In Mom’s Sewing Room!

Yesterday was a day for just being together.

We didn’t do much of anything, but we wound up in mom’s sewing room as she had a couple of things she wanted to show me and a couple of things she wanted some ideas on.

I’m game!

I love seeing what she has done with her little sewing space in the little cottage house she lives in.

Do you spy her featherweight?

I was so excited when she got the little machine to take on retreats and to simply sew with.

Her big beast Pfaff is off to the left under the pile of fabric we were sorting! LOL!

The big Pfaff is great for the simple machine quilting that mom does, or sewing through heavier things like jean quilts for the grandsons.

She has made good use of her space!

She has even added a little folding table as a cutting table, and has use of a closet for storing yardage:

Cutting up and kitting up!

This area is what we started working on.

She’s got bins like I do, but wanted some help with the jumbled and folded pieces that were in them by color.

I gave just a few hints on how I personally work with things, and it is going to be different dependent upon the kind of cuts someone stashes, or the space they have available.

Green bin looking much better!

Mom has 5 sons and also works with a lot of recycled fabrics from shirts.  Guess who she has to blame?  Instead of having pieces folded in small bundles and placed in the drawer in a double layer assortment, we refolded until the pieces were as tall as the drawer so she can flip through them easily to find what she needs.

There weren’t enough greens to fill this drawer so we stuck in a plastic shoe box that can hold her cut squares that she has kitted up, ready to work with.

The big thing is to not to have to DIG for the fabric you want, but having each piece visible by the fold at the top.

Use the entire height of the drawer to make the best use of the space within the drawer!  This might mean some creative folding on your part to fill the container you've chosen to use -- but it is better than having things behind things, or things under things.  You will know what you have in plain sight!

Her drawer system will work for everything from fat quarters to pieces less than a yard.  We agreed that things more than a yard will go on the shelves in the closet.

It’s a start – it will take her a while to get where she wants to be with it, but at least she now has a direction she is eager to go.

We also started a discard pile, and those pieces she no longer loves or wants will be donated to the local thrift shop where they will be adopted and used by someone who wants them.

SO cute!

This is mom’s “My Favorite Things” hexie quilt she has been working on off and on over the past 3 years.  She works on it when she feels like it and each word means something special to her.

It is amorphous!  It is growing in its own direction without boundaries or borders and she is designing as she goes, finding this a very creative and freeing process.

She said she will work on one word at a time, forming the words purposely in NOT a straight line, and then figures out where the word is going to go and how to fill in the spaces between words with flowers and other neutral hexies as background.

And Sew it Grows!

Today’s plan is to take another long morning mountain walk, and head into the little town of Crouch to do some window shopping and wandering.  There is an art gallery I’d love to see, and who knows what else we will wind up doing in a very small town where everyone knows everyone ((and everyone’s business!))

It’s our last day together and we need to fill it full enough to last until the next time I am able to get away for a bit of respite on Mama’s Mountain.

Click Here to like our Quiltville Friends Page on Facebook for more fun!

Click Here to join our sister group, Quiltville's Open Studio on Facebook, a place to Sew, Share & Grow!!