I'm Here for Show and Tell!

 

I have been really busy since I last posted. 

We have almost finished the downstairs. We still have the staircase to trim out and finish, but the downstairs apartment is very livable.

Above is our little kitchenette. It has a sink, microwave, and refrigerator. If we needed to add a stove, we could put a cook top in the island. We mostly keep snacks here to use with the media room.

 Here you can see it in relation to the staircase (unfinished as you see). There is a large patio door at the side that you can't really see. It is in a covered area and gives access to the back patio. (Sugarplum photo bombed me! She really likes this new area.)

 Here is the main guestroom downstairs. The bed is a queen, so the room is small, but not tiny. (The painting on the wall is an original watercolor by my sister. It is of my granddaughter and me at Topsail Island hunting shark's teeth.)

 Here is the room a year ago!

 The pink room in the BEFORE picture above, became part of the new bedroom. Two bathrooms went beside that. Here is the one off the bedroom. You can see the big window in the following guest bath photo. Since we have rock on the wall outside, we didn't want to have the expense of changing the window. 

 The vanity is tucked in at the end of the shower. The shower is quite large. 

Second bathroom off the hallway and across from the media room.

 I still need to make drapes and paint the closet door to match the walls. (Media rooms are supposed to be dark!) We designed this room as a second downstairs bedroom. The platform for the theater seats is made to be removable. The couch is also a hideabed. 

In my sewing room, I now have a rolling cutting table!

 My husband made it out of the cubicles and top I had been using. The top is actually the top from my daddy's old drafting table, so it is a sentimental addition. It is also the perfect size for a large cutting mat!

I wanted my table on wheels so I could move it around. It is perfect for moving to the side of my sewing area!

My sewing room is quite large and if this area were used as an apartment or "mother-in-law suite", this would be the living/dining room area. It even has a door to the front yard and a separate entrance as seen near the dress form above. 

We are nearing the "home stretch" now! We are slow at getting the work done, but that is the way it is when you do things mostly yourself on a budget! With the help of Craigslist, thrift shops, recycling what we had, etc., we have done pretty well I think! I love my new space.

 

September? Really?

New! Give Thanks

I can't believe it is September and fall begins on Thursday! How did that happen? I have been super busy giving presentations, teaching classes, and working on rethinking my patterns. I am going bigger, better, clearer, and with lots of pictures. That means that I have to remake the quilt to not only evaluate the pattern, but to take photos at every step. Not a quick thing to do!

New! Let It Snow!

The renovation is coming along. My sewing room is almost finished, but we still have the cutting table to do and the baseboards.

 This is my wall of cubicles. My husband built me a platform to put them on so they weren't sitting on the floor. I found the little gray collapsible baskets at Walmart! 

 This is the far end of the room. You can't really tell much yet by these pictures. The little island is temporary. We are going to build a cutting table that can be rolled around. There is a huge arched window to the left of the room at that end that gives lots of light and a beautiful view.

 Sugarplum has found a napping spot there!

The other patterns I have updated (so far!) are:

 Birthday Banner

(This has candles that can be removed and replaced and the child can put the right number on!)

 

 

Little Cowboy (or Cowgirl)

 

and The Good Shepherd.

None of these are updated in the download version yet, but will be soon. The paper version is $15 each plus shipping. 

My sister and I are also putting kits together for these patterns.

Things are beginning to happn again! 

Have a great  fall! (Oh NO! Don't! I've done that and it hurts!) I should say,

Have a great Autumn!

 

Just Sew!

I had a question about a wall hanging pattern I had in a local quilt shop and realized I had never uploaded it to my Craftsy shop! So now it is being uploaded and if you are interested in an easy, but showy, wall hanging for your sewing room the pattern is available!

On the sample above, I used buttons from my grandmother's button jar. The pins have little seed beads so they look like real pins! 

The size is 28" x 21 1/2" and the pattern is available for download at $8.99. ($12 plus shipping for a paper pattern.)

You can use my easy applique method (link to tutorial here) to hand applique or just sew it down by machine. 

Revisiting patterns I designed a few years ago gives me a renewed excitement to get started again! We are getting closer than ever to finishing the new sewing room. I can hear my husband in the background installing my cabinets! 

 The board in the middle of the room is to protect the floor from scuffing while I put together the cubicle cabinets. The cabinets in the background do not have their drawers in and are being installed against that wall. Baseboards are not installed yet. 

In the top photo, you can see the top of a large cabinet sitting out. We will have to have someone come and help install that over it's base. It's too heavy for me! 

I bought 13 ClosetMaid cubicle cabinets to put my fabric in.

I will have them stacked and anchored to the wall. I will tell you more about that when we finish. (I wish I were a ClosetMaid affiliate!

Until next time!