Cleaning the Sewing Room

This past week I've been working on cleaning up my sewing room and getting it back in some kind of shape so I can actually use it. Over the past couple of years, it's become a catch-all for everything. Ever since we had the sunroom built, it's been that way. On the day the construction people were cutting the door into the sunroom, we had to move some stuff out of there really quickly, and somehow most of the stuff ended up in the sewing room. Then it just got worse from there.

Yesterday Heckle came in to help me. This is his contribution to the job.


I would love to have done was he was doing, but that would have been the easy way out and it wouldn't have gotten the job done. I'm making pretty good headway. At least I can see the floor now.

In between painting the bedroom and cleaning the sewing room, I took a few breaks just to get myself away from the work. I made a few sling purses. I like these because when I go someplace where I know I will do a lot of walking I don't like to lug around my heavy purse. With these small purses I can just put some money, maybe a credit card and my driver's license and I'm all set. They are not too heavy for a lot of walking. These first two I used a pattern and sewed them on the sewing machine. The next two I crocheted.

I really enjoyed making these. They were fun, quick and easy to make. A couple of years ago I made this crazy quilt purse. It was fun too, and was my first attempt at making anything crazy quilt, and using clasps for the top of the purse. It was not fun and I don't think I got the clasps on as well as I would like, so I'm pretty sure I won't be making anymore with clasps. I like the flaps alot better. They are easier to make.

Some more things that I made that I think I forgot to post a picture of here were the hatpins I was talking about a couple of weeks ago. They are really fun to make too. I wanted something pretty to go in our new bedroom and I'm really happy with the way these came out.

Picture from Riverbend Festival

At the Riverbend Festival this year we stopped and had this picture taken for free next to Mark Martin's number 6 car. Eddie is a Richard Petty fan (notice the 43 on his cap), and I'm a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fan, but since neither of those cars were available, we decided, what the heck. It's free.

I've been working on cleaning up my sewing room this week. I can't wait to get it back in shape so I can use it again. Over the past couple of years, ever since the construction on the sunroom, it has become a catchall room. You know, one of those rooms where things get tossed when trying to clean up the house. Or, someone calls and says they're coming over in 5 minutes (if you're lucky enough that they call first) and you're trying franticially looking for a convenient place to put stuff to get it up out of sight. It's the room where you keep the door shut and hope that no one opens it either by accident or on purpose. I've had that happen to me twice within the past week. The first time my cousin opened it by accident, and the second time my friend opened it just to see what the fuss was all about. I had been bemoaning the shape it was in and I guess she was curious. I don't feel too badly, though, because her sewing room was once in almost as bad a shape as mine. She said if she can get hers back in order, I can get straighten mine out too. And I'm doing it, little by little. And I'm beginning to see some progress, but I still have a long way to go.

Bedroom Pictures

We finished the bedroom this past weekend. Before and after pictures follow.



Now on to the sewing room.

Obsessions

I've been obsessing about the color I want to paint the walls in our bedroom. I guess obsessing about not making a decision about the color. I'm really bummed out about it and can't decide. Tonight my cousin and I and Eddie are going to either Lowe's or Home Depot to get some paint. We've pretty much narrowed it down to a brown/beige color scheme. I want something neutral that I can work with as far as curtains, etc.

So, as a result, I've been escaping from the bedroom ordeal by thinking about doing some kind of crafts to get my mind off of the bedroom. This is what I've been thinking about lately. Hat pins, pin cushions, and small crazy quilt purses.




I've decided that I want to make some hat pins to put in a pin cushion to go in our bedroom when it's finished. I also saw some pretty mirror back covers that I love and would like to make to go in our bedroom too.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a girlie room. I guess Eddie will have to look elsewhere in the house for his man room.

Sunrise and Bluebell Socks

I love these socks. You can buy them here, or you can have fun making your own. They don't match and it's perfectly okay. It looks like a great way to use leftover sock yarn. I love lots of color, so these would be really fun to make.

Flowers

I just thought I would share some photos of some of the flowers I have at home.

