Project Bag.....

What can you do with mini charm squares?

 

I made a project bag with them !

To create a sturdy bag,

I used Pellon Fusible Flex Foam 

instead of batting.

It is FUN to quilt...

This is the back side of the bag...

The front is vinyl so you can see

what you have in the project bag...

I made a beaded zipper pull...

The back side of the project bag...

Project Bag  18 x 16 inches

This was a FUN one day project.

There are lots of you tube videos and free patterns

to create your own project bag.

We are in the middle of calving season:

This is a young heifer with her very first calf.

She helps to steady him as he takes

his very first steps.

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May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

#LuAnnKessi

Storage.....Class Supplies

I am packing for a class on Saturday

This is how I store my class supplies

Click Images to Enlarge:

Storage

A few years ago I could no longer store supplies for all of the classes and techniques I use in my textile art out in the Thread Shed.

I began storing supplies by class or technique in these big Rubbermaid Totes.

They stack in the garage and no longer take up floor space in the Thread Shed.

Each tote is labeled by the class or technique: Shaving Cream Printing, Jello Printing, Foiling, Mixed Media, Paper Quilts, etc.

When it is time to teach a class or do a technique, I just grab the labeled tote and it contains everything I need.

Here are a few things I saw today...

Fence along the gravel road we live on...

Grass along the gravel road...

I plan to bring some of this to the Jello Printing Class on Saturday

Volunteer Pansies growing along the edge of the flowerbed

Tinkerbells in a hanging basket...

This is my favorite view...

Gunnr & Brad pulling down the driveway

I love the silhouette of Gunnr's ears through the windshield.

He just loves going to do morning chores with Brad each day.

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CLICK HERE to view The Thread Shed

CLICK HERE to view Quilted Zipper Bag Tutorial

CLICK HERE to view Idaho Workshop Slideshow

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

Organizing.......A Fresh Start

It feels so good to get everything all cleaned up and in order after completing a big quilting project...

Click Images to Enlarge:

Textile Paints

I have been using textile paints the last couple of years.

It was about time they had their own storage area.

These blue bins from the Dollar Store work perfect.

I am able to sort the paints, brushes and mediums.

Fiber Storage Unit

I have also been using different fibers for couching on textiles.

This set of drawers from the thrift store was just right to sort out the fibers.

The top drawer holds the smaller finer fibers

The middle drawer holds the fuzzy fibers

The bottom drawer holds the big knotty fibers

Newly organized corner of the Thread Shed

Donation Fabrics

The best part of all this cleaning and organizing was culling out nearly 50 lbs of fabrics to donate to different groups I belong to.

Every few years go through your stash. Your skills and taste change over the years and you will find you have outgrown many of your earlier fabric choices.

Why not let someone else make good use of them.

I have now made room for newer fabrics, which were in piles here and there all over the room. They are all sorted and tucked away in the cupboards, and best of all so easy to find when I need them.

Tool Box

This came home with me from the thrift store last week.

I knew just exactly what it would be perfect for...

Hot Fix Crystals

It holds the hotfix crystal wands and all of the crystals.

Now you know why I haven't posted for 2 weeks.....all of this organizing takes time!

I hope I have inspired some of you to take a good long look around your creative area, and make some improvements to your working environment. When you work in an organized manner, you can find things quicker and keep those creative juices flowing. If I have to look around for something for an hour or two.....the moment of creation has passed and I am onto something else, and usually frustrated.

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

A Fresh Start...

Click Images to Enlarge:

A new wall cupboard for the Thread Shed

My son gave me the dark brown wall cupboard for Christmas.

With the crazy year I had preparing for the quilt exhibit I wasn't able to get it put up until today.

Thank You Heath. You know just what I like.

I love cupboards of all shapes and sizes.

They are great for storage and you just close the doors and the clutter is gone!

The big 3 door cupboard on the floor is the island out of our kitchen.

When we remodeled a few years ago, I claimed this for the Thread Shed.

It contains all of my landscape fabrics.

The new cupboard seems happy with all of the rest of the cupboards nearby.

I spend most of my time in this corner of the Thread Shed.

I have a chair on wheels...I can roll around and reach most anything I need while I am at the sewing machine.

This cupboard followed me home from the thrift store last week.

As soon as I saw it I knew it was a perfect fit for the Thread Shed...

My New Kitchen Center

I do not sew in my house. The Thread Shed is a separate building next to our house.

This cupboard worked perfect as a place to put all of my kitchen supplies.

I can spend as much as 12 or more hours a day out here, so I like to have tea, coffee, soup, etc.

The cupboard door opens...

It holds the coffee supplies, soup, crackers, etc.

There is room on the top shelf for all my pressing supplies.

3 Drawers down below hold coffee cups, tea bags, drink mixes and lots more!

Yes, this cupboard was a perfect fit.

