We’ve divided up the blocks, and each month one of us is responsible for posting the pattern for the next block and some chat about it!  The first one is already up on the My Quilt Village site and I’m responsible for February.  (Oh, please, please let me remember.   That’s only 16 days away.  Mental note, mental note!)

I had several questions about the shelves in my quilt studio after my last post.  So here goes…..  When we were building the studio, I looked through all kinds of magazines and catalogs trying to get ideas.  Then I saw that there was a new book coming out from one of the quilt publishers.  It was called Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space by Lois Hallock.  

I could hardly wait for the release date!  As soon as it came out, I bought a copy and read it from cover to cover.  I wanted every sewing room in it!  I wanted the green one!  I wanted the knotty pine one!  I wanted the one with the antique armoire!  I wanted this Lois Hallock person to make me a pretty room and put me in a book!  I read all of the helpful hints and thoughts on organizing, then I read the author’s bio.  It said she grew up in Pennsylvania.  Wow, that’s a long ways from Long Beach, Washington.  But, it mentioned a web site.  I checked it out.  She lives just north of Seattle!  Now THAT’S do-able!  So, I bribed Lois with a weekend at Long Beach and hired her to consult on the studio.  She drew out my layout, explained why ironing boards are big space wasters, explained why book shelves are perfect for fabric storage, talked to me about proper heights for cutting and sitting and sewing.  But, best of all, she recommended IKEA.  But I LOVED those Pottery Barn units that I’d seen in the PBK catalog.  But, dang!  They were expensive!  

So, here’s what we did.  Bob and I went to IKEA, found shelving units that we liked, and dressers that we liked and would work for cutting and ironing surfaces and brought home all these flat boxes.  Be prepared for lots of assembling if you buy IKEA stuff.  Oh, and no words in the instructions, but great pictures!  

Now the one thing that set those Pottery Barn shelves apart was the placement of the doors–not at the top, not at the bottom, but just above the bottom shelf.  So clever.  So artsy.  So glad I have Bob!  The IKEA shelves were made so that you could put doors on the top OR the bottom, but not in between.  Enter Bob.  Sure, he says, he’d love to figure out how to do it some other way than the instructions say.  Well, okay, not really love it, but he must love me, because he did.   Then you need my sister, Sally, to find you all kinds of great bins and baskets to fill up your shelves.  Didn’t she do a good job?  She even found the Pottery Barn basket liners on close-out sale–and they were orange and aqua!  They were too big for my baskets, but, guess what?  I know how to sew!  

There are 5 book cases in the long wall unit, then two double sets for fabric storage.  On those, I let Bob put the doors on the bottom!

We bought two dressers for the cutting surface and put them back to back.  It’s a great surface, and great storage, too.  We also bought an additional dresser and Bob made an pressing surface for it.  More storage and a great, big place to press (or pile things–no, wait, I don’t do that anymore!).

The corner desk unit is also an assemble-it-yourself, but it came from Dania.   The drafting table and butterfly chair were a treat to myself and made by a company called Sticks.  

Now, regarding the new resolution for organizing.  I was gone over the weekend, and on the long drive home decided that the best way, the way that might work for me, is to spend the first hour of everyday working on organizing.  It has to be the first hour, or I’ll never get to it.  So, this morning, when I heard Bob get out of bed, I jumped up (well, I stiffly eased my way out of bed), pulled on my sweat pants, and headed to the Ann Frank room–my equivalent of an attic–and dug in.  I made some real progress and plan to be back in there with my timer tomorrow morning!  

I’m Karen Snyder and I approve this message!

You see, it’s just not fair.  In my family, my sister got all of the organizational genes–and I mean ALL of them–leaving none for me.  If you ask Sally if she has a nut pick, she would say, “Sure, it’s in the third drawer down between the egg separator and the pastry bag,” and, of course, it would be right there.  On the other hand, if you asked me if I had a nut pick, I’d say, “Yeah, in fact I might have two or three of them, because I have to keep buying new ones when I can’t find them.”  Then I would proceed to pull out every drawer in my kitchen and start rifling through them.  Eventually, you would just give up and crack your nuts with your teeth.  But not this year!  This year, I’m going to get organized.  Toward this end, I bought a book!  It’s called One Year to an Organized Life.  ONE YEAR?????  I was hoping to get it done in an afternoon.  Heck, I would even devote a whole weekend to organizing, but one year????  Oh well, a new year is coming, and I’m filled with the belief that anything is possible in a new year, so I bought the book.  I’ve even started reading the book.  It makes some good points.  I just hope this doesn’t turn out like the Jane Fonda Fiasco.  Back in the eighties, when Jane was touting her workout routine, I fell for it.  I wanted to be fit.  I bought the tape.  I plugged it into my VCR.  I sat in my chair and watched that tape everyday for weeks and I still didn’t look as fit as Jane Fonda.  I plan to keep reading my new book, and I hope that by the time I get to the end of it, my house (and life) will be organized–and when you ask for a nut pick, I’ll say, “Why yes, I do have a nut pick, but who cracks their own nuts?  Don’t you know you can buy them already shelled?”

Something to give away…..

I’ve been wanting to do a Give Away on my blog, and the time seems right.  I had so much fun making Twinklers out of my 1930’s fabrics for Christmas, that I’ve decided to give one away.  I’m going to give away one made from my new Daisy A Day fabrics.  All you have to do is leave me a comment before January 7th.  I’ll pick from among the names and send you this pretty Twinkler.

I’m Karen Snyder and I approve this message!