk ribbon. I love their threads, and tried to pick a variety. So I ended up with a spool of King Tut, several of Hollis Chatelain's Nature Colors, some Rainbows, and one spools of Caryl Bryer's Brytes. Bryte's are a 30 weight thread (the rest are 40 weight), which means it is heavier and will show up more. I wanted to try it out before buying any more. So here are the additions to my thread stash--



I'm actually working on something, but I can't post it. And, I need to begin working on my Journal Quilt- another project I can't post. Guess the blog will be limited to my work on the tree quilt, which is still going on.

Off to enjoy my long weekend. Hope yours is as enjoyable!!