Multi-Tasking in the Quilting Cave

I said this would never happen but here I am, with multiple active concurrent projects.  I'm having great fun working block by block quilting the 2012 Craftsy BOM.

Moving to New Hampshire, I've joined a couple of local quilt guilds (in addition to the New Hampshire Modern Quilt Guild!).  The local guilds both support David's House, a place for families to stay while children are receiving treatment.  All quilts are loved and appreciated but a special request has been made for boy quilts.  I have cut fabric from my stash for the first of two Minecraft quilts.

Meanwhile, the next room in the house to get some attention is the sunporch where pillows are needed to soften things up.  Two bolster pillows and two soft, overstuffed pillows will make the window seat a little more inviting.

With all these projects going on, I had to take a break and color organize my fat quarters.  This is my collection of fat quarters that are "independent."  Right now, I am keeping FQ bundles of a given collection together on a bookshelf.

And then there is the Splendid Sampler.  Can you believe over 20,000 people have signed up for this? Yikes!  It's OK with me as my delinquency will never be noticed.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Kathy

New Cutting and Pressing Table

Here's a few things I've been working on.  First, a Yankee Swap gift.  In honor of my niece being home before her deployment we had Christmas in February, including our traditional festive Yankee Swap.  I made this little gender neutral pouch and inserted a little something.  I love Anna of Noodlehead's open wide pouch tutorial.

 A MAJOR improvement to the new sewing room is this cutting and pressing station.  

We had an Ikea base kitchen cabinet delivered to us, added four locking casters and a plywood top.   A layer of batting and heavier home dec fabric finished off the top.  It is important to ensure the fabric cover can be changed so right now the plywood is just sitting on the cabinet.

The height at almost 36" is a perfect working height for me.

The little folding ironing table near the sewing machine also got a new cover to match.

I have (finally) started to quilt the 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month.  As a follow up, Craftsy offered a Leah Day class to quilt the top.  I am really enjoying the class and learning some new FMQ'ing designs.

Lastly, a picture of our strange winter.  Last weekend the ice houses were pulled off the ice due to the warm temperatures.  This next weekend record breaking low temps are forecasted.  I love New Hampshire.

Linking up with Lorna's Let's Bee Social.

Kathy

Finished - Bunk Bed Quilts and Family Bedroom

Finishing the bunk bed quilts was a wonderful way to get my sewing momentum back.  And I am quite pleased with the results!

I used this tutorial to make these simple Irish Chain quilts and chose the fabrics to coordinate with the  queen quilt in the bedroom.

Quilting with an easy, large loopy meander was very relaxing and creates a lovely, comfy quilt.

Before today, it was like spring here in Northern New England.

The bunk bed quilts are slightly different sizes to allow for just enough over hang for each bed.

The family bedroom is in the lower level and natural lighting is limited.  We selected a light, happy wall color and white window treatments and linens to brighten things up.

The quilts were key missing ingredients needed to finish the family bedroom.  A couple of fun pillows were not part of the original plan for the room but why not?

Elizabeth Hartman's hedgehog and fox add some personality to the room.

I am still in search of something interesting to add to the wall to the left of the window but I love how the room looks now.  My husband says we need to charge our guests more now for this room!

We had a beautiful snowy day in New Hampshire today. Sunset was quite nice.

On to the next room in the house!

Linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday party.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Kathy

WIP Wednesday - Making Progress Decorating

In July we moved back into the renovated house.  We proceeded to empty boxes, set up beds and minimally decorate because it was the summer at the lake and there were much more important things to do!  Then came a beautiful fall in New England that included some travel.  Right after that we jumped into the holiday season.  During all this time we enjoyed a constant stream of visitors who  loved our new home.

Indeed we love the "new" house and still can't believe we live here but it needs a little decorating effort to make it feel more like a home.  Right now we have many blank walls, no window treatments in bedrooms and neat rooms that lack personality.  I have a plan to work room by room to jazz up the place before the summer begins.  Fortunately for this plan, so far our first full-time winter here has been extremely mild with negligible snow fall (quite a contrast from last winter!).  Therefore instead of snowshoeing out my back door, I am sewing in my new sewing cave.  Even with the lack of snow, some days the view from the sewing machine isn't too bad (most of this snow has melted).

The first room on the list is the family bedroom as it is a favorite with guests.  A queen bed and a set of bunks makes this a fun room for families to hang out in.  Although I immediately had shades installed, window treatments of some kind were needed to soften the look.  Store bought panels were enough but geesh why are they never the right length?!  Hanging the rod wide and high of the window, I needed to take off a few inches.  As much as I love to sew, heming window treatments is drudgery.  I'd rather make the window treatments from scratch.  So, this seems like quite an accomplishment!

The quilts for the bunk beds are finished.

I've also had a fun adding some personality to this room.

The room is almost complete and I promise a post soon with the full room reveal.

In other news, I have been published.  OR at least my back side has!  Yes indeed, that's me in the black outfit admiring the detail of a quilt at QuiltCon in Austin.  Can you imagine my surprise when I saw this picture in an ad for QuiltCon in Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine?

Moving onto the next room, this pile of goodies is for the next room on The List:  the sunporch.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced (perhaps last) WIP Wednesday and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts Let's Bee Social linky parties.  Happy Wednesday!
Kathy