August Scraptastic Tuesday Link Up

It's the second Tuesday of the month, and time for the Scraptastic Tuesday link up hosted by Nicky - Mrs. Sew and Sow and me.

As I've shared here before, my family has been moving house and it has been taking a fairly long time to get unpacked. We have a lot of boxes of books and doo dads, and I have a lot of bits and bobs relating to quilting and other crafty things to unpack and put away. And it has been silly hot, and the heat wave continues this week.

But, I did manage to sit down tonight and sew with my blue/aqua scrap box. It was so nice, after weeks of no sewing, to just play with the fabrics and make some blobs, or you may even see flowers.



I know two blobs is not much scrappy sewing and is only a tiny step towards using up my scrap mountain, but still, it was fun. I will add these to the blobs I have already made, once I find the box they are packed in.



This little bit of sewing did help me to figure out what I need to change to my current sewing machine set up to make it a bit more comfortable, so hopefully I can do that in the morning. I have found the scrap boxes and they are quite full, so I need a good place to be sewing with them.

There are still a lot of boxes to unpack around my house - but I am really tired of unpacking too. So my current avoidance strategy has been to try to catch up with quilting internet reading. I am hoping that there will be many people linking up to the August Scraptastic Tuesday link up as I plan to check out each of the links on my rest breaks this week - I am looking to all the inspiration you can share.

Now, its time for you to link up and share your scrappy projects to inspire us all.

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors for providing the following prizes which will be awarded randomly among those of you who link up:

• Oakshott Fabrics - A Colourshott charm packs, colours 1 -30 

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Sew me a Song - a $20 gift certificate

• Massdrop - 2 Mixology Fat Quarter Bundles - so two prizes

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate

Please join Nicky from Mrs. Sew and Sow and I by linking up a blog post or flickr or instagram photo sharing a scrappy project, in progress or finished, or your thoughts on dealing with your scrap mountain:

• You don't have to have joined us before, everyone is welcome.

• One link per person, and it will be your entry into the random draw for the prizes. It is the same link up here and at Nicky's blog - Mrs. Sew and Sow - so you only need to link up on one of our blogs.

• Please visit at least a few of the links, they are very inspiring, and leave comments too as everyone loves to connect. 

• Use the Scraptastic Tuesday button if you like (code is on the sidebar) and invite your friends to join us too. 

• The link is open until next Monday night at 10:00 pm MST. We will announce the winners next Tuesday. 

• If you have trouble linking up, let me or Nicky know and we will get you sorted.

Best,

Leanne

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday - an unpacking update

Today I am sharing an unpacking update, as it is going much slower than I expected, in large part because our heat wave continues, and is scheduled for another week. As I am determined not to be made sick or injured by this move, I have been respectful of how much unpacking I can do while sweat is literally dripping in my eyes and running down my neck. Although this house has a bit of air cooling it is not sufficient to cope with this heat - I have put a major upgrade to full on air conditioning on my list as soon as the cash flow will allow it.

In that photo above, besides my ever present helpers Butch and Sundance, who will be a year at the end of August, (Sundance is on the cutting table to the left, just out of view) you can see where I will sew. To the left will be one cutting table and to the right, once all that stuff is properly put away, will be my other cutting table. To the far right are doors to a reasonable size closet. My thread is in that white - still taped up - rolling cart to the far right, and my 8 scrap bins are there with the boxes of "cutting table shelf" bits.



Here is a photo standing at the sewing machine. You can see the overall size of the room and to the very far left there is a small bathroom too - so I have my own loo and water for my iron at hand.  The shelves are all from IKEA. The fan is due to the heat wave.  The long arm sewing machine will go about where the fan is, right down the middle of the room for easy access on all sides.

The boxes to the left will all be unpacked and they are mainly other craft things, and my family photo project. The photos will go in the closet to the left of the sewing machine and the craft stuff will go elsewhere, but needs to be unpacked before the long arm can be set up, which I am keen to get done.

It's going to be a great studio. Yes, the floor is unfinished as I had the awful rug tossed out, and I have not decided on flooring yet. And yes, that means that one day I will have a floor guy here putting in one side and then the other side of the floor while things are moved about, but oh well, for now I am good with the industrial look.



Here is a closer view of the fabric. There is another box with more solids somewhere and there is one more 12" cube box of Tula Pink collections but I am pretty sure that will be all of it. Yesterday I was able to add most of my collections to the rainbow shelves and I am hoping to just do that with the TP box and those bits on the open shelf today.

