I have a really awesome scrapbook Rob gave me for Christmas a few years ago. The pages are 15" x 17" and it's the "master book" that holds everything ... right up to the end of 2002. I haven't worked on it in over a year (sometime before we moved last summer) and it is a daunting task to try and bring it up to date. My scrapbooking ideas seemed to evaporate whenever I thought of it. I needed something smaller to practice on and this little book was perfect.


The pages in this book are just 3 1/2" by 3 1/2" so they can only hold so much stuff. The cover gave me a theme (saving me the trouble of thinking of one): pictures of the two of us. I'd noticed a while ago that I don't have many pictures where we are both in the frame.

As I worked along the pages for this book I rediscovered my supplies (and gaps) and started to remember my favourite tools and embellishments. I came up with some better storage ideas and thought of ways to improve my workspace.


By the time I was finished (for the time being) I was excited about working on the big book again. The task is still big but I have some ideas and a few new inspirational resources and I came up with some page planners to help me keep track of ideas, photos and other bits and pieces. Each planner is a piece of letter size cover stock with the bottom four inches folded up and stapled to make a pocket. There is space on the front to record things like the event and date and any journalling ideas I have, as well as a layout planning box based on the dimensions of my scrapbook.


I feel all ready to go ... now I just need to clean my desk.

 

Curved seams intimidate me. Not because I haven't sewn plenty of them - they show up frequently in garment sewing (especially Jane Austen dresses) - but because I've never really been sure I was doing them correctly. They just feel like the sort of thing where there must be a trick that makes them easy to do but no one ever taught me. I love the look of curves in quilting too and I've never felt confident enough to actually try it out. Sometimes all you need is a little push (and some naked couch cushions).

When I saw this tutorial on The Purl Bee I just had to give it a try. Molly's instructions for sewing curved seams are fantastic. It's like the difference between a pattern saying "Sew in zipper as shown," with a few cryptic diagrams, and my mother carefully walking me through the process of getting the right foot on the machine and explaining that if you baste the seam first the edges over the zipper will always match up perfectly. Molly explains how to pin the pieces together properly and shows how much stretching you can do (something I've never been sure about) to encourage your pieces to match up nicely and lay flat when you're done.

I followed her instructions - using lots of pins and sewing nice and slowly - and I got a perfectly flat pieced curve on my first try. It was so satisfying that I just kept going until I had enough quadrants to make two pillow covers. When I was all done I had two nice looking cushions decorating our family room couch.


Now I really want to make a quilt top this way. I think I'll use one solid and a whole bunch of co-ordinating prints.

Oh ... and this spat of sewing was prompted by my need to make a cover for the duvet Abby sleeps on. It's basically a big pillow case with an overlap on the back (like the backs of the pillow covers) so she can't pull it off. The duvet inside is folded in four. If she likes it this way I'm planning to get some nice home dec weight fabric that will be able to stand up to her digging for longer.

Though I kind of like how her bed matches my cushions perfectly.

 

My studio is blue and I love it.

Rob's sister, Carolyn, helped me do all the painting. I went all out and got the expensive paint at Benjamin Moore. It's completely worth it. Not only does it cover really well, dry quickly and look gorgeous but it hardly smells ... at all ... even while you're painting.

I cleared most things out of my studio on Saturday night and Carolyn helped me with the big things when she came over on Sunday. We thought we had an edger tool to help with the ceiling but it turned out we didn't so I did it by hand; it actually turned out pretty well. I dripped paint on the floor a few times (and rolled onto the ceiling twice) but Carolyn knew the tricks for getting out as much as possible and the spots aren't really noticeable at all.

Watching the colour go onto the walls was fantastic. Every second thing we said was "Wow, this is a great colour" or something along those lines. We could hardly wait until the last coat was dry to peel off all the tape and see what the room looked like. The colour is incredible and makes everything else look incredible too: the white trim, the wooden furniture, the glass angel in the window, the red wheel on my ladybug; everything just comes to life.

I always find blues very comfortable colours and this needed to be a comfortable space but I also wanted it to have some energy - to foster creativity and inspire activity - so it's a blue with a bit of green in it. It's a nice changeable colour, difficult to capture in a photograph but so vibrant in person that you can't help grinning when you see it. Every time I've walked into my studio since we painted it I am impressed and I don't want to leave again; I want to stay in there and make something. (Which I did but you'll have to wait until I've got a good photograph or two on the weekend to see what.)

Carolyn came back on Monday to help me put everything back in.  Fortunately I had done some organizing a while ago and most things had homes. There were a few things that found new or better homes as we put them back: All the costumes (mostly Regency dresses) are hanging nicely in the closet; the shelves of fabric somehow went back in such a way that I was able to fit two more plastic bins of notions in which freed up some other space; there was a perfect gap between my shelves and my wicker trunk for rolls of paper and copied patterns along with my tripod; and we hung a narrow shelf right above my sewing table to hold my growing collection of pincushions and button jars.

Would you like a tour of my new space? Yes? Well then, please come in:

This is my sewing nook. I'm going to make a cover for the ironing board feet -  don't want them scratching up my new blue wall. My inspiration board hangs above my table for me to attach bits of fabric or pin up instructions (so handy).


These are my shelves - right across from my sewing nook (the window is in between). The tall skinny section holds works in progress and the cheap fabric I use for copying patterns and doing mock-ups. There is also a bin for fabric waiting to be washed before it is put away. The cupboard holds muslin, batting, interfacing, and canvas. Above that are patterns, scrapbook supplies, my quilting hoop, and my swift and ball winder, along with some miscellaneous bits and pieces. The picture on the wall is one I drew of my teddy bear when I was eight. It was framed by my grandfather.


The other half of my shelves hold all my quilting cottons- prints and solids, a small but growing collection of home dec weight scraps, some wools and linens and a few fine cottons that I don't want mashed in with the muslin. The little pillow on top of the wicker trunk was made for me by my mum when I was about four.


Cross the room again and you're at my book shelf. These are all my craft books (except the ones that have wondered into other rooms and not found their way home yet) as well as my collection of knitting magazines and patterns. The wooden boxes hold sewing supplies (on the top) and scrapbook supplies (on the bottom). I have had the bear on top of the shelf since before the pillow (it's the one in the picture) and the frame holds a swatch of a favourite fabric. The little red wheel is my ladybug and the large one is Erin's traditional. They look so good against the blue.


Above the shelf, and a little closer to the sewing nook, is my clock. I love my clock. I got it at Canadian Tire. It holds twelve little pictures and I finally got around to printing off some of my own to put in the frames.

This room is so full of potential it's dizzying. I find myself sitting in here just thinking of all the things I want to make and not sure where to start.