Hens and Chicks
Hens and Chicks
African Violet
Hydrangea
Coleus

Redecorating the Bedroom

I haven't really been inspired to do much of anything lately related to crafts. I'm knitting a pair of socks, but other than that I haven't really done much of anything productive. I've been planning to redo our bedroom. Right now it's white and has been for the last 8 years that we have lived there. We have maroon Priscilla type tie back curtains. I'm not sure, but I think those went out of style some years ago, didn't they? I think I just get so used to everything being the way it has always been that it almost becomes invisible to me. In other words, I never see just how ugly something is until one day I notice it, or go to someone's home who really has done some redecorating. Then I come back to my home and realize how awful the bedroom really is.

I'm thinking about doing a Faux technique on the walls. I've been wrestling with deciding which color to put on the walls. Finally, my friend, Susan, said to just use a neutral color that I can do anything with. She suggested a light beige and then sponging (or some kind of technique) on a darker beige. I'm actually leaning toward a Tuscany look, but I don't want it to be too orange or rust looking. Actually rust or dark brown might not be bad. I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" one night this week, hoping to get some inspiration. I remind myself of the commercial of the woman who has gazillions of paint sample sheets from the store and she can't decide what color to use on her walls. She's about to pull her hair out. I think it's a commercial for TrueValue hardware store.

Then I've been wrestling with the type of curtains I should hang. Do I make them or buy them? My cousin, who is going to help me paint the room, suggested using my lace curtains and dying them and then hanging them like swags. Sort of drape them over a rod, something like the picture below, and instead of using the metal discs, just make fabric rosettes and put them at each corner. After I saw this idea in a decorating book that I checked out from the library, I actually made a sample fabric rosette and it came out really pretty. I think I'm going to really like that.

It's probably what I'm going to wind up doing. It's about the easiest and most inexpensive way to go. We don't really use a bedspread or comforter on our bed. I make quilts, so we usually use them for a bedspread. At any rate, I'd better decide pretty soon because my cousin and I plan to paint the room over the July 4th weekend. We are both taking Friday, June 30, and plan to work on it that weekend. I found some Roman shades at Tuesday Morning and I really like them. They are an eggshell color with a pretty design going through them sort of like the design in Damask fabric.

This week the Riverbend Festival has been going on in our city. It's basically a music festival that goes on for 9 days straight. Eddie has been going just about every night, but not me. I go some nights, but not every night. It's just too hard to stay out late and then have to get up the next morning to go to work. The nights that he goes to Riverbend and I say home, I usually read or watch a movie and/or knit. It's a nice, restful way to spend an evening.

Today at lunch I went to a used book store and bought a series mystery. After reading about it on Willa's blog, I remembered reading the first in the Dead-End Job series awhile back and never got around to reading the rest of them. I love those kinds of mysteries. They are what a friend of mine and I call "cozies."

New Purse

I've been really lazy lately. I haven't been interested in doing anything much. I did see a purse I wanted to make, though. I was in the Hobby Lobby fabric department one day buying fabric and the lady in front of me asked me if I was making a purse. I told her that I made tote bags and sometimes purses. She said that she made purses and she had one with her that she had made. It was really cute. She had made it out of comic book fabric and it had some fuzzy fur around the top. I asked her several questions about it because I knew that it was the kind of purse that I would like and want to make. She said it was from either a Simplicity or McCall's pattern, she couldn't remember which, and she told me that she had gotten the purse handles right there at Hobby Lobby. I thanked her for the information and I went over to the pattern department and started looking up the purse patterns. I found the one that I thought it might be in the McCall's pattern book. It's M4885. I waited until Hancock's had a sale and I got the pattern for 99 cents. The one I made is view B, but I really like view F too, and may make one later on like that.

I found some really pretty black and white toile fabric in the sale bin at Hobby Lobby that I thought would make a cute purse. I bought some black handles and I was in business. I think the purse came out really cute. It was a really easy pattern. If I made it, it must be easy because I'm not that good of a sewer. I have another one started, but haven't begun sewing on it yet. It's a pink toile. I really want to make one with fall colors, but I haven't found anything yet.

Silver Queen Corn

Yesterday Eddie went to the local vegetable stand and bought a dozen ears of Silver Queen Corn. It's our first of the season. This corn is so sweet and delicious, that no other kind of corn can hold a candle to it as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure, but I think this corn came from Florida since our local corn is not in yet. I know that last year the first mess of corn we had came from Florida and it was the best we had all year. For non-southerners, "mess" is a word we use down here that means it's enough for a meal or two. My mother-in-law is always giving us a "mess" of turnip greens or whatever she has in her garden. I took this picture right after I had shucked and silked the corn and it looks beautiful just sitting on the plate. I cut it off the cob and plan to cook it tonight for supper.

On Sunday, Eddie and I and his mother and stepdad went to the Sunday Market that we have in our city. Several vendors were there with antiques and one of the vendors had some beautiful embroidered dresser scarves. They were only $2.00 each, so I bought two, and my mother-in-law bought one. Here are the two that I bought.

Picture from Spring Creek

This past weekend my cousin invited me and Eddie to come up to Spring Creek Retreat in Reliance, TN with some friends of ours to spend the weekend. This was a rare photo that one of our friends took of me and Eddie. For once, he's not frowning in a picture.

I think I need to do something with my hair. I look like I have wings.

New Journals

I sort of hesitate to put this in my knitting blog since it doesn't relate to knitting, but I know not everyone reads my regular journal. I know there are some who have knitting blogs and they just put everything on there, knitting related or not. I could do that, I guess. I just always thought that some of the things I write about should be separate from my knitting writings. I guess this can fall under "and other stuff", so that I can post it here. There is a link to my non-knitting journal on my knitting blog page if anyone ever wants to go there. There is also a link to a Books page where I'm trying to keep a list of the books I'm reading. Sometimes I don't keep up with that the way I should, but I'm trying to do better.

I wanted to post a picture of some really pretty journals that I found at Tuesday Morning a couple of weeks ago. I've sporadically kept written journals over the years, but I think it was mostly because I had such a boring journal or notebook to write in. I just love these journals and I know now that I'll write in them almost every day. I'm actually only writing in one and when I fill that one up I'll start writing in the other one. I'm currently writing in the Hydrangea one. The pages have pretty hydrangeas on them too, but when I tried to take a picture of the pages on the inside, the lines did something funny and didn't look right, so I gave that up. You can see the pretty cover and inside cover of the hydrangea one.

I loved it so much that I went back to Tuesday Morning the next day and after some digging (I really wanted it, didn't I?) I found another one just like it and bought it too.

I bought this next journal the second day as well as the other one, and it's really pretty too.

Japanese Pen Pal

My coworker Tisa's Japanese pen pal, Hiroko, is visiting her from Japan this week. Tisa brought her and her husband in yesterday to introduce her to her coworkers. Hiroko is such a sweet woman, and she brought all of the women in our office these packages of bubble bath. I wish I could read Japanese so I could know what the packages say. Maybe Chie could help me out. :))) The photo I took with my digital camera is not very good and I'm not sure why. Usually the pictures I take with it are really clear, but maybe it was the way the light reflected on the packages or something similar that made it look a little blurred.

I started crocheting a doily to give to Hiroko, but for some reason I was having problems with it, and the yarn I was using wasn't looking right, so I decided to start another one in a lilac color. I know I won't be able to finish it in time to give it to Hiroko before she leaves to go home, but I'll just mail it to her in Japan. I don't have any idea how much that will be in postage, but it's not something I'm worried about. I just wanted her to have a nice handmade gift.

On Sunday Eddie and I went to his mom's for Easter dinner and I had to take some pictures of the flowers in her yard. They were absolutely gorgeous. She has such a green thumb. I think she could put a stick in the ground and something would sprout out of it. I wish I had such a green thumb. About the only thing I've managed to have flourish are some African Violets I have in my office. I used to have trouble with them until I discovered self-watering pots. Of course, the pots on this page are pretty expensive, and I found one of mine at Tuesday Morning for around $5.00, and the other two at Home Depot for around $5 to $6. I also saw some pretty ones recently at Walmart. I bought one of those to give as a gift to a friend of mine. I'm trying right now to find her a pretty African Violet, but they seem to be scarce here now for some reason. Maybe they are out of season.

Here are the pictures of my mother-in-law's flowers. One is an azalea and the others are roses.

