Welcome to My World

As promised, I cleaned up my Bismarck sewing room a bit, so I could take some pics and show you my new sewing loft.  When we first moved into this house, this space sat empty for months.  We used to lie on the floor (because we didn’t have any furniture), and enjoy the sunlight streaming in through the high lofted windows.  Matthew called it our “relaxing room.”

To be honest, it took nearly 2 years to transform this little loft from the relaxing room  to our sewing room.  Why so long?  Well, I’ve been busy.  And, to be honest, I was stubbornly mourning for my “real sewing room” that I love in our Hettinger house.

But, gradually, our Bismarck house has become a home… and the relaxing room has become the sewing room.

Quilts adorn the banister,

I recovered the ironing board with a fun twill,

And used the left over fabric to make Sox a matching dog bed.  (Sadly, the cats love it more than he does. He acts like it is punishment to lie on it.  I had to bribe him with a treat to pose for this picture.)

I added some matching accessories from Target & Hobby Lobby,

And, splurged on a  lovely new sewing machine to match my Hettinger one (it just wasn’t working to haul my machine back and forth).

 

I got both machines from my friend Ann at the Quilt Connection in Rapid City.  Click here to check out their website.

My sewing nook makes me smile.

It makes Fluffy purr.  Then again, there’s not much that doesn’t make Fluffy purr…

Do you know what else makes me smile?  This…

.

 

To you, this might look like a simple checkerboard...

To me, it was a triumphant moment, as I finished the pieced inner border on a king size quilt top. 

A quilt,  that I made without a pattern  

The project started when I found a Terrain charm pack and layer cake by Kate Spain in my stash… hmmm, you remember terrain, right?

		terrain VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

  I was inspired by a block  I found in one of my favorite books, “Simplify”…  (find the book here).

 

I made a bunch of blocks,  set them on point with white bella solid,  and the project grew…

Because I was using cut goods not meant for this particular pattern, I ended up with a big scrap pile of 2” squares.  I just couldn’t bear to throw out them out.  So, I made a pieced inner border with my scraps.  I was so dang happy when that border fit, and the checkerboard alternated correctly at the final corner!

Wes was happy too… he had to help me (he’s a much better quilt planner than I am),  and he was sick of listening to me question his math.

A final plain white border…

And, the top is done!

Ready to go to the quilter… I just love that backing fabric.   It’s from cuzco.  It took the whole bolt! 

I used every scrap of the Terrain layer cake and charm pack.  Plus, yards, and yards of white bella solid.   In fact, I ran out of Terrain prints when I was about 95% done my blocks, and had to sub in a few Kate Spain cuzco prints.  

Cuzco is a really nice collection.  Unfortunately,  we’re nearly sold out…  Find a few charms, one  fat quarter bundle, and one accent print on our website.

cuzco VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I did set aside one cuzco charm pack though…  for a lucky blog reader.

Be sure you register for my blog (see the link at the left), so you have a chance to be entered in the drawing.  I’ll wait a few days, then notify the winner, and post your name in the comment box.

Hope you enjoyed this peek into my world.

Happy quilting!

~ Laura