I just love to find an old piece of furniture and give it a new life.

Everyone knows...move a piece of furniture around....and it affects everything in the room! The 2 new cupboards forced me into a cleaning and re-organizing tizzy.

Nothing was safe...lots of purging went on.

I am gladly donating these quilt books to my quilt guild for the silent auction next month. I know another quilter will give them a new life in her thread shed.

Now that the Thread Shed is cleaned and organized I have given myself a FRESH START. There are so many projects I am anxious to work on...

This is the first...a Fred Flintstone costume for my oldest son, Nicholas.

It will be fun to work with this bright orange fabric. I plan to mix up black textile paint for the spots on his shirt.

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Thread Shed Tour

Thread Shed Tour

2009

Click Images To Enlarge:

It has been a few years since I have photographed my Thread Shed. It was a beautiful day today and I had time on my hands......between many loads of laundry.

My favorite guy built this for me in 2000. This is the front entrance. The building is 20 x 16 feet. It is located in our yard just a few feet away from the house. My husband named the building, Thread Shed, while he was building it.

There are 3 different kinds of ivy growing up the front of the building. I also have a vine planted on the archway in front of the door. Over the years we have landscaped the building on all 4 sides.

My aunt surprised me with a chicken bell.......visitors enjoy ringing the bell before they enter.

My brother-in-law, who is a sign maker, surprised me with a vinyl sign for the front door window..... Annylu's Thread Shed. My nieces and nephews shortened Auntie Lu Lu to......Annylu years ago.......and it stuck. I am known to many friends and family members as.....Annylu.

Last summer we built a new design wall. I originally used flannel backed tablecloths thumb tacked to the wall. This works well, and I could layer the tablecloths 6 deep and stack up many works-in-progress. Now I have the best design wall ever. We used sheets of insulation, they are very lightweight like Styrofoam, 4 x 8 foot sheets. We covered 2 sheets with Warm 'N Natural batting and put them on the wall together, creating an 8 x8 foot design wall. I Love it. It is thick and I can stick pins into it. Most projects stick to the batting really well, but once in awhile I get a heavier piece, and it needs to be pinned. I work on a lot of quilts at the same time, so I can still stack them 6 deep if need be. Right now there is Moose Lodge on top, under that is a baby quilt, a landscape quilt, and pieces for my sunflower quilt in progress. Having a vertical design wall is one of the very best improvements to my quilting since I began in 1987.

I enjoyed furnishing the Thread Shed with used furniture that was sentimental to me. This green bookshelf was purchased from an estate sale at a nearby neighbor's house. I Love the old chipped paint and I think of her each time I reach for one of my reference books.

The top of the bookshelf is like a shrine. Look around your sewing room, I bet you have created a shrine without even realizing it. My quilters journal, family photos, gifts from close friends are all located on on the top of this bookshelf. It is very old, but very sturdy and holds most of my reference books and binders.

This is the media center. The corner cupboard on the left belonged to my husband's grandmother. It was her sewing cupboard. I found old patterns and notions still inside when I inherited it. I keep a small TV on it. Inside the door is a DVD & VCR player. On the right is a lime green cupboard found at a thrift store. It has a stereo on top, and inside the double doors it holds DVD's and VHS tapes. I like that I can store everything away inside these cupboards and keep the clutter to a minimum.

All of the wall outlets are 3 feet up on the wall....no more bending over to the floor to plug something in. There are 24 outlets around the room, each wall is on its own circuit so I never blow a fuse. My husband installed a switch that turns the electricity off to the entire room at once.

This cupboard is the island out of our kitchen. We remodeled years ago, and I salvaged the tall island cupboard for storage. It is tall, so is a perfect height for rotary cutting.......easy on my back when I am cutting for several hours. Behind the 3 doors is my collection of landscape fabrics.

This is a very old spool cupboard I found at the thrift store. It is homemade, with nails hammered in very neatly to support the spools of thread. It was a whopping $2 dollars and worth every penny. I keep my everyday threads in here that I use for general sewing.

This is a vintage kitchen cupboard that was mounted on a wall at one time. I have it standing on an old piano bench to raise it up off the floor. It holds all my notions. Again, everything is kept stored behind the doors and keeps down the clutter.

This cupboard was my son's baby dresser. I found it at a thrift store and refinished it when he was an infant. When he was ready to part with it, I was more than happy to use it for storage. It holds all my mixed media supplies.

I do the majority of pressing on this vintage, wooden ironing board. It is small and doesn't take up a lot of floor space. I have a large ironing board with a BIG BOARD that fits on top, but only use it when pressing large quilt backings.

This is one of two tall vintage cupboards that holds my fabric stash.

CLICK HERE for the 2012 Thread Shed Tour

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May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn