Thrifty Goodness

I went to the thrift shop this morning. It was exciting because I was able to have a nice long browse without becoming horribly ill (and I'm feeling remarkably well even now). There was a lot to see too; all their Halloween merchandise was put out recently and hadn't been picked over too much yet. I found this painted bucket that is just the right size to house one of my potted plants for the season.

It's a grinning cat's face in case you're having a hard time deciphering the image.

One of his eyes is obscured by the plant leaf.

I brought home several small treasures but the most interesting is a set of 5 china salad or dessert plates. I wasn't really looking for such things and almost missed them entirely. Then when I saw that they were priced as a set, not singly, I really had to work to convince myself it was okay to buy the whole collection. I'm accustomed to spending $5.00 or less when I go to the thrift shop. The set of plates was $9.50... plus I had all my other goodies. I'm nothing if not a creature of habit. It's pretty silly how hard it can be to break out of those habits sometimes. So here's a shot of one of the plates:

There were no cups or saucers or anyting else that I could see. The plates are marked off center on the back with Foley China, a horizontal oval with the inscription EB&Co, and Made in England below that. There's also a tiny orange dot to the right of the oval. I don't know what I have here but I couldn't leave those birds at the store!

My first thought was to hang one plate on a wall where I could enjoy it everyday. Someday I'll have to show you the wall of bird prints I have in my dining area. I also have a small collection of decorative plates on another wall. I may eventually hang one of these on that wall. In the meantime I think I'm just going to let myself use them for my luch each day. :- )

Dude!

I just realized that we have only a little more than a week to get our donations in for the Pink Artists Drawing! All the money raised will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. The cool part is that for your little $10 donation (or more if you're up to it) your name goes into the drawing two times for one of the awesome pieces of art that have been created just for this cause. You can see a sampling of the offerings over on Monica's blog. She has created a slideshow too - scroll down past the Donate button in the left-hand side bar (see how easy it is?!)

What are you waiting for? Hop on over there and click away!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Doing the studio tour was an enlightening experience. It took me two days to get around to see them all. I picked up a couple of new ideas for storing or displaying things. What I found most interesting was the distinct line between artists who need a clean, clear space in order to create and those of us who work better when we have lots of visual cues. What some perceive to be mess is necessary stimulation for others. And some of us organize our visual stimuli more than others! I think I could benefit from a little more effort in that department. I doubt that will happen any time soon however. ;- )

I've been struggling to come up with a design for a twin size quilt for my second granddaughter. DD provided me with this yardage she thought would be fun to use, and it will be, but I have been well and thoroughly stuck.

Getting ready for the studio tour motivated me to put away a few things that have been laying about since the end of my last period of productivity and that has helped to clear the creative pathways. I now have a plan for this new quilt top. What I don't have is enough of the right type of print for the background of the blocks! Arrrggghh!

This is the one that I like the best for the background of the liberated stars I want to make:

These are the other pieces I have in my stash that would also work (the triangle print appears again in the upper left corner):

You should be able to click on the photo for a better look.

I've been all over the internet looking for something appropriate. I've called around to my local quilt shops. This type of print just doesn't seem to be available at the moment. So I've put the word out to my quilt guild members. We'll see whether they have anything they can spare. I might have enough on hand to get the blocks made but I'd feel a lot better if I had more to work with. I'm afraid to begin when I'm not sure I have enough to finish. Maverick or liberated is wonderful, but I want cohesiveness in the bargain!

Studio Tour Part Two

When we left off in part one of this tour (see post immediately below this one) we were on the west wall of my studio space, the window wall. Under that window I have one of these rolling drawer units. I use it to store my beading thread, the extra throat plate for my sewing machine, most of my machine threads, and assorted tools and notions. It's placed sideways to allow more room for the chair at the sewing machine. Fortunately it's not less convenient to get things out of it this way. It's also a handy place to store DVD's and my cell phone!


Further along that wall under the window I have a stack of bins in which you'll find the rest of my collection of recycled silk ties. Then there's a pile of containers of cotton scraps. I didn't get a picture of that particular corner of the room. In it I have an antique record cabinet that belonged to my grandfather topped with a TV and DVD player. Turning that corner we have the closet wall.

My orphan block boxes are on the shelf, and a bin with medium sized pieces of batting. There's other stuff stored up there as well but it's not germaine to this tour. The fabric you see here are flannels and other-than-cotton yardages. The laundry basket is full of dupioni silks. On the other side of the closet is my bead storage, and I hang tote bags on the back of the studio door.

Here's a straight-on shot of that end of the wall. No, I'm not trying to show off the pathetic collection of ribbons I've won; I wanted you to see that those are three separate units of mini drawers mounted on the wall. You know, the kind you find in the hardware section of any discount store. I cut up index cards to make little labels for each drawer. This is where I keep my beads and novelty buttons. The bin on the floor has my bulk buttons and sequins. I have a couple of old cutting mats and my mother's old blocking board (she was a knitter) stored behind the door too.

Here's what the top of the banquet table looks like when it's clean. This is an old picture!

This is what it looks like right now behind my sewing machine. There are birds and dolls all over the studio, including back here. The toucan is sitting on top of a Cadbury's tin in which I keep the tags from the ties I recycle. The yellow tin below that is where my rayon threads for decorative machine stitching are kept. The Diane Phalen tin is my portable sewing kit. Except I hardly go anywhere with it anymore. But it keeps the tools I use most often right at hand:

Fresh needles for the sewing machine, my hemostats, a bit of rubber for pulling stuck needles through thick layers, marking tools, Thread Heaven, the sheath for my Gingher scissors, even a pair of folding scissors.

And that concludes this tour of my studio space. Oh, except for one thing:


No studio is complete without the regulation fur-bearing creature!

Added 10-4: Here's the link to the list of the other bloggers participating in this studio tour. Sorry I didn't think to put that up sooner!

Studio Tour Part One

I have a suspicion Blogger won't let me load all the pictures I want to share with you in one post so I'm going to break this tour up into parts. We'll begin with an overall shot of my studio from the entry door.

This room was intended to be the master bedroom of our little bungalow home. (I need more room for my artwork than I do for sleeping!) I have created an island in the middle of the room with a six foot banquet table, an antique baking table, a short file cabinet and my ironing board. My Pfaff sewing machine is on the banquet table behind the baking table and file cabinet. My cutting mat is on the baking table, barely visible in this photo. Whenever I'm not working on a project that surface collects stuff like a powerful magnet. Generally the fabrics for the projects I'm working on get piled on top of the filing cabinet. There are also stacks of fabrics for prospective projects.

Here's a close-up of the baking table. The square drawer in the upper left is full of rick rack and other trims. The little drawers hold my extra rotary cutters and blades and other miscellaneous hand tools. In the long flat drawers I keep plastic bags in assorted sizes and pattern papers. The drawer with the rounded bottom hold yarns. I store my holiday dish towels in the cubby behind the door.

On the floor in front of the baking/cutting table is a rug my mother designed and hooked.

If you turn around from the cutting table you'll face my design wall. On the right is the door to the hallway, on the left is the door to my bathroom.

Turn that corner (to the left again) and you have my desk wall. The desk is flanked by a pair of bookcases, filled mostly with books. My radio/cd player tops the right hand bookcase. You can see I have lots of visual inspiration in my space. (The uninitiated would call it clutter.)

I have tried to load these pictures in such a way that you can click on them to get a larger image. Below is a close-up of the upper half of the bookcase to the left of the desk. The yellow and orange on the left side of the picture is actually a couple of leis my SIL brought me when he visited Hawaii briefly on his first deployment. They are hanging from the cord of a movable lamp I have clamped to my fabric bookcase. I wear them when I need to lighten up or if I'm feeling especially playful already.

Did you notice the sign that says Creative Minds are Rarely Tidy? ;- )

If we turn the next corner to the left we have more bookcases, but these hold my quilting cottons.

On top we have more eye candy and some actual storage bins. One stack of tins hold snaps and elastic and such, the others are empty. The plastic shoe boxes have my silk tie remnants and some craft goodies. The bigger plastic boxes hold my embroidery threads. The smaller tote on top contains the warm color families, the tote on the bottom has the cool color families and the neutrals. You can see a bit of the beaded curtain I have over the one window in the room in this photo too.

We'll cover the last wall and my sewing station in the next post.