Teapots, Doilies, and Cedar Chests

I collect teacups and I have a few teapots. I decided to take a picture of one of my favorite teapots sitting on one of the doilies that I crocheted awhile back. I just started a new doily in an ecru/light beige color. I'll post a picture of it when I've finished.

In about the middle of April, one of my coworkers, Tisa, is going to meet a Japanese pen pal, Hiroko, after 40 years. They started writing to each other while they were still in high school and kept in touch after getting married, having children, and grandchildren. There was a period of about 20 years when they stopped writing each other, and one day a postman delivered a postcard from Hiroko to Tisa, who had moved to a new address since they last communicated. The postman knew Tisa and delivered it to her at her new address. She was so excited and they resumed communicating and have been emailing ever since. Hiroko had written in almost all of her letters that it would be great if they could meet one day. Now it turns out that Hiroko and her husband are coming to America in mid-April and are going to be staying with Tisa and her husband for a week. Tisa is really excited and I thought I would crochet a doily for her and her friend, Hiroko. So, this new one that I just started will be one of the gifts.

Tisa said that she had kept all of Hiroko's letters, over 100 of them, in a little cedar box that she had had since high school. She said that when she graduated, the Lane company gave these little cedar chests to girls who were graduating as a kind of hope chest. That must have stopped when she graduated in the late 1960's because we both graduated from the same high school and the girls in my class (1972) didn't get anything like that. I was just curious what they looked like, so I looked a few up on ebay and did an image search and this is what I found.


I have to say that I would love to have one of these boxes. I've been pricing them on ebay and I might bid on one soon. I don't know yet what I would put in it, but it would make a great box for just about anything that would be kept as a keepsake. Thinking about it, it's probably more nostalgia than anything else. In hindsight, wishing that I had had a pen pal, wishing that I had received one of these chests when I graduated. I love reading old letters, and cards. In fact, I think I have just about every single card that anyone has ever given me for birthdays, graduating, etc. I think it's just a wonderful piece of history, and a great nolstagic trip down memory lane. Maybe I should think about organizing them. Right now they are all in one of those large Rubbermaid containers.

Socks: Another Pair Finished

I just finished another pair of socks. I love these because they have lavender stripes in them. These are Opal Rainforest Collection and the color is Fish. I'm not sure what the color number is. I ordered this yarn from the Internet, but I was happy to find out that my LYS is going to start carrying Opal sock yarn. Now I won't have to worry about shipping charges, which can really tear a hole in your pocket. Sometimes shipping charges are almost as much as the item you're ordering. Anyhoo... I just started a new pair and I'll post a picture in progress soon.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Lately I've been working on piecing a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. This is a picture of the first block I made. I'm really proud of it and since I took this picture I've added several more blocks. It's really slow going sewing all those little hexagons together by hand, but I'm enjoying it and if I stick with it long enough I hope to have a bed size quilt.

I thought about just making enough for a quilted throw or wall hanging, but I think this pattern is so beautiful that nothing less than a bed size quilt will do it justice.

My mother-in-law has me interested in making a Double Wedding Ring quilt and I would love to do that sometime later on.

More Socks Finished

These are the green socks that I finished last night. I'm wearing them today and they are very warm. I love them. I was going to cast on for another pair of socks last night, but was really tired so I decided to wait until tonight.

One thing I've learned and that is that I love knitting socks. I never thought I would ever even want to, much less love it so much, but one of my coworkers who is proficient at it, encouraged me and I was really happy when I knit my first pair. Now I'm hooked.

More Socks

Last night I finished a pair of socks that I had been working on for awhile. I had finished the first sock and was almost finished with the second and realized that I hadn't been paying attention and didn't work the decreasing right for finishing the toe on the second sock. I had frogged the stitches and being the wimp that I am, was afraid to try to put the needles back in for fear that I would get herky jerky and pull more stitches out. I have coworker who is an experienced knitter of socks, and has no qualms whatsoever about putting needles back in stitches, so I asked her if she would do it for me and she did, bless her. These blue ones with the stripes are the result. I really like them, but they are too big for my feet. I've decided to give them to a friend of mine who loves the socks that I make for her. These should fit her nicely. They match somewhat, but I don't think she will mind. I don't remember what kind of yarn this is or the color, but I have another new skein in my stash, so I'll try to remember and look to see what it is.

