Getting reorganinzed

I have been busy refolding and reorganizing my new shelving unit this week. It is hard to decide where I want to put things but I am pretty much finished now and I have lots of room to add more fabric! It is nice to find some things that I had long forgotten about. The Ikea cupboards have pull out drawers that are large and easy to pull out for storing the fabric. I now have a Dear Jane drawer, a special fabric drawer ( wool, silk etc) and a Projects drawer - a drawer of batting and fusible web, a Notions drawer, Fat Quarter drawer -- and so on - I have a 12 large drawers and two shelves. As you can see I still have a couple of storage containers under the table. I think a sewing room is ALWAYS a work in progress!!

My side of the room.



Jim's side of the room. Now he has work to do!






These are the blocks I completed at the retreat on Saturday. I really love this Peace on Earth fabric. I still have one more block that is almost completed and then I am caught up to November.





And I am also working on a Professional bag for myself - like the one I made for Jessica. The outside is completed - now to do the inside.

Happy Halloween - I am off to work for 4 hours today.

A very busy weekend for Jim

Well - it was a busy weekend for me as well. I attended my all day "Quilting by the Bay" retreat on Saturday - from 9 AM to 10 PM. I really enjoy the days I can go to "QBTB" as I am not always able to attend. It is such a fun day - we get a nice snack in the morning - a great lunch and supper - a glass of wine or two and a day spent chatting with all my "Quilting Peeps" AND do a bit of sewing. I was able to get caught up on my Fat Quarter Shop BOM blocks. It is amazing how much stuff I haul off to these events and all I really needed is those five BOM blocks and my machine!!

There were a few "newbies" at QBTB this time and one of the newbies has an Etsy shop and a blog -- Patchwork Pottery She brought some cool items for sale - which for some reason I completely missed - but I did check out her Etsy shop and her blog and it is well worth the visit. And she blogged about QBTB -- and there is a picture of me on her blog! And I already ordered something from her Etsy shop.

While I was away this weekend - at QBTB and then I worked on Sunday and Monday - Jim decided to surprise me with a new shelving unit for my sewing room!



He also removed the stereo unit from my sewing area and relocated it to the computer side of the room!!


But -- I came home to a very big - hmmm - mess would be the word I'd use. He had to move a lot of things around to take out the stereo and install the new shelves. He bought new pullout drawers for the old shelving unit as well. So he took all my fabric out of the shelves and put it on my table - back in on the shelves in big piles and on my cutting table.



I have been busy today working on reorganizing my sewing room -- thanks to my thoughtful husband who realized I was having a bit of a creative crisis and decided he wanted to help. Isn't he wonderful.

I think the reorganizing is going to take a bit of time. I now have twice the shelving space -- all of the shelves are easy to see pull out shelves. But I am not sure how I want to organize the shelves -- what fabric should go with what and on what shelf. I should be an interesting week!

A couple of pictures of Hunter on his new quilt.

I am heading off to an all day quilt retreat tomorrow morning and I hope to get some serious quilting done. I have plans!!

But I thought we needed little bit of Hunter first. It has been a while since I have posted any pictures. Jessica received a new video camera for her birthday in August and she is mostly taking little videos of him and not so many still pictures.

Here are a couple of pictures she sent of Hunter with his lovely new quilt sent from San - Gypsy Quilter. San was so generous and wonderful to have sent this special quilt up for Hunter. It is such a "snuggle up and hold the baby quilt" It has the softest and prettiest yellow flannel backing. I am sure it will become a favourite quilt in no time at all.




I love this picture of him. He is starting to look more like a little boy now. Look at those cubby little arms.




Isn't he a cutie. Jessica called me on the phone yesterday to listen to him giggling away. He was just laughing and giggling. It was so nice to hear him laugh. I have been told that he really misses his Nana. I think a quick little trip to Calgary may be needed soon.

My Quilting Room aka "The Stash Disaster Zone"

I was reading Caron Mosey: Michigan Quilts today about her stash. I was thinking that her stash and my stash must be cousins! Although now that I look at my pictures I see it much more untidy than her stash -- so I must be the poor cousin nobody likes to invite for dinner -LOL

It started out so organized in my new sewing room when Andrew left home and I took over his bedroom. The big Ikea cupboard was converted into a perfect stash cupboard.




Soon it was overflowing.

I think I have been away from home either in Alberta x3 - Sask, Alaska, Washington State and the Yukon or working - more than I have been home these last 6 months or so. Rather than quilting I have been happily adding to my stash in a sort of "shopping and dropping" style. I buy fabric - go home - drop in on my cutting table and go off to the next shopping destination!

