Happy Birthday

We had the pleasure of seeing one of the boys this weekend. We celebrated out son's birthday while he was home. This photo is the best. Look at all the smoke from all those candles! Guess that's what happens as one gets older, more and more smoke with all the candles.

Taking the honors to cut the cake . . . there was plenty to go around. It was a yummy lemon cake with low sugar vanilla frosting. There is lots of cake left over.

I haven't had lemon cake for a long time. It sure was tasty. We enjoyed the visit with our son and his fiance. It was fun to have the opportunity to get together over the last couple days. We had lots of catching up with the two of them. We got out of the house to see the new James Bond movie last night.

All in all it turned out to be a great weekend. They headed back home this evening in order to be at work tomorrow. Now it's back to just the two of us in the house (and our three dogs) again.

I ended up going through some of my stuff in the red room and the studio this weekend. Turns out I found I can "donate" some of my extra stuff to my son's fiance. She's nearly done with her teaching degree. She's starting to collect things she would find useful for teaching classes. I have lots of extra "stuff" so we went through some of that. I managed to send several boxes of "stuff" out the door with them when they left. I have so much though. It's hard to tell anything of it is gone. Now that I know there are things she might be interested in using with her future kid's classes I can put some more things aside as I continue to sort and purge while I organize my studio and all my "stuff".

I still want to go further in sorting, purging and organizing my stuff. Just this weekend, looking in boxes I haven't opened in so long, I find I'm in need of being more critical and ruthless in disposing of things. I am liking the idea of getting rid of more stuff to open up the feel of the room. There are just too many boxes and containers of stuff that it feels crowded and closed in. When I see photos of some sewing rooms and studios I find I like the ones that are open, well lighted and airy. I like the idea of more space. That's what I'm aiming for. It'll come one day, I just need to pace myself and keep working in that direction.

New to Etsy.com

I recently signed on to Etsy.com and today signed up to be a seller on the site. This website features hand-made items for sale so is a good place to post some of the things I have made. At the moment the listings I am putting up are for items I have made in the past. As I have been cleaning up and sorting through my sewing studio I have come across a lot of items I am ready to part with.

I have many boxes of things I made years ago for craft shows I used to participate in. When I quit doing those shows I just packed up the items that I still had left on hand. These dolls have been sitting here, boxed up in a box of favorite items to keep, for quite some time. I am afraid much of the other hand painted wood items may not be worth much now as that trend has pretty much gone by the wayside from what I can see. I may try to post some of those, but I think most of it may end up going to the second hand store for charity once I am all through with sorting it. My only other option if I cannot sell it on Etsy or Ebay is to give it away, give it to charity, or just toss it out. I've still got lots of boxes and stuff to go through, but decided it was time to start parting with some of it.


The cloth dolls I am now listing are some of the more interesting things I think should still be of interest for other cloth doll collectors. I have thought more than once about just boxing them back up to keep awhile longer, but I have to ask myself why keep it if I don't have room to have them out for display any longer. I have made so many things over the years I have run out of room for display, and would also like to free up some room from my storage area. I am interested in getting back into creating some new things, but feel I need to make room for more first.

I made the white doves as a counter to all the black of the blackbirds in the sunflowers. My sister lived in Iowa at the time I came up with these. We went to visit that summer and witnessed the floods covering and blocking our route to get to her house. We must have driven at least an hour and a half or more out of our way trying to find a road open to get through. The dove symbolizes hope in a stressful and challenging time or event.
The original poem I wrote myself and put on the hand-cut and hand-painted wooden cutout of the rainbow and cloud motif. The poem reads:

Noah & Co. stayed safe in the ark. . . and after the flood on a mountain did park. A rainbow set high in the cloud above - God's promise forever of His abiding love!

I wanted to write something fairly short that I could make fit on the small wooden cutouts while also covering the message of the story of Noah and the Ark and God's faithful promise of hope given with the rainbow. The back side of this small wooden cutout is dated 1994. It's hard to believe it was that long ago when I originally made these doves. I always liked these little doves. Actually I liked all these little dolls, must be why I kept them around for so long. But, it's now time to make room for more things to come.

I looked for dates on the other two dolls, but apparently didn't mark these. I'll sign them before I let them go. I remember I used to hand sign the backs of the heads or on the back side or the back of a leg. The dolls are meant to be used for collector items, not for children's play toys. The garments are sewn on and are not meant to be removeable. Some of the stitching and small parts just are not recommended for children's playthings.