I've discovered since I learned to knit socks that if I use size 2 double pointed needles with the pattern that I have, the socks will be too big for my foot, but fit her feet perfectly. If I use size 1 double points with the same pattern, the socks fit my foot. I'm glad to have figured that out.

I'm wearing a pair of my socks today that I made awhile back.

They don't match, but I really love them and they are so warm. I've decided that the next pair I make will be longer on my leg so they will be even warmer. These are Opal Lollipop (1010) and it took just one ball.

Socks

This weekend I finished one sock that I had been working on for awhile. I really like this color. It's sort of a variegated green. It's Regia Color 5572. I just started on the second sock yesterday. These cold, rainy days are perfect for watching TV, knitting, reading a good book, and napping. Not necessarily in that order. I took two naps over the weekend. One on Saturday afternoon and another one yesterday afternoon. There was a short time when the sun came out between the rain showers and while we were sitting in the sun I just got so drowsy that I had to take naps both days. I thoroughly enjoy it. I'm a firm believer in napping.

Valentine Socks

I was reading my emails this morning and got this newletter from Lion Brand with a pattern for some Valentine Socks. These socks are really cute. I would love to make a pair, but I don't know if I could get them made by Valentine's Day. I've never seen the Lion Brand Cashmere yarn in any of the stores where I buy Lion Brand yarn. This looks like fun. I'll have to check it out and see if I can find some yarn.

Disconnected

Today is my first day back at work after being off for 2 weeks. I really enjoyed the time off and I got a lot of things done. One being that I'm reorganizing our bedroom and trying to get it into shape so I can do some painting or something with the walls this spring, or maybe before spring if I can get the room ready in time. We have off-white walls in our bedroom and through most of the house. When we first moved into the house we thought off-white would be a good choice so that we could change curtains, etc., and other color schemes without having to repaint so much. Now, I feel like I want to warm up the room and really want to do something different. My good friend has beautiful wallpaper on her bedroom walls, and my cousin has a wonderful warm color that he achieved in his living room using a sponge technique. I'm pretty sure we've decided on the sponge technique for our bedroom. At least that way, if we get tired of it, we can just paint over it. With wallpaper it may be harder to change it. Plus, my cousin can help me with it.

I haven't really been doing much knitting lately, but I have been doing alot of quilting related things. I guess after doing so much frantic knitting of last minute gifts before Christmas, I just wanted to do something different now that the pressure is off. Last week I went to a quilt shop in town and they had some beautiful Dresden Plate pieces that a woman had sewn by hand and was selling for $2.00 each. I ended up buying 22 of them to make a queen size quilt for our bed. It will take about 20 of them for the bed quilt, and I plan to use the other 2 pieces to make either pillow shams, or just throw type pillows. The pieces had already been basted and turned under ready for applique. Joy, joy, not to have to worry with preparing the pieces for applique. I love to applique, but I hate getting the pieces ready for it. Mostly because I haven't found a technique that I can do with success. These pieces have been a joy to work with. So far, I've appliqued 16 of them and I only have 4 more to go before I can assemble the quilt top. I hope to have the quilt top assembled and ready for quilting sometime over the weekend.


While I was in the quilt shop a second time, I found a pretty quilt kit that had a bird on it. The background fabric and the bird pattern was already cut out and ready to go. This should applique pretty easily using fusible web and embroidery floss to use the folk art applique technique. It's sort of like a blanket stitch in embroidery. I guess I'll do that one after I finish the Dresden Plate, or I may do start on it later.


I had a really good time off. I got lots of rest when I wanted to. I went to bed when I wanted and got up when I wanted to. I ran around to different places like the yarn store, shopping or whatever I wanted to do. I work this week and then I will be off again for Martin Luther King holiday, so I'll get a 3 day weekend next weekend.

Our Internet service at home expired Dec. 31, which I'm really disappointed about and I'm really missing it. Up to now we've had dial-up, which takes forever, so I'm thinking about getting a high speed connection through our cable company. Eddie is not in a hurry since he hardly ever uses the computer, but I'm feeling really disconnected at home without being able to read blogs, and write in my own blog. Hopefully, we will get that resolved soon.