Sisters Weekend

Since I cleaned up my studio I now have enough room to craft with friends. This weekend, my bestest friend came to play! My sister and I spent over 12 hours in my studio playing and laughing and being crafty.

When Jean and I get together we always try to challenge each other to do something different. I haven't mentioned it for awhile, so I will remind everyone that Jean has a wonderful podcast on Itunes called "Quilted Cupcake". She shares her quilting and crafting ideas and techniques and, as a bonus, she gives me shoutouts a lot! You can visit her blog at quiltedcupcake.blogspot.com for more info on her podcast and to view her show notes.

Jean's latest podcast was all about quilting for a cause. She mentioned several great ways to share a love of quilting with those in need. One of the causes was to benefit the Alzheimer's Association called Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts. The basic idea is to create a quilt that is 9x12 or smaller...small enough to fit into a priority mailer from the USPS. Each month, quilts are auctioned off to raise money for Alzheimer's research.

Of course this is a charity that is near and dear to our hearts since our Mom, Lucy, had Alzheimer's.

Jean and I spent a good part of the day working on our Priority quilts. I kept mine simple and bright, but Jean whipped up a little masterpiece so quickly it left my head spinning.

I believe this has a lot to do with our personalities. I am a planner. I plan to make plans. I make lists and follow them strictly. Jean flies by the seat of her pants and is all the more creative for it! I spent forever trying to come up with an idea and by the time I finally settled on simple circles, Jean had already pieced the top of hers.

This one is mine. I call it "Gumballs":

This is Jean's, I think she decided to call it "Lucy's House":

I must say that these pictures do not do these little quilts justice. I am so happy with how both turned out and hope that they will both raise lots of money for Alzheimer's research.

If you'd like more information on the Priority project, go here. Also, Jean and I are walking in the yearly Alzheimer's walk this year and have set a page for donations. Please donate if you are able. We need to do all we can to end this terrible disease! Visit my donation page here.

That's it for today. I had planned on posting a few other things but I think I will save them for next time!

always,

K

Under Construction

So my life has been a bit crazy lately and, to be honest, I haven't gotten much accomplished in my studio. I decided it needed reorganizing before I could get my mojo back.

I headed down there yesterday at 8am and did not emerge until 4pm. Sadly, I didn't finish everything I wanted to, but I did make some great headway.

I have debated about showing the before and after pics because....well...it was bad. Really bad. But in order to show the progress, I must show the before pics. So here goes (No judgements please!)

This is my main work area before. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to shove myself into the smallest corner of the room. Obviously, this wasn't working because I was bogged down by "stuff" piling up all around me:

I decided to put the two work tables end to end instead of perpendicular which gave me tons more space:

I still have plans to add table skirts to the two work tables that will hide the storage below among other things.

But moving the two tables allowed me to move my fabric to the bookcase I've been wanting to put it on. I was able to put all of my half yard plus fabrics on the bookcase and the quarters on a smaller shelf:

My previous shelf was full, so I stopped folding fabric. Now that I have more space, I can start folding again and I'm sure these two shelves will be full soon!

Here is a pic of the reorganized corner. (The stack of boxes will be moved, they are donation items for the local thrift store!)
So that's where I am now. I still have a ton of stuff to do, but it's progress, right?

Now, I can't leave without a little bit of crafty goodness, so I will share two quick projects I

completed.

The first is a bag that I made. In my mind it was much cuter and sturdier, and although I'll probably never use it as a purse, I still love the brightness of it:

The other project is my attempt to get a head start on my Christmas projects. I love this little snowman. He was fun and easy to make and I plan to make a whole family of little snowmen!

That's it for now. I hope to get more accomplished in my studio next weekend so that I can show pictures of the whole studio and hopefully get my mojo back!

always,

K

I'm Still Here!

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm still here and will be back this weekend with a post!

always,

K