Farmer's wife Sampler blocks are done!

When I get close to the end of the block piecing I tend to have a final spurt of energy, and so it was with FWS. A variety of methods were used, but mostly using Marti Michell templates, and a bit of strip piecing, and finally paper pieced about three of them.
This top picture shows all of them on my new design "shade", the vanishing design wall. It pulls down quite a ways more (twice as long as it is wide), but not so easily with the sewing cabinet in front of it!

Baby quilt done

Another baby quilt from Lickety-Split Quilts for Little Ones by Laurie Bevan, this one started square, but got turned rectangular by adding another row on the top and the bottom. I played around in EQ before deciding on this variation. Fabrics are Kaffe Fassett's Roman Glass (two colorways) and Splash (Blank textiles).
Believe it or not, I mostly used Marti Michell templates for this quilt, except for the large center square and the large quarter square triangles, those I printed from EQ and used a MM template to trim the points so all the pieces went together nicely (without rabbit ears).

Placemats and shutters

Placemats are ready to be quilted! I made two variations, four each. Now to decide how to quilt them. I decided to bind them after all, rather than flip inside with a turning hole. Still debating on the binding fabric, but it could easily be the lightest fabric, which is also the napkins. Need more wooly thread for the serger, it takes two and I only have one spool each of two possible colors (which aren't quite the colors either). The checked fabric is the backing for six of the placemats. Need something for the other two.


You can barely see my new mats (from Martelli), gotten at PIQF. They cover the table nicely (moved the Alto cutting system to the old cutting table). they have different colors on each side, yellow for dark and purple for light. So far I like them a lot.
The shutters are installed! Now I don't live in a fishbowl when in the sewing room. It is a converted garage, so faces the street, and cardboard in the windows was getting old. Also have the track lighting installed. You can't see it in the dark picture at the bottom, but it goes around the room, lighting the work areas and the storage cabinets, with three different controls, which are also dim-able.


Last night I was looking at Annie Smith's blog (http://simplearts.com/blogs/), and she said it took her two weeks, 40 hours per week, to sort through her stash. So I figure it will take me to the end of the year, since I also have a day job. Which I better get to!

Placemats

While sorting through things I rediscovered the fabric I bought a "while back". I used some of it to make the triangle table runner late last year (I think) and hoped to make some placemats and napkins with the rest of it. Rather than just storing it again, I decided to just do it! found a very easy placemat idea online and went for it. I needed another fabric in order to make 8 placemats with the same coloring, but found some in the stash pretty quickly. One is pieced, and one is partially sewn, and the rest are cut into strips. I cut the strips with my Martelli rotary cutter, 8 layers of fabric, and used the Alto cutting system. Made very quick work of the cutting, love it! No pictures yet, but soon. I'll need to dig out the serger for the napkins. Retiring some placemats the other day probably helped me along in the decision to make some more. And now I don't need to find a place to store that fabric!
"http://www.quiltcetera.com/Tutorials/Tutorials/placemats.html" is where I found the placemat pattern.

Sewing room usable

Progress has been made! While not everything has been sorted and put away, OK, very little sorted, and a bunch put away, I can actually start sewing in here. The cutting table has been cleared, the Alto has a space, along with the other mats on top of the new cutting island. I'd like the mats to fit better, but they will work. You can see the old cutting island (buffet) in the back of the picture. You can see it is taller than the new island, but DH says he can lift the new one to be the same height. At some point the buffet will turn into a pressing station, I think. The plywood on top of it will be trimmed and turned into a large pressing board.
The quilt hanging from the cabinets is trying to inspire a quilting design. Finished the top ages ago, but never quilted it.

Right now I put my pressing board on top of several project totes, which is close by the sewing station. A couple of things are actually there now, the pressing board and a June Tailor Square n' Block, which doesn't really work for pressing all that well (too cushy), but I do use it for a small design wall. The hole between the totes gives access to the plug outlet in the floor. My Civil War Diary and Baltimore Christmas stuff are in the small satchels between the totes.

Sewing station with easy access to the computer. I watch DVDs on it now, someday will get a TV in here too. Still need to bring in the printer. In back of the monitor, more totes with projects to be started.

The back side of the cutting table, finally found a spot where the file boxes can go. Thread on the floor was displaced with the boxes, it needs to find a new home.

The room is shaping up, now to sew a bit!