Last Friday for our weekly outing, Heather and I did a tour of the local quilt, fabric, and art stores to see what our local resources are and to just get a little inspiration going. I didn’t take pictures of the places we went, but we found three great places we’ll be going back to.
And there was the stop at Starbucks for a fancy overpriced flavored coffee and chocolate croissant.
While we were out we did buy a few things:
Some of our purchases. Some fabric for a curtain, a table runner kit for me to do and Heather found a cool rug project. Not pictured are some pens and things we got at the art store.
The quilt shop we liked best is a place called, “Going Batty.” The car GPS didn’t get the address exactly right but we liked the place and each of us found a project to take home.
Yes, I am going to be doing some quilting. I took a class years (decade) ago and liked it but haven’t had the time. Over the years, I have helped Heather with design and picking fabrics for her projects (I love buying the part) and now it’s time for me to get going.
Here’s the progress in my room:
The less messy side of the room. My computer setup in the right corner, the beginnings of my sewing area on the left and all the books in the middle.
A closer view of my desk with the exercise bike just peeking out on the right.
The sewing machine is Heather’s large machine that she does free motion quilting on. She thinks that because of my experience with scroll saw work that I’ll be a natural at free motion quilting work. The members of my woodworking club have often commented on how aspects of scroll sawing and sewing are similar. I have noted that sewers who come to the scroll saw seem to pick it up faster than most. So Heather is loaning me her machine for awhile. If I really like it, we might buy me a machine or it just might become mine if I do free motion better than her.
There’s still a lot to do in my room. My computer setup is fine, but if I’m going to quilt, I’ll need some more stuff in there – cutting table, storage, lights, etc.
I’ll skip talking about the wood shop as all that gear is still in boxes and it will be another week or two before I can get working on that.
I snuck a picture of Heather’s room for you:
Here is where Heather does her fabric magic.
Heathers room showing her desk, cutting table and bookcase. She’s already working on stuff.
Heather has two sewing machines, the smaller one that she uses for most sewing projects and piecing quilt tops she setup in her room along with a cutting table and most of the supply storage. Since she has a better idea of what she’ll be doing, her room is more complete.
And finally here are two project kits that I’ll be working on:
The Bento Box pattern I’ve had for years and the one on the right is a table runner. This is a version of the classic log cabin pattern.
Heather will help me with the basic sewing and how to do things like wind a bobbin, but these are the projects I’ll be working on. I thought it best to just start with a kit that includes the pattern and fabrics. If I make it through these and like it, I’ll likely branch out in to designing and seeing if Heather is right that I’ll be a natural at quilting.
It’s been hot out here so I haven’t been working on the wood shop too much as I don’t have A/C setup in either area I’ll be using for my woodwork, but they tell me that September should be a good month to get that all done.
More next week.
Andrew's View of the Week 