My Weekend at ETA-CA

I spent last weekend at the ETA-CA show (Education for Textile Arts, California). It was my 9th year and I must say it's one of my favorite shows. It's so great to see all my friends and make new ones.

Here's my booth:

The quilt is made from my newest book, "The Completefly Amazing In-the-Hoop Heirloom Quilt." The book's not out yet, but I took the quilt anyway.

This is a shot of my French scarves in-the-hoop.

The ETA-CA show is all about education, not so much about shopping. I had three fantastic classes - fantastic because the students were so wonderful. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Beautiful Basil Flowers

I was out in the garden this morning - it was a beautiful morning, just perfect for gardening. My basil had grown like crazy over the last week. The weather was hot and it had bolted a bit. I cut off the tops and placed them in a jar in the kitchen. It smells wonderful and the dainty flowers are so pretty. Here;s a photo:

I also picked tomatoes. Bruschetta tonight.

Cleaning my Room

I'm a little embarrassed to say how bad my studio got while I was working on my new book and a magazine article. Bue here's the pictures to show you. It was horrible. My sewing machine needed service so I took advantage of the couple of days off to clean my room. Before I show you the pictures, I should say that I generally hate clutter. I can't start cooking in a messy kitchen and clutter in general makes me nervous. How I got to this point? Just being in a hurry.

Okay, here we go - first the mess.

I could hardly type because there was so much stuff on the desk.

 My fabric, etc. was bulging out of the closet.

I think you get the idea that I was being a total slob.  The studio space was overflowing with stuff. I pulled everything out of the closet and cupboards and got to work. When I was done at the end of the second day, I had created order out of chaos.

Here's the photos with comments.

 

My sewing machine goes on the little stand on the right, you can see it's missing, but the area is now cleaned up and ready for sewing. I covered boxes and magazine holders with fabric and paper (I still have a couple to finish) so they look pretty on the shelf. I added labels to everything so I can put things back when I'm done.

 

I refolded all my fabric (except the large rolls) and added some bins to hold the smaller things like lace thread office supplies, etc. I still have a lot of fabric, but at least I can see it now.

 

This is the other side of the closet. More bins and boxes. I also added a couple of hooks so I can hang any garments I'm working on. The cable on the wall looks a little messy - it's temporary, it's been temporary for about 12 years.

 

I even added large bins under the daybed for magazines that I want to save. They're a lot neater than when I just stuffed them under there.

 

 

This little table is a round sitting on a filing cabinet filled with papers and supplies. The top holds my guillotine cutter and laptop. You can see my lace shaping and cutting boards stacket next to it. The phone is from the 1920's.

I made a box ( I love making boxes) for my desk where I can keep my current project - one at a time please!

I can now sit on my daybed. The hoops in on the wall were my grandmothers when she was a little girl.

 

I now have a real work space where I can design my projects. I like to draw them using colored pencils and then work on the computer to create them and finally over to the sewing area to test them. The old Singer on the shelf was found by a trash can - someone was throwing it away! The wallpaper on the computer is a picture I took of the Sonning bridge across the river Thames in England. It's one of my favorite spots in the world.