Clean Out is Done

Clean out and organizing of fabric begins.  I had sorted through about four or five of my fabric bins and realize I had only a small stack of fabric that I was taking out of my stash.  I was beginning to think that I wasn't being ruthless enough.

I realized that the bins I had been through were my favorite hand dyed fabrics.  As you can see in the trunk of my car I soon became ruthless.

A little of the mess as I cleaned the room out.

This is the wall that held my peg board and design wall.  Everything is down now including the baseboard.  This photo shows the room very bright yellow/green.  It's not quite that bright and I have enjoyed the color for about eight years.

I'm going a little more subdued.  A Sherwin Williams color titled Rain.  I have taken an old wooden hutch that was on my porch and painted it Riverway. Tomorrow new pulls and hinges will be added and the walls will be painted.  Next week new flooring.

Lots of work, thank goodness we have someone laying the flooring and painting.  We are both nearly worn out.  However, I can hardly wait to see the room go together.

Neatly folding color coordinated fabric in wire bins.  How neat is this?  I am really tired but wanted to get this posted.  I really had to miss a week. 

I'm linking this to post to Nina Marie Sayre's blog Off The Wall Friday   http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/
Lots of great blog post from fiber artist, take a look and see what's happening.

PS: painting finished today.  Quite a difference.

The Stripper Progresses

My word for the year, plan has been a life saver this week.  Monday found me feeling well enough to spend some time in the studio.  I had hoped to get The Stripper quilted and ready to enter in the Spring IQA show so I decided to start the quilting.

This project came to an abrupt halt on Wed.

 

On Wed. we finalized the plans for some house renovations.  That included new flooring in the whole downstairs.  That includes a bedroom, den and my studio.

Well give it some thought, new floors mean bare room, right?  Since I had to have everything out of that room I decided I would repaint the walls.  That meant taking down my design walls, cleaning out my stash closet and removing everything.

In order to make optimum use of my space, the room is 14" x 17", I asked a interior decorator to come and help me decide the best layout for my needs.  I think it was money well spent.






Peg board and one design wall with work table before clean out.

Book shelf unit filled to the max.  One printer on top of book shelf and another on the small table cover that wall completely.

 This window looks out on the lake and provides inspiration.  The sewing table at it's full extension fills this space with room for the wire roller stash unit.

It's amazing how small that unit becomes when folded up.  The table in front is the printer table while the sewing unit is up against the window.  This photo was taken at 4:30 this morning.  Since I couldn't sleep I decided to do something constructive like post on my blog.

My plan for today is to tackle my stash closet.  I have fabric from my beginning quilting days that I no longer use.  Hopefully someone will be able to use the fabric, so I'm donating it to our quilt guild.  I plan on being ruthless.  Well as ruthless as I can be when it comes to getting rid of fabric.

Monday Jan. 21 the contractor takes over the house.  We are actually moving out and staying at a friends house.  They are out of town and have, very generously, offered their house for us to use as long as we are in need.

The Stripper has once again taken the back burner.  That means it may not be ready for the Spring show, but we do what we can, right?

Actually my word for last year was de-stress.   I know it's not actually a word but.......I am taking that to heart during these next few months and de-stressing.

Maybe soon I will have new studio photos to post.

Word for 2013

Members of the ArtDigest online group have been posting their word for the year.  I've been giving it a lot of thought and think I was struck with the right word last night. 

Last year my word was De-stress and I was quite able to follow it through the year.  I've been sick for the past month and have gotten so behind on everything. While I find it frustrating that I can't do the things I want I am being pretty successful in not stressing over everything.

Last night as I was sipping my Sleepytime tea I decided to make a list of things I need to accomplish when I start feeling better.  I do feel a little better today and decided that I should look at my list and see what little thing I could do to make that list smaller.

I actually crossed off three things today.  So, I decided that my word should be PLAN.  I know from past experience that if I have a plan I get a lot more done.  This means writing down and checking off that plan so that I have a reminder of what I need to do and when.  I often have things in my head that I want to accomplish but those are usually large, time consuming projects.  If I find just a little time and see my list, it reminds me of a smaller project that I might have the time or energy to accomplish. 

So this year my word is PLAN! 

A New Year

Bunny in Snow

I wanted to fill you in on what's happening at my house.  After three days in and out of the doctor's office this week, I found out that I have bronchitis. I am having IV antibiotics in his office and am hoping that this treatment will end my month of sinus and head problems. (I know, I know, I have always had head problems)

The breathing treatments make my hands shake and I haven't been able to do work in PSE that take a steady hand.  Considering that I don't feel like doing much and deleting and moving doesn't need a steady hand.  I decided to try and clean my computer files up.




 

  Camellias in the Snow

 While doing so I came across some photos that I wanted to share.   These photos were taken in 2010.  We don't often get this kind of snow in SC where we live.  When we do I take advantage of it and take my camera out for a workout.

Pods in the Snow

This is the actual photo I took that day.  It looks as if it's been converted to B & W but it is in color.  I really liked the sculptural  design I saw here.

Pods in Snow II

In this version I went into PSE Enhance and used enhance lighting using the levels tag.

 Pods in the Snow III

This photo was adjusted using the color curve in enhance. Notice that the blue is much lighter and the snow actually looks white.

There are so many things that you can do with PSE and as I mentioned in my last post I am taking on-line classes to learn more about this amazing program. 

I'm working on an exciting piece that takes a bit steadier hand than what I've had for the past few days but I'm hoping to get back to developing the design soon.  Will post my progress.