Here is my cutting table piled high with purchases that have yet to be unpacked. Mostly because I don't know where to put them.




I also have items in my sewing room that are taking up valuable floor space -- like Andrew's Ikea chair - that he doesn't want and I have no idea what to do with it. And if you look on the far right beside the table there is Jim's 1970's stereo - turntable - record albums and all!! That I would like gone as well. I think my stash would look much more organized with the extra space.

Recent purchases piled high on my ironing board - as I am not quilting so hence I am not ironing.



Under the ironing board is a big container that has fabric that I took to a retreat last November - Hummm - I am going off to that same retreat again in a couple of weeks - I won't even bother unpacking it now!
There is also some of my fat quarters from the Fat Quarter shop in Texas.



Piled under my table is my various containers -- one is scraps, one is UFO's and one is all my Dear Jane fabric -- although that is getting full and I have Dear Jane fabric piled on the ironing board now as well.


I really would love to have an organize stash - but I think at this point getting it organized would require professional help -- and someone who is interested in a Stereo for 1970!!

Turkey SURPRISE!

We had our Thanksgiving Turkey yesterday. There were only the four of us for dinner - Jim, me, Andrew and Eric. Andrew's girlfriend Anri had to work. But we had a lovely meal and a great visit with the two boys.

When the kids were in school every spring break we rented a house on Chesterman's Beach near Tofino B.C. Quite a few years in a row we would cook a turkey while we were there and spend most of the week eating turkey -- Turkey taco's, Turkey pizza, Turkey omelets, Turkey sandwiches and finally we would have Turkey SURPRISE -- like really - turkey? It is my favourite way to have turkey actually. So - although we had a great turkey dinner last night -- Tonight it is Turkey SURPRISE -- you have to say it like it is a SURPRISE!!

Step one --- everything from dinner ( except the potatoes ) goes in a big bowl and is mixed together -- gravy, all the leftover vegetables, stuffing, bits of turkey -- mix together and put in a casserole dish.




Step two -- Potatoes are cold and hard so mix in some milk, sour cream, a couple of eggs and some grated cheese -- whip up with the electric beater until nice and fluffy and smooth.





Step three -- put potatoes mixture on the turkey mixture and bake in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.




Step four -- wait for it to cook!



There is Jenny hoping just a bit more turkey will fall on the floor!!

We went for another nice walk today in Lighthouse Park - the day was gray but there was no rain. And we went and voted - so we can sit and watch the Federal election results while we eat Turkey SURPRISE.

It is so nice to travel but there is no place like home!

Well - it was a nice week. Relaxing and restful - although I worked Monday and Tuesday and they were very busy days - the weather at the beginning of the week was sunny and warm.

We started off the week going for a lovely walk through Lighthouse Park. One of our favourite places in the Vancouver area to go for a walk. There are still 500 year old cedar trees growing there. And there are many paths that wind along the park - through the Forest and along the ocean. It is only a 15 minute drive from our house so we are pretty lucky.



I have posted a few Lighthouse Park pictures before - it is such a great place to take pictures. I don't know if I have any pictures of the really big trees. It was a good walk - we did about 1 hour of steady walking and 1 hour of looking -LOL. Good for the soul!!




Most of the tomatoes we grew this year were eaten by the neighbours as they ripened while we were in the Yukon. Apparently they enjoyed them thoroughly -LOL. This week there were a few tomatoes left on the pathetic looking plants. The tomatoes are really sweet this year. I made a Tomatoe and Basil Pie that I found the link for on Carole's blog. Very, very tasty -- thank you Carole. And it was two meals!!



And I started so sewing - I am making myself a "Professional bag" like the bag I made for Jessica for the baby. I am moving right along with it. It has been so long since I made the last one that it is like starting over again. I cut all the fabric out before summer and never got to it - and so now I bought some other fabric in Red Deer when I was visiting Anna - that I like better then this fabric - oh no! I might have to make another. But I really like this fabric now that I am actually sewing it together.



I am starting to make my way around the blogs again -- it is nice to catch up on everyone. Although I accidentally clicked on "Mark all as read" in my Google Reader - it then said "Are you sure" and for some reason I wasn't clear what I was doing - and said Yes!! Anyway I guess it will be a new beginning for blog reading - LOL

All in all it was a good week. Now I am going for lunch with my friend from UBC - who I haven't seen since May.
Have a great weekend.