15 Minute Studio Spiff Up #8

It's time to start a new area to spiff up in our studios.  It's going to take me a couple of weeks to get this area the way I want it -- partly because I have a lot to do and partly because I've got a lot going on this week. 

This week's assignment is: 

Time to organize and straighten up your books.  

Yep, I've been avoiding this chore for quite a while.  A year or two ago I started listing all of my quilt books in an Excel file.  I'd really like to have a list of books that are in my collection so I can quickly check to see if I own a book rather than have to look at each title.  I found the beginning of my computerized list and have now been adding to it.  When all books are listed I will organize them on my shelves.  This shelf hasn't been listed yet. 

Having been a school librarian I have a thing for "edging" my books.  That means the books line up evenly along the front edge of the book shelf.  And, oh my, they look so nice and neat when they are edged.  But the big issue will be how I will organize them. My first thought is alpha order by last name of author.  That works pretty well unless I don't have a clue who the author is but I remember I want that appliqué book.  One thing I didn't add to my Excel list is subject headings.  Oops! Hum, nearly 80 books have been listed and no subject indexing.  Not too smart from my point of view.  

This shelf is where I'm moving books after I list them on the computer.  The books to the left of the slanted books have been entered.  Wait, I've got nearly 80 books on the list and that's not enough books on the left.  Hum, part of the list has already been done so I guess I haven't come to all of them.  I need to finish my computer list and then make this look good. 

Do you still buy lots of books?  I find I really don't. I have these two shelves for the most part.  The copyright dates on my books range from the early '90s up to 2014. I've lost my first quilt book, Quilt in a Day's Log Cabin in a Day -- it was published in 1980. As you noted in my last post, I'm still making log cabin blocks! Between the books I currently own and the easy access to quilt patterns on the internet, I really don't need to buy too many books. 

So how are you all doing with your "spiff up?"  Next week I need to have my secondary sewing machine desk cleaned up as I've got my friends Nancy, MaryBeth and Sharon coming down for a mini retreat.  We were going to go down to the beach but the weather there has been awful. The Outer Banks has had below freezing temps off and on for a week or so plus snow a couple of times this week.  We're looking at getting 7 or 8" more snow overnight at home. Most of the snow from last week has melted but not too many days are getting over 32º.  Spring ... spring?  Where are you? I guess I need to get some more spiffing up done and quilting! 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday -- February 23, 2015

What an unproductive week!  We had a major snow storm on Monday into Tuesday.  10" of snow in our little county, the most in all of central Virginia.  And, it brought the whole area to a standstill. Generally, after a snowstorm the weather immediately warms up and it all melts. Nope, didn't happen.  Instead we broke low records during the week.  Good gracious, one night it was -3º!  Now, I'm sure some of you northern girls are laughing your heads off and commenting about the -20º you are facing, and worse, but I moved South so I wouldn't have to deal with all that really cold weather.  Bummer!

Schools were canceled for the rest of the week.  Nearly every social event was canceled.  We got out of our drive way on Wed morning to do our normal workout at the Y.  But the roads weren't plowed in our neighborhood so we were cautious. And, the snow didn't melt!  A week later we have snow but at least some of it is melting now.  Thank goodness.  More snow is predicted this weekend and we don't have any sustained time with temps above freezing.  The snow is going to hang around for a while. 

Unlike others, snow doesn't make me want to run upstairs and quilt.  I tend to huddle under quilts and read.  But even I was getting sick of reading after a few days.  And, then Saturday we woke up to no electricity.  And, it didn't come back on until dinnertime.  Well that made it really hard to do any quilting.  Boy it got cold in the house -- 54º.  Luckily we were meeting a friend for lunch so we really only had half a day with no electricity.  The only good news was by Sunday afternoon I was ready for some quilting time. 

Last week I picked a new UFO to work on and I've been diligently adding to my black and white log cabin blocks.  I've moved the whole project along nicely.  I'm hoping to get 24 or so blocks finished in the next week or so.  These are in all different stages of logs, but you get the idea.  

I started getting the borders on the Wild Dogs yesterday but had 2 long phone calls interrupt.  I will try to get at least some more borders on this week.  Who knows if I will.  Perhaps the log cabin blocks will go back to the back burner. 

