Somewhere to call my own - - - "in fast forward"

Those of you who have followed my blog have watched my many attempts at making a sewing space that I could be comfortable in.
These attempts have been "make do" compromises and far from Perfect.

Today I am happily sitting in my 

"On Purpose - Renovated just for me - Nope - Not sharing with anyone else" - Sewing Room!

* * * * * *

It has been a lot of work - and mess.  Emptying the room has meant that everything in it including my sewing stash and paraphernalia has flowed out into the rest of the house.
(So what else is new?)

The decision to remove the old unsafe glass sliding doors - of course led to more mess.

At last after 30 years - they are finally gone.

And just a little bit of alteration needed to the doorway.

 - In 20mm Up 20 mm - 

Why do they make 'standard size' doors when no one's house has standard size doorways?

Removing the architraves resulted in the old paint stripping off the wall as well.
Following the "Right thing to do" code meant getting the paint scraper involved, and cleaning off all this old paint until it reached a natural stopping point.

(There is more to come off but we will leave that joy

 to the next owner of this house!)

I then filled cracks that had been hidden by the pelmet and skim coated everything else.

Sanding down the filling created even MORE dust.
Which has settled on just about everything!

Washing down the walls is never any fun, and a part of painting a room I rarely observe - but seeing there is a wood burning fire in this room - It was necessary.

(Urgh! Never realised it was THAT dirty!)

Now the Fun part...
Painting
I hope the colour choice works.

Oh dear ... It looked REALLY good on the paint chip.
(It doesn't look it here but it was WAY too bright!)

This time try a sample pot -
Still blue but with a TEAL base -
Much better - much more "ME".

And of course -
going shopping for cupboards
to keep my stash in.

(Where else but Ikea?)

And putting them together.

Along the way we worked out a bit of a sewing station - extending my machine table.
We made this from some cupboard doors that were left behind from another room renovation a few years ago.

New Bi-fold doors, so I can close off my mess from visitors.
More glass - only this time it is safety glass!

- Just one more thing to do is Paint them
and replace the architraves

But that can wait until after Christmas!

Moving in.

Everything has to be found and brought back into it's new place.

At last - a space of my own.
Our rarely used front Lounge Room, with it's large North facing windows - is now my sewing studio.

And the Wood fire? 

It is still there - behind the ironing station - All cleaned out and ready to fire up. Just incase we want to revert it back to a sitting room.

So there you have it - the last 3 months in 'fast forward'.

Now all I need is a really nice Clock

and TIME to play in here!

Credits:

Thanks to my wonderful DH who recommended that I use the room.
Who is REALLY good at wrecking stuff (not so good at the fixing bit).
Who plied me with cups of tea and dinner out - so I could work.


PS: The one behind the camera & the paintbrush - that's me!

The Colours of Christmas

Recently, the question was asked "What Christmas Colour are YOU?"
Many of the replies were Red, Red & Green, Red & White, Red & Silver ....
My answer?

PURPLE!

and Green.

The Jacaranda Trees are magnificent this year - and when I see them starting to show their Purple blooms
I start to hum "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

And of course no Christmas would be complete without the show-off of the season - The Agapanthus!

A quick trip around the garden with my camera

 revealed lots more Purple and Green -

The everlasting "Statice"
which symbolises Remembrance.

Catmint -
haven't met a cat that likes it yet!

and even the Lavender decided to put in an appearance!

So - these are MY Christmas colours.

What are yours?

My Christmas UFO

This is possibly my longest UFO,
42 inches long actually!
and I have taken a long time to make it as well.

It is called "The Cat's Meow" by Concord Fabrics, I am fairly certain it predates any other Quilt fabric in my stash.

I have no idea when I started this ...

I have 3 of them and each one is in various stages of being beaded, sequined, and embroidered
(ok, maybe not embroidered).

But they have been quilted - of sorts...
What concerns me is the wadding I have used ... is ... foam - and it looks like it has been recycled from something else.

So much work and it still isn't finished.

Finished - Almost . . .

I have come to the realisation that, in quilting, there are varying degrees of "Finished".  

Today I have come to one of those points.

YAY! - WOW!- HOORAY!

My Bali Wedding Star top is finished!

The blocks are together and it is lookin' pretty good!

The 'road map' tags have finally been removed.
They have done a fantastic job of keeping the colour graduation in order and have saved me lots of headaches!

The quilt can now happily go off to be quilted  

. . . BUT . . . 

(and this is where the varying degrees of finished comes in)

A little while ago I decided it needed to be bigger!
The pattern box contained all the papers for the Flying geese border - so why not make them?

It's 'just a border'...
and THEN it will be finished...

They were flying together quite happily until I started thinking about something else...
How on earth did I manage this?
Two papers picked up together and in perfect alignment sewed them together!
What a Goose!

If I can give any advice to anyone starting out

 making one of these quilts it would be

1 - Read ALL the instructions

2 - Points DO matter

3 - Don't Rush it

...now - Where is my unpicker?

Flowers on Friday - Pink Tipped Callistemon

We have a tree planted in the Nature Strip outside our home

It is an Australian Native

and most of the time it looks fairly ordinary

and pretty much the same as all the rest of the trees in the street

That is - until it flowers!

the rest of the street trees have Red flowers

Ours is very much NOT red.

The Bees just adore these Pollen laden flowers 

and for one week in October the tree is buzzing with hundreds of Bees.

and then when the winds have blown the stamens away
 leaving just the seedpods,

 it is time for the new growth to appear

and THIS is why it is called a

PINK TIPPED CALLISTEMON

Oh my Stars . . .

This

(bundle of Stars)

lives in this

(something to do while waiting kit)

with a whole lot of other things

(essential supplies - note the lollies!)

It was SUPPOSED to become a 'Nebula Quilt'

but I find that Hexies are much more popular than diamonds

So maybe it will become a 'Nebula Table-runner' instead...

So - Where was This on Friday Night? 

- At Home.

Where was I ? 

- In Casualty (E.R.) 

with my Mother who has 2 Fractured Ribs after tripping in her yard.

Thought for the day - 

Take up Hexies

Leave kit at front door!