Skip Hop

Strange title for a blog post? Perhaps. But it sums up what I decided to do this weekend...namely skipping my local Shop Hop. Really! And I'm happy about it. And relieved. After my shopping spree during the NJ Shop Hop last month and acquiring Lucy last weekend, I felt the need to curb my spending for a bit. Plus the fact that 1) I've recently visited half of the shops in the past month while helping my friend research machines so I've seen all they have to offer 2) hopping is fast and furious work and there isn't much time to browse leisurely (which I prefer) so my friend and I decided to do the other shops on mini road trips over the summer months and 3) it is impossible for me to NOT buy something when hopping and I certainly don't need anything at the moment (curbing the spending plan ya know)....so overall skipping this year's hop is a good thing. I did buy the shop hop bag weeks ago and therefore I will be able to take advantage of the 20% off-all-you-can-fit-in-the-bag-sale that happens for one week in Nov. By then I will feel ok about buying again.

So what is/was the plan for this weekend? Well...yesterday afternoon I sewed on the binding on the blue teacher quilt but it was raining all day yesterday so no pictures. Hopefully the weather will cooperate today and I can get the shots to share with you.

After that little bit was complete and while I struggle with deciding on a name for that quilt (amongst also getting the mountain of laundry done), I decided to do a quick cleanup of my studio. It has been a jumble for weeks while I worked on the teacher quilts and I just couldn't take it any more. Messes and me do not go together!

I figure you'd like to actually see what my studio looks like, bare white walls and all. As soon as mid July rolls around, the deadlines are over and a couple of trips are complete, some of the wall painting in this house is going to commence but until then, the starkness continues.

I so love having my own space, where I don't have to put it all way just to have dinner and I can see what's going on. Plus the gorgeous light that streams in those windows is absolutely wonderful (even though it washed out this photo). This is how I left things at 11:30 pm last night. My little body was bushed and although I really wanted to finish the sprucing up, I gave in and went off to bed.

On the right you can see my design wall with some of the Tribute to Danny blocks. There are a bunch more but they kept falling off from the breeze I created every time I fluffed out the teacher quilt to lay on the floor and clip the binding over. I promise that I will put them all back up soon and share a photo of the beauties together. The pile on the floor are the other 3 quilts that desperately need bindings: Jammer's 100 Good Wishes Quilt, Miss M's 100 Good Wishes Quilt and the Pretty in Pink baby quilt. The table covered with the vintage cloth and hosting some of my scrapbooking things and the kids' 100 Good Wishes scrapbooks is my mom's vintage Singer, all nicely tucked up inside. At some point I'm going to set her up for the kids to use. No reason not to let them get more into this quilting thing if they want too. Under is my magazine basket and to the left is my drawer bin with thread and other miscellany in the bottom, my scraps in the middle and all the envelopes and lovely notes sent with the Danny blocks in the top bin. Sitting on top is my basic sewing box that hubs is allowed into if he needs to sew a button back on a shirt, not that he ever does that and I end up with that task, but a girl needs a sewing box and I hunted for 2 years until I found one cool enough.

I'm sure many of you will think I am batty because I love the desk I use for a sewing table. Yes it sits higher than a typical sewing table and my machine does not recess into it but I actually prefer it that way. It makes me sit up straighter and I've found that I have a lot less back stress and aches this way.

Again to the left (I am right handed after all) is my awesome cutting table that I bought off of Craigslist last fall for my birthday. It is mega huge and really sturdy and I paid a whopping $75 bucks for it. A better deal than the flimsier ones from Joanns. I can easily clear it off to take the overhang if I am working on something big. The scrapbook tote against the wall works perfectly for my rulers, scissors and cutters etc. All the pockets make it easy to grab what I need and then put it back to help keep the mess under reasonable control. Underneath are my basket for strings (I hope to do something with these at some point), the trash can, the cross stitch projects that are meant as Christmas gifts if I ever finish them and my 2 baskets of projects in waiting (that grew from 1 basket recently). This is just proof that I need to stop buying and get sewing more...I want some of those projects actually done.

This great sign was bought during the winter and today it will get hung on the wall right above this spot. I'm tired of waiting to get this room painted before I hang things on the walls. They can always come down and go back up after, right?

And this is the other side of the room. I'm not even going to tackle the closet until I get some shelves in there even though I'm itching too. Once I get the cleaning and organizing bug I prefer to keep going until it is all done. The dresser was a pass it on from our old neighbor which holds my stash, my scrapbooking tools and small supplies. You can see all my paper bins on the top. Where originally my stash took up about 2 1/2 drawers, once I added the bounty from the NJ Shop Hop and the leftovers from the teacher quilts, it now almost totally fills 4 drawers and the scrapbooking stuff is crammed into the top one. Reason #2 to quit buying for a bit and use up some of what I already have and have plans for.

On today's agenda: finish the clean up in this room, deal with the cut offs from the blue teacher quilt (the batting bits go in a bin in the closet) bind the purple and green teacher quilt and get labels for all 3 printed. The last teacher quilt will be picked up tomorrow after work and then I only have a week to get them all totally done. 

In closing I thought I'd share a pic of my kidlets this morning with the babies. This morning they were doing as they typically do and race around the 1st floor in a harried frenzy. Whether it is just them or them pushing the strollers (a little added racing element?) my kids love to go round and round and round down the hall, through the kitchen, racing past the dining room and then rounding the corner in the playroom/future library before hooking a right at the stairs and starting it all over again. And again and again and again. They make me dizzy. Usually they are going too fast for me to get a good shot of them but they agreed to stop for a moment so I could capture this one.

Next up will be my 100th Post post and a little giveaway so stay tuned!