My goals didn't get accomplished for the most part.  And, it isn't looking too much better this week.  I've got a social obligation and a fun obligation.  Friday a group of us are going to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and I have a big shopping list.  Whoop! Whoop! 

Here's sad results from last week's goals:

Week of February 16, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, and b quilt.

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt Started finally

Attend several social things this week everything was canceled with one exception!

And this week's: 

Week of February 23, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, b quilt

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Finish Wild Dog Borders

Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

That's it from here.  I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times.

Happy Quilting All! 

15 Minute Studio Spiff Up #7

Do I dare admit I'm not too interested in spiffing up the studio these days?  The worst part of my studio has been cleared up and is workable.  But I know I should be continuing so I've picked something that was easy for me.  I hope it is easy for you too. 

This week's assignment is: 

Straighten and clean up your ironing station. 

I have a rolling ironing table that my husband made for me.  You can read about it here. Some times it is piled high with stuff -- extra fabric, scissors, spray starch, finished blocks.  I do tend to pile stuff on it.  But, honestly, this week it wasn't all that bad.  Here's what it looked like today. 

One thing that did need to be done was dust each of the shelves.  So I cleared every section, dusted the items and the shelf and returned the items.  Surprisingly, it didn't take all that long to do and that includes ironing that blue fabric and putting it away.   

Here's the finished ironing station. It doesn't look all that much different.  If I'd taken a picture that showed all the dust then you could have seen a big difference! 

Look over your ironing board or station.  What can you do to clean it up?  Do you need a new cover for it? (Luckily, mine is fairly new.) What about cleaning your iron?  Does it need a good cleaning too?  

That's your assignment for this week.  Pretty soon we'll be starting two week assignments because the jobs are going to be bigger.  Or at least in my studio the upcoming jobs are going to be longer than a week.  I think I have one more one-week job to do.  How about you?  Are you doing areas you need to work on? We've got a few more weeks of work.  And, then I plan on doing a once a month spiff up.  Shouldn't we be able to keep our space cleaned up with just a little work each month?  We'll see if that works for us in the coming months. 

How is your spiff up going?  Do you have specific areas you want me to include. Just leave me a note with the area you need help with. 

Happy Quilting All!  

Design Wall Monday -- February 16, 2015

This cold did me in for a good part of last week.  Although after getting some medications I did start feeling better.  Not 100% yet but definitely on the mend. 

I have to admit I didn't get a whole lot finished on any project.  What I'm showing above is using up some of the Happy Blocks left over from previous quilts.  I've asked the gals in FCQ Equilters to make me a few of these blocks so I can use up the blocks I have and make a few more baby quilts.  I've got one more to go with this set.  These are all animals/fish.  I've got another pile that would be for a boy quilt and one with lots of pink for girl quilt.  Once I finish the block I'll be ready to put this one together.  

My goals got partially done.  Remember, I was under the weather for the whole week so I'm happy I got anything done! 

Week of February 9, 2015

Mail embroidered shirts to the grands√

Finish the backing for the r, w, and b quilt and get it loaded and quilted√ it’s half quilted

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt Sigh, Will I ever work on this again??

Pick another quilt to work on and do it! Started back on black and white log cabin

Week of February 16, 2015

Finish quilting r, w, and b quilt.

Make binding for r, w, and b quilt.

Get the borders on the Wild Dog Quilt

Attend several social things this week

My poor Wild Dogs quilt hasn't seen the light of day for weeks. But maybe it will soon. Check out our weather forecast: 

WAIT!  

NO! 

I moved south to Central Virginia from NE PA so I wouldn't have snow like this.

If the electricity stays on I should be able to get some decent sewing done.  Plus, I can cuddle under a quilt and read too!  In my community it is suppose to start snowing in 36 minutes. (GOOD GRIEF minute by minute forecasting???) 

That's it for me today.  Hubby and I are hitting the grocery store and having lunch out and then we'll stay home until we can get out of the driveway again. We have a gravel drive so we can't use a snow blower on it and we aren't shoveling the length of it.  I'm linking with Patchwork Times. Oops, Judy hasn't posted DWM link-up yet so stay tuned.  I'll check back later today and get linked up. 

Happy Quilting and Stay Warm and Dry.