Other Days

We all need a 'other day' from time to time. It's where we take a break from what we usually do and do something different, something 'other'. Today I had one of those days. I finished a quilt very early (9:30 a.m.) and decided to reorganize my canning jars and pantry in the garage. It's a job that no one really wants to do, anyway, I don't know of anyone who wants to do it who lives here. The feeling of accomplishment when a task like that is completed is wonderful. I finished that job by 11:30. So it was time to do something fun. I sewed a dress for my granddaughter. I bought the fabric way back at the beginning of summer intending to make a sundress for her. Here it is the first day of fall and it's finally made. The good news is that I made it a size big so maybe she'll be able to wear it next summer. The other good news is that it's almost 90 outside. It's perfect attire for today -- I better run it over to her before the weather changes!

Work First Then Play

I spent today cleaning. First my bedroom, which often becomes the dumping grounds for books, magazines, papers and stuff that just doesn't seem to have a home. I even sorted through all the bathroom cupboards and collected a whole garbage bag of stuff. It was amazing how many body gels and lotions I had saved with only a 1/2 inch left in them. Then I moved on to my studio. That too needed a good cleaning. After two quilting projects in the last two weeks there were scraps to put away, patterns and books to return to their proper place, and vacuuming of a lot of threads and fabric dog ears. All in all, I spent about 4 hours cleaning. The end result is I feel ready to play. Even though I want to have a relaxing week and one with some fun projects either started or completed, there is a great feeling with starting out with things clean. I can hear my mother's voice, "work first, then play". She was right you know!

Move To The New Studio

It happened! Over the weekend we moved all my sewing and quilting into my new studio. What a task! Since we were switching two rooms around and both rooms were full of paraphenelia, it was a huge undertaking. After painting the room, we moved all my daughters things to one side (as much as possible). Then we started to dismantle the longarm. It's been in my old studio for 9 years so I had no idea how it came apart. I asked my husband if he wanted me to take pictures of it, or find the manual so we knew how to put it back together, but being a guy, he said he didn't need instructions. Well, I would have been lost after the first two bolts were removed, but my great husband expertly took it apart and then reassembled it in my new studio.

After the longarm was in place, then everything else was emptied out of my old studio. There were boxes piled everywhere. I found projects and fabric that I couldn't even remotely remember ever having! By this time it was late Saturday night so everything had to come to a halt until Sunday afternoon. The next step was cleaning the old studio. Then we began to move all of my daughter's things into that room. Meanwhile we had piled up things all along one side of the new studio. Finally, everything was in the right room. The process of getting everything into a new place lasted well into Monday. I have about 2/3 of my sewing room put away. What is done looks wonderful, but one corner of my new studio is filled with bins and boxes of projects and nowhere to store it. There is a great walk-in closet in the room and someday I will have that for storage, but right now it still contains all my daughter's clothes and other items that will have to stay there until she returns home and for as long as she still lives at home. So it may be close to a year before I get use of the walk-in closet. I have a few ideas to help store my projects and fabric but at least some of it will have to find a home in either our shed or our garage.

It is exciting to think of sewing and quilting in my new studio. In fact, in the excitment of anticipation, I will probably have trouble deciding what to do! My hope is to eventually use my new space to have friends in to sew with me. I also will be able to use my space to continue to teach sewing through 4-H to young future seamstresses and quilters.