storage

Antique Boxes

| terriaw

I have always wished I were a better antique shopper. My brother has a great selection of antique shops in the town he lives in, so we did a little shopping on my trip to visit him last weekend.

I found these cool boxes, which turn out to be perfect sizes to store my art card collection and a few art supplies.

I also found this antique wooden box that was originally used for cheese packaging.

Both boxes were in good condition, on sale, and the perfect size for holding my art cards and art supplies. I’m not a big collector of antiques or any kind of knick-knack stuff. So it’s nice to find a few treasures now and then that I can put to good use.

Garden Party Trays

| terriaw

I love to make little buckets, cubes and trays to store things in. When I saw Jennifer’s latest fabric focus project on Sew, Mama, Sew‘s site, I thought it looked like a fun, quick project to try.

I haven’t used any of the garden party fabrics in my stash for awhile, so I figured they would be good samples to try this pattern.

It was fun to fussy cut the large flower print for the center of each tray.

These trays work great to store loose little things, like bobbins, buttons, hairclips, paperclips, snippets, yarn, coins, or other small objects you collect.

Now comes the part where I reveal to you my obsession for lip balms! (I really hate wearing lipstick.) I have them scattered all over the house, two in my sewing room, two in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, one in my car, one in my purse. And I like a variety of flavors, from chocolate to cherry to pina colada.

Getting back to the pattern, it’s super easy to follow. It’s comes out to be a 4-inch box, but you could customize the size for your needs. You could make one of these gems in less than an hour. I think it took me longer to pick out which fabrics to use than it did to actually make one. I encourage you to look for some fun little objects in your house that you collect and find some accompanying fabric to build a tray to store them in. It’s very satisfying!

New Shopping Totes

| terriaw

I am excited to show you a couple new products I just added to my shop. I hope you don’t mind.

I made these stylish shopping totes, which are a little more girly and a little less patchwork-y that my other products. You may notice more of my non-quilt sewing projects are headed in that direction this year.

I made them using fabrics from Sandi Henderson’s Farmers Market collection. I always thought that line was so whimsical and charmy and cheerful!

They have flat bottoms, making them sturdy enough to carry heavier items, like books or a laptop or produce from the grocery store.

They measure 13 inches wide by 14 inches tall, and they are lined with heavy fusible interfacing to make them more sturdy.

They have an inside pocket big enough to hold coupons or recipe cards for shopping or a charger cord if you’re carrying your laptop.

I made another shopping tote to add to the mix, with fabrics from Tanya Whelan’s Ava Rose collection. What a wonderfully girly collection that was! This shopping tote isn’t lined with any interfacing, so it can be folded up and tucked into your purse for spontaneous shopping.

The outside is a rose fabric with polka dots on the bottom. But wait, turn it inside out, and you get a polka dot bag with a rosey bottom.

It measures the same size as the totes above  – big enough to fit a magazine or some goodies you pick up at the craft supply store.

I only made one in each color, so get ’em while they’re hot! Tell all your friends, especially the non-sewing ones.

Stay tuned for a couple more new products coming…

Craft Room Tour

| terriaw

I am a lucky person to have my own craft room. It’s in one of our spare bedrooms with a window facing south, offering lots of natural lighting and a great closet for storage.

Here’s my antique sewing desk, which I found at a local sewing store that is now out of business. It’s one of those desks where the sewing machine is supposed to fit right into the tabletop, which mine doesn’t, so I just put a board over that opening. My dad recovered the chair in a soft blue suede fabric, and he discovered a secret drawer underneath the seat that holds spools of thread!

Here’s my crafting resource library, full of quilting magazines, knitting books and writing references:

Here’s my supply closet:

Wasn’t it nice of the previous owner of our house to install these shelving organizers in all closets throughout the house? They work great for my crafting supplies!

Here are some closeups of my supply shelves:

That is more resource books that didn’t fit on the library shelves.

I have my fabric stash organized by collection, so above you may notice Bohemian on the left and Chocolate Lollipop on the right, with scrap bags in the middle. Below you may notice Garden Party on the left and Ginger Blossom on the right.

The rest of my stash is organized by color or by seasonal themes, all stored in plastic drawers in the basement. I have two drawers for supplies for Christmas projects, one for Christmas fabrics, one for flannel fabrics, one for scraps, and so on.

Here’s my set of notions drawers full of threads, zippers, ribbons and trims:

Here’s my scrap basket:

I do have more scraps than that. This is just the recent pile. The older scraps are probably in one of those drawers in the basement.

Other things like the iron and ironing board, the cutting table, and miscellaneous supplies have to stay in the basement because this room is actually pretty small. Besides, it’s good exercise for me to run up and down two flights of stairs several times a day while I’m working on a project!

Here’s my reading chair and some new decor:

Notice the artist canvases covered with Drawing Room fabrics, and the cute little padded footstool covered with more Drawing Room fabrics! New additions that I just adore. Let me also direct your attention to those two pairs of pants sitting on the chair that were waiting to be shortened. (I finished them!)

That concludes the tour of my space. It has become a work in progress itself where I love finding refuge after spending the day in a corporate office. Thanks for stopping by!