I'm So Organized, It's Scary!

Don't know if I have shown any photos of my third floor studio areas since all the painting and organizing.  There are two finished attic rooms, each with two closets, that I have taken over for my sewing, fabric, and painting.  Most of the time they are not exactly places to show off, featuring lots of works in progress- on the tables, floors, spilling out the door and down the steps. 

No more!

This wall has a tiny door to more storage space under the eaves.  I have my boxes of half yard or more fabric, and some other fabric-related containers here.  That's my cool Sony Ipod dock on top.

 

 

On the wall next to that one is my Janome sewing table, pegboards of notions, more containers, and the ironing board to the left.

 

 

I re-organized the plastic drawers next to the sewing table, and even made labels from some of my painted papers.

 

 

The first closet has more plastic drawers with my fabric scraps sorted by color, miscellaneous other supplies, and my bolts of batting that used to be stored on the rod under my Gammill.  Since my Gammill is on loan to another quilter until we move, I had to find a place for the batting.

 

 

Let's move to the other room, which mostly contains paints, papers, and supplies for journaling and mixed media.  I think when last seen, this large work table was covered with projects and my "stuff."  Not now...and the walls are painted a soft beige called "String of Pearls."

 

See that painting of hollyhocks?  I did not want to put a nail in my freshly-painted walls, so I used those Command strips to hang the framed picture on the wall.  A few days later it fell down, breaking the frame, and tearing the paint off the walls where the adhesive ripped it.  Not what they are cracked up to be!

 

 

I have a triple dresser on the next wall.  I have some quirky labels identifying the contents of the drawers.  Mysterious contents such as "Collage Fodder."

 

The painting on that wall is still hanging, but I see it needs straightening!  That old wooden chair used to be in my husband's grandparents' kitchen.  We used a set of those for our kitchen chairs when we were first married...and for the next thirteen years!  I think it is soon destined to be a potted plant container.

 

 

I have had this wooden bookcase in this room for years.  It usually had so many books and supplies in it, on it, and around it, that you could not even stand in front of it.  Now it is cleared out and neatly organized, with room for more.  I donated a lot of my books to the public library, the Capital Quilters Guild silent auction, and Goodwill.

 

 

 

I still like to peek in this closet and see my colorful bins of art supplies.

 

 

Now, do I want to start using some of this stuff and risk making a mess again?  LOL- I have hardly done anything since the summer.  I do have a few more pages in my Moleskine journal done, so I will have to take some pictures soon.

 

I continue to be captivated by the afternoon light this time of year.  Now that the leaves are changing here in the Raleigh area, it is almost too beautiful in the golden afternoon.

 

 

 

 

My gardens are still hanging on, and I hope the flowers will last a few more weeks.  Here are some flowers near our garden pond in front.

 

And the knock-out roses are still pretty.  They were a great investment, and very little care compared to regular tea roses which must be sprayed constantly for black mold here in the south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Storage Ideas...and a Blast from the Past!

Here are a few more free storage containers, most of them courtesy of products from Sam's Club.  The shorter jars with the blue lids contained cashews, and make great storage jars.  The taller plastic jars contained the sinfully delicious peanut butter pretzels.  We had to quit buying those...very habit-forming!  Since I have no water supply on the third floor, I also use those tall jars to tote water upstairs.  One is full of clean water, and the other is used to pour dirty water into when I am painting.

The colorful box on the right of the top shelf is just cardboard covered with wrapping paper and a computer print-out of an art quilt of mine.  I added some ribbon trim to make a pleasing container.  The hummingbird box is just covered with some paper napkins that I liked.  I added some acrylic varnish so it would not tear.

I have a large supply of free painting palettes that used to be plastic lids, bowls, and containers.  I reach for one of these when mixing paints or pouring small amounts of product from a jar.

So...here is my work desk in the former sewing room.  When last I showed it, there were so many jars of gesso and gel medium and other stuff, you could not even see any wood.  Now I am ready to paint the walls.

Since this room is actually an attic space, there are numerous little access doors to the eaves.  I opened this one yesterday to see what, if anything, might be stored behind it.  It's like a little Hobbit door, just a few feet tall.