The thing is that I don't use the collections because they are "special" and when I was packing them I realized that I probably won't use them if I don't put those fabrics with the rest. So I am going to hold my breath and sort in the rest later today, or if not tomorrow, whenever I can manage it.

I don't apologize for my fabric stash or even for its size. I do appreciate that I will be able to sew for years before this is all gone and I will be sending some ot it to others for a charity project. And this move has been very good in helping me to understand that this is about the right amount of fabric for me to have on hand.

For me, the fabrics and the colours are a bit like my paints - I need a sufficient supply on hand to allow me to work right now on whatever comes to mind. I do point out that I fold anything that is a foldable size and put it in these shelves, my scrap bins are generally reasonably small pieces only. So much of what you see are cut into fat quarters that others might have relegated to the scrap bins already.

Anyway, I sure hope to be sewing later today - I have yet to find my iron and I am going to buy another while out on errands today as I have decided a spare is not bad and I can wait no longer to get back to the sewing.



The rest of house is not fully unpacked yet either. Over the weekend we decided on the location of 6 bookshelves, including these three. We love real books, and have many. The books are a quick, although tiring unpack and starting that is on the list too for today. I hope to be able to show you fully unpacked rooms next Monday - wish me luck.



Here is the view from my kitchen sink. We have several healthy Elm trees in the yard, you are seeing one of them. I need to learn the rules about keeping them safe from Dutch Elm Disease. Also to the left, that is my sewing machine in the window, that room is over the garage, which is why it is so large.

Well, my morning is for my day job, and then to the unpacking. I am also going to take pity on the yard and pull out the sprinkler today.

I'll see you tomorrow for the August Scraptastic Tuesday link up and I will be back in this space now regularly I think.

Best,

Leanne

Scraptastic Tuesday, the unpacking/moving edition

I am popping in here to remind you that next Tuesday is the second Tuesday of August and the Scraptastic Tuesday link will open. Please plan to share a scrappy project, in progress or completed, or your thoughts on taming the scrap mountain. I am hoping for an extra lot of you to link up and inspire me as I have not been sewing much in the last few weeks.



Here is my new sewing room, I just took these photos for you. Yikes - I have been scared to look at how the movers left it, they were great with our stuff, nothing damaged or broken so far, but they were not so good in placing things well for the unpack so first a sort and organize of the boxes and such is required.



But it is on my list to start tonight working on sorting this area and finding a way to start sewing in one corner while I unpack the rest. A lot of those boxes are fabric and since it is the one thing I organized before we moved, the fabric will unpack quickly into the shelves. I think some sewing at the end of each unpacking day will help with the overall grumpiness that unpacking in a serious heat wave is causing.

I will share more of the unpack as I go, and there is more on instagram. I hope you are relaxing and enjoying the summer

Best,

Leanne

on the move

Well, my family is in Lethbridge to meet our stuff*, which just arrived a few minutes ago. I will join them on the weekend, just in time for my dear spouse to return back here to work and such for August. Living in two cities for the foreseeable future is going to be interesting.

I will be unpacking over the long weekend and the month. Hopefully I will have the sewing room operational soon and also have some time to be properly back in this space. 

Please stand by, and I will try to instagram a bit this weekend too, maybe I can share some of the unpacking mess with you there.

*yup, we filled the truck, could it be all the fabric??

Best,

Leanne

if you were shopping... #42

Welcome to if you're shopping.... On Fridays, and often Saturdays, now Sunday, instead,  I share news from my sponsors, in case you want to do a little shopping, or even window shopping, this weekend.

Oakshott Fabrics has beautiful bundles!

Fabric Spark is has new fabric every week, just is are some beautiful Cotton + Steel selections.

Fluffy Sheep Quilting has lovely fabrics, and this one from Paint by Carrie Bloomston is one of my favourites.

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is getting ready for the holidays.

If you want a little of many fabrics - say for a scrappy quilt or pillow, Becca from Sew Me a Song is making the most fantasic fat 16th bundles. A huge variety of stunning fabrics for a great price.

The Fat Quarter Shop is celebrating the one year birthday of their book Fat Quarter Style on their blog with inspiration and other surprises.

This weekend only, at Green Fairy Quilts has 40% off their thread!

Mad about Patchwork has a couple of clubs starting, including a Moda Frivols club and a Cotton + Steel club.

I'm packing and working and moving and I do have more to share here soon.

Best,

Leanne