My Studio..

So over at Crazymomquilts blog she has ask everyone to post pics of their work space, so here is my studio. It is a 14 x32 room above our garage with 3ft storage space on each side were the walls come up, so it is a sloped storage area, not the easiest to get into but it works. My husband built this room for me when he was building the garage for working in and storing the many cars we have . ( we need a bigger garage)!

This is were it all happens! I have a couple of lady's that I sew with every Sunday evening. Here are just a couple of the machine I own, I have four bernina's in my collection one of which is pink, shown above, an artista 180,a 701 mini matic,and a 930 record, also in my collection I have a singer feather weight, and a new home that was my first machine. I have many other machine just for display but no where to display them at this time. Maybe one day.

Here is where I keep my fabric.

And here!

And here! it is stacked two to three totes deep, I have way to much fabric for one person, if I live to be a hundred I bet I will never use all of this fabric, but I will die trying. I think I have a serious illness, its called fabriholic itis. Seriously this is not even all of it I left out some pics of other stash zones.

And here are the three foot of storage space behind the quilting machine. Which quite a few of them are full of fabric but mostly lots of STUFF.

And here is the other side of the room, it is complete with a refrigerator, ironing area and just a junk collection, one day I plan to clean all of this mess up. One day really soon I have got to get a plan that works well in this room, I need HELP!! In more ways than one. LOL.

Binding tip...

Ok so I recently visited a quilt store to purchase some fabric for my beautiful polka dot quilt, so it had to be just right. I found one I had to have , took it to the counter only to find out there was not enough of it, the lady at the store told me she had more of it at home and did not use it but it was already cut up for binding on the bias. So I told her I had never done the binding like that, I do a ONE piece binding she convinced me that it was not that big of a deal. WRONG. The only reason I did it cause it was perfect for what I needed and it was already cut, but never and I mean NEVER again will I do it that way. Big pain in the (you know were) . So if the lady's at the store want to cut your fabric for you on the bias, tell them NO thank you!!! There are just to many seams to sew. Hope this helps you.

A response to:

A response to:

To pre-wash or not to pre-wash

So, i was always told that i need to prewash my fabric before i start a project, but a freind told me that she never pre-washes her fabric. So i am asking your opinion on the subject.

I never pre-wash unless it is some funky type fabric that might bleed color into the other fabrics. I used to spend hours pre-washing and pressing (ugh...) all my pieces before using or storing until I read an article from Fons & Porter. They explained how in the past, quilt fabrics were less stable in their weaves and quality, so pre-washing was a necessity to ensure no color bleeding and even washing and shrinking after your project was done. Now, fabrics are much better quality (at least those fabrics made by leading manufacturers), dyes are a lot more stable, and while their might me some shrinking, it's usually uniform and negligible. I think the exception would be flannels. I always preshrink flannels since they shrink so much more than regular cottons. Plus, it's so much nicer to cut fabric that is 'new' and crisp with a little starch!! And a quilt that shrinks up a little bit after washing is so pretty! It gives it a kind of antique look right off the bat!

Disclaimer******With fabric you really do get what you pay for. (unfortunately....) For a quilt that is going to last long enough to make all the effort worthwhile, use high-quality fabric. Even though some stores carry 'name-brand' fabric, and might even be the same print as more expensive fabric, they are not made with the same components. It's like sheets--you can buy 700-800 thread count sheets now for pretty cheap, but if the quality of the cotton that they use isn't great, your just going to get stiff, yukky sheets. For this reason, you should be picky about what you buy. Ask every single quilter who has made quilts from both qualities of fabric. I could show you some great examples from my quilting past, but they actually fell apart and had to be thrown away. If I feel like I can't afford high quality brand new fabric, I pull from my stash, or use a coupon for the good stuff, or just wait until I can afford it. It's worth it!

( This is mostly a stab at crappy Wal-Mart fabric. Sorry if anyone uses it, but it really can not be compared to 'quilting fabric' from legit stores. I get mad when I see ladies scrambling to buy their $1-$2 dollar flannel to make into humanitarian blankets for little, sweet babies in foreign countries. Don't they know those blankets have to be washed on a rock for heck sake? Look at it sometime. It's woven like cheese cloth! You can see right through it!!) OK. Rant over.

Official advice: Pre-shrinking won't hurt, but it won't necessarily help anything either. If you get your groove on while ironing, go for it! If you have 20,000 other things to spend your time on, don't bother unless the specific fabric requires it, like flannels or wools that you want to felt.

To pre-wash or not to pre-wash

So, i was always told that i need to prewash my fabric before i start a project, but a freind told me that she never pre-washes her fabric. So i am asking your opinion on the subject.

Ella's block

Looks like a few are coming together can't wait to see the rest of them.

This is what my quilt blocks look like. Can't wait to see more of yours!

Patty Pickles block

This is miss Pats beautiful block for the pink pickle donation quilt.