Found: my mojo

It seems that I'm fated to go through a couple of weeks each year, when all I can do is function; usually maintaining a smile on my face, but still, just the bare minimum.

Assemble your supplies: a butt-ugly clock that you once thought was so cool;
a handful of paint chips and something to cut them with; glue; (not shown) paint;
a paintbrush; (also not shown) something to use as a topcoat - like modpodge

Remove the clock hands if you can (or just work around them... mine didn't come off).
Cut the paint chips to size (I did 2" square) and glue them down,
trimming the center ones around the clock mechanism.

A time when I have nothing extra to give.

After the glue has dried, trim the edges and sand them smooth.
I also sanded down the top, to smooth the edges of the paint chips
where they were sticking up a bit.

Also I like the distressed look.

Mostly it seems to happen during the dark winter months. I thought I'd staved it off this year. Apparently I only postponed it.

Add a light coat of paint: I used Golden's Titan Buff... I painted on a section
and then rubbed it off, leaving a very thin coat.

Add whatever decoration you like: I painted the bird silhouette
and then sanded it down as well. Stamp on the numbers,
and add a protective topcoat.

 I think I'm back now. We'll see.

Here's the clock in my newly-tidied sewing room.

Open Studios virtual tour

So here's my space. As you can see, it's not very fancy. I share the room with the furnace, the hot water tank, the built-in vacuum, and our freezer. In an ideal world, I'd have painted the walls a soft turquoise, and there would be built-in cabinets instead of the random shelving that I've got. There would also be big windows - not one tiny little north-facing one that's half covered by the porch stairs outside... Ah, well. 

I do a lot of sewing, as well as knitting and paper art, so I've tried to divide the room up accordingly, but there is some overlap.

On the left-hand side of the room (facing in from the hallway) I have a small desk that I use for painting and mixed media art. I keep my paints and assorted goodies in the rolling stacked bins under the desk, and there are more paints and brushes and stamps and things in the shelves above it. As you can see, a lot of my fabric has migrated across to that side of the room as well... there's just not room for it on the other side! Also, I keep bins of fabric scraps and works-in-progress in the little closet-y area that also holds the vacuum canister. As you can imagine, it's a real pain to empty out that space when it comes time to dump out the vacuum! 

The other side of the room is where I do my sewing. My cutting table is tucked into the IKEA shelving unit, but can be pulled out if I need to use the entire space. The bins above the table hold my cutting tools (out of reach of the 4-yr-old), buttons, zippers, purse hardware, and other necessities. My larger pieces of fabric are kept in the big shelf unit beside the sewing machine. I like having them where I can see them - I tend to forget about things that are put away! Above the sewing machine are my boxes of yarn, sorted by weight. You can catch a glimpse, behind the sewing machine area, of my pride and joy of the summer... my pantry. It's tucked away under the stairs, along with all of our christmas things.

Signing up for this virtual tour was a real kick in the pants for me - getting the room organized and cleaned. I'm a messy worker, and I don't really like putting things away. One benefit, though, was finding out that I have two copies of the book Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin. If you'd like to have a copy, leave a comment saying so, and I'll draw a name in a few days.

New digs

My house is in an upheaval right now. It's time for 3-year old Ellie to be moving out of our bedroom. So most of the kids are rotating rooms, and I'm vacating my present sewing room. This is the mess that's presently in there, waiting to be sorted through. How (and why!) did I manage to collect so much stuff???

This is the new sewing set-up.

Cutting table and fabric stash:


All of my yarn is now sorted into boxes by weight... do you think I might have enough???

Progress!

Look what $100 can do!!!

Well... that plus several hours of sorting, stacking, folding, tossing, etc...

The folding inspiration came from this blog, and even though it took a very long time, I'm so happy with the results! I just stand and look at my fabric with a dopey grin on my face. Of course, now I can really see the gaps in my stash... need. more. browns!

And the timing couldn't be better, too, with Karey Bresenhan announcing the new 2008 Journal Quilt project today on the QuiltArt mailing list. You can see a hint of my first quilt laid out on the ironing board. But, of course, all quilts will be kept under wraps til I find out if they will be shown at Houston. Yep. This is to be a juried exhibit, for the first time.

And, I've also got some progress to report on the knitting front... I've decided not to wait til next fall to finish my vest... it's almost ready to split for the armholes and neck shaping (note to self: must find the last skein of yarn!)

Frustration

What do you do when you're feeling full of creativity, and you walk into your studio (aka the laundry room) and you're greeted with this???














$1000 at IKEA would let me whip this room into shape, so there'd be a place for everything (whether it would all be in its place is another matter)... problem is, a thousand bucks is exactly what I don't have.

So, what did I do this afternoon?
Did I clean up?
Noooooo....
No. I didn't.
Instead I did another pattern repeat on the Tweedy Vest from the fall/winter 2005 issue of knitscene.
I started it back in November.
At this rate, it'll be finished by next fall...

The funny thing is that I hesitated for months about making this vest because I didn't want one with cables. But it was the only one I could find with a scooped neck (which I wanted), so I finally gave in.

It wasn't till I was almost finished the first 8 rows that I realized it isn't a cabled vest.

I'm so dumb sometimes.