Luckily I found something we had been searching for...the wooden ladder to our bunk beds!  Our boys had a set of those wooden bunk beds made from wooden crates in our last house when they shared a room.  We didn't need them in this house with its extra bedrooms, so I guess it got stashed in here when we moved in.  We think we will set up the bunk beds in the new mountain cabin for the grandkids.   Also, there were two boxes which were like opening a 1960's-70's Time Capsule!  I believe these boxes were in the attic in our very first house!

The first thing I pulled out was a very full cloth bank bag.  Did my husband rob a bank back in the 70's and forget to tell me?  Nope, it was full of cancelled checks and bank statements.  Most of them were to grocery stores that no longer exist.  I had forgotten about the Big Star, Colonial Food Store, and of course the A&P.  There was a check for $14.00 to Southern Bell, one of the baby Bells that no longer exists either.  That included our long-distance charges.  Remember those?

Remember waiting to get your bank statement in the mail each month, accounting for all the checks you wrote, and hoping it matched the amount written down in your check book records?  Sure don't miss that.  Here is a bank draft for our first house payment.  Yup, $331.00.  Sure wish that was what we still paid each month!

My husband has always been fond of purchasing technology devices.  Here is a Panasonic AM-FM radio, and a Kodak Instamatic camera.

Speaking of seventies, doesn't this little wall-hanging that I made just scream 70's colors?  Yikes, look at those legs embroidered with thick orange yarn!

This bowl must have been a 1971 wedding gift.  It was once silver or silver-plate. Forty-one years later, it is a wee bit tarnished!

Guess I better quit typing and start painting.  Next time I will show you what was in the other box!

Don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post if you are interested in a pattern and some fabric squares to make a Japanese Lanterns quilt top.

    

A Little Give-Away

Sorry about the no-posting for the last week.  Ever since we got the Pod, I have spent my days organizing and packing "stuff" to put in it!  Our son Dave came over Wednesday night and helped carry some of the heavier bookshelves and furniture downstairs.   The Pod is only about one-fourth full.

Here is a little give-away:  I discovered a pattern for a "Japanese Lanterns" quilt, along with twelve squares of Oriental fabric, as I was organizing my sewing room.

 

I think I won this prize back in the nineties, not long after Al Gore invented the Internet!  All you would need to add is some black fabric for the sashings, white for the corner triangles, and a border fabric.

The directions are simple, only one page total. 

Since we will be building a log cabin, this style of fabric just will not work for our rustic environment.  If you would like to have the pattern and fabric squares, just leave a comment after this post.  I will choose a random winner Wednesday night.

I actually removed all the boxes and totes and piles of projects from both closets in my former sewing room.  Then I painted the inside and doors of the closets a gleaming white, so I could start putting some neatly organized containers back in.  I have found that the plastic containers that dishwasher detergent pods come in make good storage units that fit on the narrow shelf at the top of each closet.

The two rooms on the third floor are finished attic rooms, so there is the sloping roofline to deal with.  Most of the things neatly contained on the shelf were formerly spread across my workdesk, cutting table, or on the floor before the clean-up.

I have invested in lots of 15-quart, 34-quart, and 66-quart storage bins for the UFO's and fabric collections.  I like the Hefty brand, with snap-on handles that allow the lid to close tightly.  I think that my fabrics will be safe in the Pod in these containers. 

I am storing the books that go with each project in the container.  That way, if I pull the neatly labeled box, everything I need will be there, ready to get to work.

I finished with the bookcase yesterday.  Man, I have a lot of books.   The former HGTV program Simply Quilts cost me a lot of money!  Every time I saw a guest demonstrate a project I liked from her book, I ordered it.  If I had time, I would try to sell them on e-Bay, but it is easier to box up the ones I don't need and donate them to our local library or the Goodwill Industries.  I have kept all the books on art quilts and embellishment, and a few favorite quiltmaking books like the ones by McClun and Nownes.   I do have a new granddaughter arriving in December who will be needing a baby quilt! 

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the Japanese fabrics and pattern!