Finding my inspiration again....

For awhile now, I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Since I dabble in a variety of fibers arts, my stash has sort of taken over. Now that I feel that my wool stash is a bit more organized, I've moved on to my fabric stash for quilting. Now in the past, I have always gone for more primitive colors and for awhile now have wanted to try something different. All in all, I think I just needed a break from everything.

I used to do lots of hand applique and just loved hand work. Somehow, the past couple of years, I have lost that and found myself doing more IMA (invisible machine applique). I found I was doing this to get more done to keep up with the Joneses per se. After all of that, I found I got burned out. This past weekend, I decided to choose a project that I had always wanted to do and then to do it by hand. I want to get back to the basics and enjoy the process again. Before I got to the project I had on my mind, I pulled out a couple of UFO's and looked them over. I found renewed interest in them and think I am BACK! It feels so good to be inspired again.

I want to share a pic of the blocks that I have completed so far. This is 'Quilt for Emily' from the Christmas Memories Series by Blackbird Designs.
Hope to have more pics in the next couple of days of some other UFO's that are going to become WIP again.

Circles and More Circles

Remember the basket of scrap wool in the previous post? Well, I've pulled some pieces out and cut some into strips for rug hooking and others in circles. Yes, circles of wool for a penny rug. Here are some to start out with.

After a bit, I just had to play with them to see how they would look. I'll do something like this layout, only larger, and stitch them down on a light colored piece of wool. I'm thinking of using Walnut Crystals to dye the cream colored wool that I have for the background. I'm planning a scrappy penny rug/runner for my buffet cabinet.

Now I have to take a break from the wool stash. My nose has been itching and I have been sneezing with all of the wool dust from cutting.

What do I work on next?

Making Progress

I am finally making some progress on organizing my sewing room. As mentioned in my previous post, I started sorting my wool. A lot of my wools are recycled wool from Thrift Store finds, so they weren't exactly a shape that folds up nicely. So I started snipping and ripping to get them straight on the grain. Here is the basket with all of the edge pieces and small pieces. From this basket, I will pull and cut some strips for hooked rug projects and also cut some circles for a penny rug.

Then I started sorting by color. I pulled one of my wool dye books out with a color wheel in it and started with reds to sort. I followed the color wheel and sorted from light to dark of each color. With reds going into oranges to gold, and so on. By doing this, I was able to pull the wools from the tote and add them to the shelf. I now have my wools on one place. Of course, with the exception of some reds that I will over dye in another basket. So that has freed up the tote for some other use. Plus I can see all of my wools at a glance. Here is my organized wool shelf. I'm sure you can tell a difference now from the pic in the previous post. Now that I've done this, I can tell that I really need to get some golds in my stash. I will put that on my list for my next wool dyeing day. I also need to get some lighter colors and also some light backgrounds. See all of those greys, I will use those for some golds and greens on dye day. Plus you can see the basket of reds in the background bit, those will be over dyed for some dark backgrounds on a rug that I am starting soon. Here are some close up pics of newly organized wool.

Comtemplating Goals for 2009

Here it is February and I'm still planning for the year. January was a wash for me, as I wasn't feeling well most of the month. February is getting better, as I'm getting a little excited about the coming months and Spring. I'm already thinking of putting out flowers and wanting to start some projects with Spring colors in mind. (More about those later)

For now, I'm needing to do a major clean up and organizing of my sewing room, and house for that matter. I have a hard time working on things when the house is a mess or my sewing room is cluttered. So for today, my main goal is to clean up my wool stash.

This is wool that I have mainly dyed and then some waiting to be dyed.

I also have a tote that has re-cycled wool in it.

Hello, out there in Blogland. I've finally jumped in and started my very own blog. I've been following some blogs for awhile now and love being able to keep up with friends. I am still learning and trying to figure out how to get it all set up. I've seen some blogs be used as a way to track what projects are being worked on and I love that concept. So little by little, I will be adding those thing to my blog. I'm hoping this will make me be accountable to finish some projects and to also get my camera out more often.

Now I'm hoping to share a pic with you of our new Pub Table. Right now it's sitting in my sewing room, but once we return to the States, we hope to have more room for it. (keeping my fingers crossed that the pic comes across).

Until next time, Enjoy!