My etsy shop can be found by clicking on the sidebar where indicated, or click here at reenie581.etsy.com to see these and other current items I am selling.

Studio Re-Organization Progress So Far

I have been busy with the reorganization of the Sewing Studio this week. Here are a few photos showing some of the progress on that front. So far I am pleased with what has been accomplished, but I still have a huge stack of stuff to go through in the other room. The goal for this coming week is to try to get that stack of stuff whittled down to manageable groupings. I originally thought I would put a bunch of stuff in a yard sale, but I am dragging my feet on that idea. I don't really look forward to sitting around out in a yard sale. It just doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'll divide what I don't want any longer into groups and sell it on-line.

This is another view of the organizing that is done so far. I labeled and sorted small bins with my ribbons, trims and various embellishments. I know I have more of this kind of stuff to sort through this next week. We'll see how much more shortly. Perhaps I'll have to part with some if I don't get it to fit where I want it to go. This shelf is essentially filled.

I love the look of those Aunt Gracie 20s-30s reproduction fabric prints. I purchased this stack of this type of fabric to create a quilt. I want to start working on my idea for this quilt soon. It's been on my mind lately. So once all the sorting and organizing are complete I'll have that move higher up on my list of priorities. The folded fabric below the ribbon-tied stack is in this fabric category. That means there is quite a bit of fabric to work with. My idea involves digitizing some 20s-30s type applique designs using this fabric. I have not started digitizing any of the applique shapes that are in my head yet. I know there will be a butterfly, a flower, a Scottie dog among the designs. These are typical applique shapes for the period. I may have to do a little research to see what else was the rage at that time. I want my designs to fit the period, but be unique from other designs already being used for this type of quilt.

Sewing Studio

I'm working on clearing clutter and organizing the studio today. I was here for awhile yesterday starting some work on it, but ran out of steam before I got too far. Here are a few glimpses of what I am seeing: This golden chicken is something I made several years ago. I used it as a sample for a class I taught once. It was about using the decorative stitches available on our machines for a useful project - small, quick and easy to sew together with just a few seams.


These pics are just some of the current fabric stash. I have them stacked right now, somewhat by color. I am going to be working at cutting most of the fabrics into 2 1/2" strips for jelly roll quilts. I'm also planning to cut blocks in 3", 4", 5", 6" sizes. These work right for most quilts.

I have this stack of whites and off-whites to use for lights in quilts, and some to use for backgrounds for machine embroidery. This is pretty much my full stack of lights. Looking quickly through the stash I could probably use more lights to balance so much of the darks.

The third stack is a mix of black and white prints and some assorted colors. This grouping of color pieces are fairly small. They'll likely be cut to 2 1/2" strips as I get time. The scraps of plaid you see are already left overs from other projects. They are not very big, so I'll cut what I am able to from them and see how many blocks I come up with. Again, they will be 3", 4", 5" or 6" blocks.

Here's a look at how I have chosen to sort some of my smaller scraps. These are mostly odd-ball sized strips narrower than 2 1/2" but I hated to throw them out. They will make a String Quilt - a scrap quilt with randomly sewn narrow strips of fabric scraps. I recently saw some sites on the web that talked about Crumb Quilts. This is somewhat along the same idea, but crumb quilts use tiny pieces, not narrow strips. I had not heard this term before this week, but apparently I have been making Crumb Quilts for awhile not. I've got several blocks pieced like an old crazy quilt using up random small scrap pieces. I like the name Crumb Quilt.

Color in my life

I love color in my life. This is a sampling of new thread racks I purchased recently. I managed to get these sorted at least - Yeah! I am making some progress on my sewing studio. You'll notice these are an assortment of brands, but I have the most of Madeira brand threads, probably because that is what we sold where I used to work. I like this brand. At some point when I run out of some of the others I'll probably end up switching to all Madeira.

It's a little thing to have these all sorted and lined up by color, but it makes me feel good to look at that wall of threads and see ORDER! I'll keep plugging away on more of this room little by little. I sneak in sorting and organizing mini sessions between other things (like waiting for my printer to finish a task, between taking the dogs for a walk and starting some homework, etc). I figure 5-10 minutes here and there will add up. Plus I can look at areas of the room and see progress. It gives me hope that this will eventually all get accomplished!

