Organization in My Sewing Room!

My sewing room can get in a mess, for sure, but thanks to a good friend things are looking a lot better around here!  Through my quilt shop, I have met some of the most talented people and made some very sweet, creative friends. Meet a very special one today, Mr. Paul Johnson. His wife, Ann, is a prolific quilter/sewer, giving away most of the things she makes to charities and family. I can't say enough about how thoughtful and kind and generous they are.

Placing Paul's ladder (which isn't technically a ladder, but a quilt display rack) right next to my machine keeps strips in perfect order and ready for sewing.

Paul happens to love woodworking...and he's very good at it. His finished projects are as smooth as melted butter, and the woodgrain is fine and pure. He loves wood like I love fabric.

For my birthday, Paul and Ann (Ann's part was allowing it to come to my sewing room and not hers!) gifted me with a beautiful 'ladder' for displaying quilts. It lives in my sewing room, and when I'm working on a project that requires sewing lots of strips together I remove the quilts and hang my strips on the rungs! Placing the ladder right beside me at my sewing machine is like having a sewing butler at my side, holding the strips neatly in order for me!

Then...just look at this thread cabinet (below, left)! It organizes my embroidery thread cones and keeps them free of dust! The other cabinet holds containers of buttons and other necessities, all handy and harmonized. Notice the yardstick trim and wooden spool knobs on the doors? Perhaps one of my very favorite things is the embroidery hoop organizer placed between the two cabinets. Where else does one keep all those hoops? Oh, and don't overlook the ruler rack on the left wall. Thank you, Paul and Ann!

In addition to the things I've shared today, Paul makes wooden chests with clear sides and tops for storing quilts, custom plastic rotary cutting templates (any shape!), customized wooden quilt hangers, and thread stands for using large cones at your sewing machine. If you're in need of something beautiful to help you organize, just let me know and I'll put you in touch with the Handicrafter!

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

Uncomplicated Quilting

Sometimes a quilter's life just calls for the uncomplicated quilt. One that can be pieced one day, quilted and bound the next, and enjoyed for years to come! Zippy Strippy to the rescue!

Pieced and Quilted by Sarah Overton. https://mycrowdednest.wordpress.com/                             photo by Callie Lynch

This pattern, available here, is perfect for showing off a full line of fabrics and how well they play together. I've made several in the past, but for this Zippy Strippy, I chose Forest Floor fabrics by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. Art Gallery offered one of the prints from the line in voile, which I decided to use for the backing! Pima Cottons for the top, organic cotton batting, and billowy voile for the back pretty much guaranteed the softest, cuddliest quilt I'd ever made!

We took to the forest to photograph Forest Floor for Art Gallery's Look Book, and since it was a little chilly, Bonnie took the opportunity to bundle up! She said it was her favorite quilt, just because of the softness of the voile. If you've never tried using this ultra soft fabric, by all means, give it a try with your next quilt. By the way, the term voile comes from France and means veil. As a proper southerner, I tend to pronounce it as if it rhymes with spoil, but here's a YouTube video sharing the correct pronunciation. I stand corrected. No matter how you say it, it's soft, drapey fibers are wonderful for quilts, garments, scarves, window treatments and more!

You'll find Forest Floor fabrics, with free shipping, here. While on the website, don't forget to check out Bonnie's other fabric lines, which include 100% Pima Cotton, Cotton knits, canvas and, of course, voile!

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

Soap and Sewing

What do soap and sewing have in common? Actually, the two go hand in hand! Let me get on that soapbox for a minute to shout the accolades of a wonderful little cleansing bar! Never before have I thought I could be so in love with soap until one of my quilt guild buddies mentioned it at a meeting recently. After her ovation I just knew I had to give it a try. This little bar is hand made by one of our guild members, Jeannie McDougall, right here in my home town. I asked Jeannie about her soap and she graciously gave me a bar to try. In less than 60 seconds I was a believer! My hands, like all sewists, quilters and fabric handlers, are chronically dry because fabric just draws all the moisture right out! I get so tired of having dry skin, and using hand cream isn't a great solution for me because I don't want to get the cream on the fabric.  This little, unscented bar of soap fixed my dry skin. Period! You can get your hands on some here!

With the simplest of ingredients, Jeannie has developed this soap to leave your skin feeling soft and smooth. It lathers like crazy, and I find myself washing instead of applying lotion! But don't just use it for your hands...when Jeannie told me that she shampoos her hair with it, I was skeptical at first, because I've been attached to my shampoo & conditioner for a long time. I finally did give it a try as shampoo. Double believer. No cream rinse necessary. Want to give it a try? Click here!

Wooden soap dish not included.

A round of hand-clapping for this hand-softening marvel!

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing with soft hands and God bless! Maxie

On Pincushions

I am a collector of pincushions, and many of my friends know it! I've been gifted with very beautiful pincushions, I've made some and bought some, and I use them! I like to keep one at every station in my sewing studio so that I'm not constantly searching for pins. Here are a few from my collection.

But, realistically, this is what happens at the sewing machine.

It can take so long to pick them up, then pick up the ones that slipped through my fingers and onto the floor, and arrange them into the pincushion. So, I added one more pincushion to my collection.

There are many brands, but this one from Dritz has a little secret drawer on the bottom for chocolate. The package said it was for extra pins, but this just made more sense to me. And yes, I eat them straight from the bag.

So, collect many pincushions and use them all, but have at least one magnetic pin caddy for quickly picking up loose pins. It's very easy to transfer them from the magnetic one to a fabric one because the pin heads stay together!

Thanks for visiting! Happy sewing and God bless! Maxie

Quilt Binding Clips...Wait, Wonder Clips?

I don't know why I call these cute little things binding clips. It seems so limiting. Yes, I do use them for helping hold my binding in place when I'm stitching, whether by hand or machine. But I've found lots of other uses for them and today I decided that they are indispensable. With Quilt Market at hand, Bonnie and I are burning the midnight oil making samples from her Succulance line for her booth. Here is today's project:

Bonnie wanted a bit of an urban look for this large, zippered tote, and here's what I came up with. There may be a pattern in the near future, but let me share a few pictures of the process with you.

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The first picture shows how clips helped hold the bottom of the bag for me as I boxed the corners. The middle picture shows how clips held the faux leather in place as I made the straps. Virtually impossible to do with pins. The last picture shows how I used clips to hold the lining to the top of the bag for stitching. Did you know that the back sides of the clips are flat in order to feed through on your sewing machine bed? (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.) So, I must stop calling them binding clips and use their proper name: Wonder Clips! If you haven't added these to your sewing chest, you might want to consider doing so! You'll find them on my shopping page. Leave a comment and tell me how you use your Wonder Clips!

Thanks for visiting today! Happy Sewing and God bless! Maxie