Rearranging My Studio and a New SnS quilt top

Yesterday I decided it was time to move furniture. I don't know what it is about some folks, but we have this need to rearrange. Yep, it's the same ole stuff but when it's organized a different way it seems to brighten up the environment and offer a sense of new beginnings. A freshness.

So that's what I did. I couldn't tell you how many times I've rearranged my studio - we've been here 3 years this month and it's gone through lots and lots of rearranging and reorganizing. Most of it has been documented in my webshots album. I'm not totally done with this newest edition so I'll wait to take more photos once two more corners of the room are tidied up.

Basically what I did was move my little couch from in front of the yellow quilt to the opposite wall in exchange for my ironing station, in the corner, the section with the three sets of wire drawers - that's my stash all organized on Fabric Organizers. I decided that the two stations - ironing and cutting should be together as well as all the wire drawers that hold my customer quilts in waiting. The cool thing is I rediscovered my Alto's Quilt Cut that was my major purchase back in 2001 at the Houston International Quilt Festival. Alto's out with QuiltCut2, but I'm thinkin that I'm going to enjoy my "original". Watched the video last night to refresh my memory and can't wait to speed cut some accurate squares and strips to use with my Square in A Square designs, It's hard to see in the photos, but it's on the table above the white pull out drawers and in front of the basket on the table that holds my snippets.

The area behind my longarm has stayed pretty much the same - I need to do a little spot cleaning - but the other two corners are not photo ready yet (grin)

On the wall next to the large couch by the window I have mov ed my little sewing table. It's sorta crowded in the corner with my hutch that I inherited from my 105 yr old great aunt who went home to be with the Lord last year the day after Thanksgiving (that's her couch too, I also inherited 7 of her quilts). On the wall where the ironing station used to be I now have the little couch. I haven't decided yet how I'm going to redo the quilts on the walls, that's usually a "honey do" project that I'll have to enlist help with.

In the meantime, it's been fun to revisit my stash and my ever growing UFO's or personal quilts in waiting. Goodness, I have two personal quilts that have been waiting for their turn on the longarm since July 2005 (I pieced them on a retreat on my birthday is how I can remember when they were finished!). My goal is to work through some of my projects that have been started and are near completion in the piecing, then they'll join the others as quilts in waiting to be quilted.

Here's one I finished on Sunday after church. It's a Square in a Square pattern called Garden Party. I've made it as a class sample with just 5 blocks, and hope to make a larger full size one sometime in the future. The blocks were in sqares when I started on Sunday, adding the cross-sash and cornerstone in the middle to complete the block, then I cut the setting blocks and added a couple of borders. Once quilted this one may just find itself on my wall - who knows! Every thing changes around here (smile) and that's a good thing. Don't ever want to be accused of being boring!