I took all three dogs out for a walk today. We did not get snow that was in the forecast. It hit a bit further north. We got a little rain scattered about. There was still a feel of dampness in the air. That along with the wind lead me to go back to wearing my wool jacket and leather gloves on our walk. Quite a lot of other dogs and their owners were hitting the sidewalks today as well. We came upon many and every single one of them Sugar and sometimes Sparky had to be vocal and bark at them. She needs to be socialized more to wean her away from that behavior. With all the barking and protesting she was doing it was not such a peaceful walk. I think they were as glad as I was to get out of the house. They seemed pleased with their outing. I'm walking them around ever larger areas as we go. I want to get them used to walking and work up to a good long walk by the middle of summer. It's a matter of pacing ourselves a bit now so they can build up their stamina, especially Sugar. She the oldest one and had been used to being stationary the most. Maybe by mid-summer she'll be used to walking as well as seeing other people and other dogs and cut out all the noise.

Rested again

I took the time to sleep a little longer today with a nice long afternoon nap. I have not done that in a long time. What a difference if makes to get some extra sleep!

It has been overcast and rainy throughout the day, so this was a good day for a nap. There is a chance of snow in our forecast for tonight, but so far it's just been cool and rainy. The grass has really greened up lately. It still feels too cold to put geraniums in my front step flowerpots. Whenever I come and go I think it won't be long now. I love the look of geraniums in pots on my steps. I'm hoping another week will make enough of a difference for some warmer weather to come in. Those pots sure look vacant without flowers.

Between getting my nap for those extra Zs and the cool rainy weather I haven't taken the dogs out on a walk now for two days. They've had to settle for just spending time outside in our fenced backyard. They don't seem to relish the cool windy, rainy weather very much either. It's just in and out, real quick! The two little ones seem content with staying curled up in their kennels on days like this. But I can tell Ginger is a bit antsy to do something different. She probably wouldn't mind the cold and rain so much if it meant getting out for a walk. We'll see if there's a break in this weather tomorrow; maybe she and I can just get out regardless of the weather.


My Sewing Therapy will have to include getting back to organizing my stash. I still have some sorting and purging to do. This pile is definitely staying.

This is a quick peek at just a tiny portion of my fabric stash. These fat quarters, charm packs (a collection of five-inch squares) and jelly roll are a few of my more recent acquisitions. I just love looking at fabric! All the different colors and patterns available are wonderful. The embroidery sewout tucked underneath the charm packs will be turned into a pillow at some point. It is one of the last things I embroidered before I completely dismantled my sewing studio to re-configure the furniture for more room and to get re-organized.
Here's a look at my new Pfaff Creative Vision. I bought it earlier this year, but have not taken very much time to sew on it yet. It's somewhat annoying actually that I'm not making as much use of it as I would like. It seems my time is stretched among so many things. So I try to sneek in a little time here and there.



I satisfied my need for a tiny bit of Sewing Therapy last night before I went to bed by sewing about a dozen seams on a few quilt blocks. It's a scrap quilt. I've got some scraps sorted by color in a few pull-out drawers. That combined with a tremendous urge to "just sew" lead me to sew for a very short bit. Even if it's 15 minutes a day, I think I'll continue working on this scrap quilt a little each day.


The pattern is from this year's March/April issue of Quiltmaker magazine. There are only three size blocks to cut so it's a pretty simple pattern. I like the scrappy look of it.

Free-Motion can be alot of fun to play around with. This was a test sample for a tote bag. It was something I worked of for a class project I was developing. I thought it was a fairly easy project as a basic totebag. The creative fun was in the free-motion for the front side of the bag.

I did this project a short while back. The flower is hand drawn with Fabrico permanent fabric markers onto plain fabric. It was heat-set with an iron then layered with quilt batting and a piece of backing fabric. The black thread is free-motion stitched to set off features of the flower and other elements in the piece. I left the back side plain as a black and white rendition in reverse. This was actually a fun, freeing sort of thing to do.
To do free motion sewing, put on a darning foot and drop your feed dogs. You are moving the fabric manually since the feed dogs are lowered they cannot move the fabric. This means you can move it in any direction, not just forward and back under the needle. I've done other thread painting pieces that are more fully filled with thread in a variety of colors to create the image. This is much easier with just the black thread. In thread painting you use multiple colors of thread to give depth, details and interest to the work.

A whole month!

Wow! It has been a whole month since I last posted. Talk about time flying. I guess I've been too pre-occupied with other things to take the time to get back to blogging.

