Back in business.

From Trillium

The sewing room renovation is complete - well really I should say the floors are done. The icky white, or more appropriately, not-so-white carpet is gone in this room along with a few others in our house. Who puts white carpets in a house anyway? People with no children/pets that's who! I never liked them from day one, and they are now happily gone! The lovely wood floors now extend from the front of the house through the kitchen and down the hallways to the bedrooms. I tell ya' people, that was a tough job. Never take a job in flooring, it's backbreaking work crawling around on your knees all the time. But it was worth it as long as I don't ever have to do it again - ha ha.

In truth the room I use as a sewing room, serves many purposes aside from sewing - office/computer space for the kids, reading/relaxation area - oh who am I kidding, we never sit in there and read or relax - but we do store all our books in there - that would be the reading part. Use number one would probably be sewing - since that takes over most of the time.

You know how you never quite finish a renovation? Well, maybe that's just us. But I still have to paint the trim on the windows now that we have painted the trim along the walls/floor white. But I figure I'll get to that eventually. For now the furniture is moved back in and everything is fully functional again. And somehow I even managed to reorganize the fabric storage in such a way that I seem to have more room - I keep telling myself that this must be a mistake and there must be a bin of fabric I've missed somewhere - but until the ball drops I'm gonna roll with it. See that armoire?

From Trillium

That's sewing central when it's all closed up and tidy - not it's usual state. My machines live in there along with my fabric - well some of it ~ I may have taken over the shelves in another room but I'm not telling. err hmm moving right along, the good thing about moving out of a room and then back in again is, it managed to get all nice and organized on the way back in. Which made it super easy to start up on the sewing again. Despite having a long list of to-do's, I decided to rebel and make something just because I wanted to and not because I needed to. I decided to make up Anna Maria's Multi-tasker tote.

I thought this was a fun pattern and definitely very quick to sew. It is constructed kind of unexpectedly I would say, but quite ingenious in design. So I snagged a few yards from my stash and voila!
I am definately making this one again - in fact I see presents on the horizon - who wants one? It's the perfect size and has lots of storage for water bottles, iPod, laptop, knitting or whatever. I liked it so much that I had to use it immediately for work the next day which is why the lining inside is still not completely sewn up ~ I can't seem to take it out of service long enough. Maybe I'll do that when I finish painting the trim! ha!


Happy sewing!

Where's Ling Ling?

Since I can't sew these days, I'm filling the time online shopping for future sewing projects - apparently. As you might've noticed from previous posts, I'm a big fan of Farbenmix patterns and all things Euro.

Nic of Luzia Pimpinella, Farbenmix fame has this gorgeous line of ribbons and embroideries. I love her stuff - she is always so creative at putting together prints and colors (you can check out some of her fabulous creations here on her new ribbon crafting flickr group). After I saw her gorgeous children's set made with Ling ribbon and a matching Ling embroidery - I had to sleuth out the source of that cute embroidery design. So, after much searching I finally found her - Ling Ling. Isn't she cute? Here she is available at Kunterbunt-Design online embroidery site!! I can't wait to stitch her up. I don't know why, but she just tickles my funny bone, she's a cute one that Ling Ling. She is created by the very talented Anja of mymaki ~ who has alot of serious cuteness on her blog page. Check out her latest MOHNika design, and wait wait there's more - matching ribbon soon to be released! Very cool - apparently I have a thing for matching - yeah that's not really new information.

Stay tuned for some sort of Ling creation in the future, hopefully. Happy Sewing!

Images from Farbenmix, Kunterbunt-Design, respec.

Redo

Major renovations underway at the moment which means no sewing for me. My machines are all packed up and the contents of my sewing room/office are scattered in various rooms - pretty much inaccessible. Here's a peek at the chaos. We ripped out the carpet, pulled up the particle board under that - chipped up might be more appropriate really - and then sanded the warped floor boards underneath. I say 'we' here, but really this was all dearest hubby and a very good friend of ours who helped him complete that part of the job. Even the kids pitched in hauling out the wood pieces and gathering up nails. After that we proceeded to install hardwood floor boards, 2" at a time. That part went pretty quickly actually and this time the royal we actually included me. Hubby even taught me how to use the mitre saw - umm not sure that was a good idea really. Next up we have to sand and seal the floor. That's this weekend's task. Soon the floor will be done, I hope - at least the end is in sight.

Meanwhile, I'll sneak you a peek at yet another baby gift. Baby stackers from Heather Bailey's pattern collection. Gave me an excuse to use the Robots fabric from David Walker which is so cute.Lots of fun in the end, but really takes alot of hand sewing to get this one completed. I am not a fan of hand sewing - too slow. I'm all about instant gratification, but the end result was pretty cute. I need to make a couple more still - the babies keep popping up around here. And hey check out that new floor under there ;)

That's all for now, Happy Sewing!