One thing that has taken place since last time, I have installed Photoshop Elements to my computer. I've yet to take time to play with the program a great deal, but am looking forward to enhancing photos. I have been taking my camera out with me more often when I'm out and about to try to snap some pics. I will get to posting some of those as soon as I get to figuring more details out on the program.

Another thing I have been doing since the weather has improved is take the dogs out on more walks. Granted it's not every day yet like I'd like to do, but the warmer weather is on the way. It's not always a great walking day yet. In fact, lately it's been pretty cool and windy - especially windy. It still feels like that March lion hasn't moved on to allow for those lambs like the saying goes. I think our North Dakota weather is a bit late in coinciding with the months this year. It's been so dry, with burn ban warnings and grass fires this month. (Two homes were lost according to the news reports). We received a bit of rain a few days ago, but those April showers could certainly come around a bit more while it's still April. Regardless of all those calendar sayings . . . I am so looking forward to warm weather, sprinkling rain or not, and some calm (low wind) sunny days. I would love to be out there on a walk with the dogs or in the yard soaking up some warm sunshine!

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the basement. I really love the way it looks now that it have been re-arranged. I've still got a lot of sorting and organizing to do with my art supplies. But my desk in the basement works extremely well as a study area for my on-line classes. I am enjoying my classes through Rasmussen College. It's nice to take them all on-line. I enjoy setting my own class and study times. It seems my internal clock is set at the midnight hour. I find myself gravitating to my best, quiet times at night. Sometimes it's all night! There have been several nights lately I lose all track of time while reading or doing homework and researching topics that when I do go to look at the clock it's three or four o'clock in the morning. There have even been a few times I look to see with shock that it's five or six in the morning. I need to work on that. I think I'll have to get a timer or mount a big clock right in front of me! It's truly amazing how I get so much into something where I don't notice where the time goes.

I'm enjoying each one of my classes. I look forward to working through the web classes. So far I haven't enhanced this blog with some of what I've learned. But that day will come. I'll find some time to just play one of these days.

I certainly love to look at other blogs for inspiration! The latest Artful Blogging magazine came out. Pat went with me to Barnes & Noble this afternoon so I could pick up a Mocha Frappucino and I saw it on the shelf. It's always so much fun to see what others have done with their blogs.

I'll call it quits for today, still have some things to finish for class this week - better get to it.

Lots of work to do

I've still got a big job ahead of me sorting and purging in the sewing studio. I have to admit I've been stalling and have found plenty of other things that "need" to be done also -- like clear the clutter from my computer. Man, talk about a big job there! First I saved stuff I knew I would want onto a CD and thumb drive, then did a full restore to take it back to factory specs. I went to Office Depot and picked up a Photoshop Elements 6 & Premiere Elements 4 package. Once I get that installed I want to spend some time learning my way around the program. Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos of my progress in the studio soon. I took some before pics showing all the mess and clutter before I got started. Right now the room looks so large and open without all the extra "stuff". So large and inviting I hate to just fill it up with stuff I'll never get around to using. Definitely needs some sorting and purging!

There are still a number of programs I need to re-install onto my computer. I've got a publishing program I used on my previous XP computer. Now with Vista I'm not sure how it will function. Hopefully there's a patch for Vista on-line so it runs properly. When I was at Office Depot I saw the program was still being sold and there was no Vista version or update on the shelf. I hope that means a patch is available. It's the program I used previously to create my sewing patterns and write up sewing instruction sheets. I want to start doing that again and I really would rather avoid the expense of buying another publishing program.

Okay, it's off to get busy on some more projects.

Clearing Clutter and Organizing

I've been away from my sewing studio for quite a while and it is in need of a lot of TLC. I've wanted to go through my huge collection of stuff for so long. Now is the time. I will have a bunch of things to get rid of once all the cleaning and sorting is complete.

Yesterday I spent most of the day clearing nearly everything out of the room so I could do some rearranging. Today was spent vacuuming then arranging the bigger items to fit my new floorplan.

The effect is to open up the space more, allow the light to shine more evenly around the room, and give me a chance to purge all the unused and unneeded stuff from the room. I am planning on putting some things up for sale on ebay once I've got the room finished. I have such an abundance of stuff -- it's been calling for a clean and purge for so long!

I've been taking photos along the way, so will post some within the next several days. I am really enjoying the openness now. I hate the idea of bringing back some of the stash -- I'm ready to let some of it go. I hope there are some willing souls out there looking for some bargains from the excess.