What a nutty week! I have been working on some mental quilting lately (as opposed to actually quilting or making anything), and it really got my mind running. In my urge to do some spring cleaning, I've decided that this week I have to get finished organizing the sewing room so I can move on to other rooms. But because I'm spoiled, I wanted to be in one room tonight, so I'm working on organizing the bedroom first. Any ideas for organizing my jewelry? I have a pegboard, another that just needs trim, and I bought some picture frames I'm going to fill with velvet and screening, and use for earrings and pins. But if you have other great ideas, post them in the comments please. This place needs to get whipped into shape soon--enough of this mayhem and foolishness, as Niecy Nash on Clean House says. But I took a break and wandered the web a bit. Here's what my pals are up to.

The Artful Crafter
Have you seen Xyron’s Creatopia? Prepare to be amazed by the baby booties going through a Creatopia in the video!


About Family Crafts
Celebrate spring with Sherri and these fun craft projects!

Craftside--A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a fun Steampunk style socket set bracelet, how to repurpose a canvas tote with applique and make faux patches, a peek into some cool art from the book Digital Illustration, a hot water bottle gets Re-Bound and a how to and tips on vampire drawing.

Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess has done some house cleaning, at least she's been cleaning up her blog that is.

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Where do you find inspiration? Madge wants to know! Share her process from inspiration to design in this inspired post!
 
Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to make recycled plastic bunny ears inspired by the techniques in the book Upcycled Accessories

Cathie Filian
Check out Cathie's silk screen projects for Better Homes and Gardens. She has something for everyone.

Mixed Media Artist
See how you can achieve the look of a hand-tinted print with Photoshop!

It's slightly incorrect to say this is a "before" picture of the other part of the sewing room. This is actually a "between" photo. Earlier on Sunday, this area didn't have all of this stuff in it. It had a pile of fabric in it that needed to be put away. But once I did that, I started pulling things off of the shelf in the corner to go through it, paring it down, organizing what was there, and generally getting a grip on it. I also went through the items in the lavender-white dresser in the left foreground of the photo. Most of the drawers used to have jewelry making supplies in them, but I pulled them out and haven't gotten them filed back in. But the bottom drawer has all of the smocking supplies and patterns in it.

Those blue in-boxes in the middle of the floor were filled with miscellaneous papers and paper-sized packages that needed to be sorted through. I'd like to get through the stuff on that four-shelf unit and possibly eliminate the need for it entirely. The more I can narrow down what I have in that room, the more spacious the room will be and the easier it will be to work in there. I'll share more photos as I make more progress, but I thought I should let you know that it is coming along.

My head's been in creative mode the last few weekends. Since I'm in the midst of organizing the craft room, I've been handling all of the supplies to put them in their proper places. My mind has been filled with quilts I could make of all those fabrics and cards I can make with all those papers, stamps, and doodads. I've been thinking about designing some quilts and sending them in for publication. And my creative friends have been busy as well. Busy designing, busy blogging, busy creating--they're an inspiration to me. And I hope they'll be an inspiration to you.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
Mixed Media Greeting Card Album using embellishment ideas from the book The Scrapbook Embellishment Handbook by Sherry Steveson

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Make a fab mixed media journal cover with Madge in this week's post for iLoveToCreate!

Aileen's Musings
Come journey with Aileen along her creative process as she transforms a paper napkin into 3 whimsical pieces of art!

The Crochet Dude
Drew reveals his favorite cookbooks and answers 8 important questions.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi tried having some custom-printed fabrics made, and she learned a lot in the process.

About Family Crafts
Sherri challenges you to create your own leprechaun trap. Use her tips and the photos that have been submitted so far for inspiration.

The Artful Crafter
Eileen shares directions for making flowers from fabric scraps or from paper coffee filters.

Craftside--A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
At Craftside there is tutorial on turning a box into a book, how to paint a bunny rabbit and carrot Chinese brush style, putting words on a spoon and a sneak peek into the new book 1000 ideas from 100 Fashion Designers with my own fashion star sighting.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Looking for a little crafting encouragement? Tammy found it through an Etsian jewelry designer.

Cathie Filian
Turn a hardware store washer into a papered necklace with Cathie's tutorial.

I'm SO excited about how the cardmaking station came together. And I'm especially excited that it's no longer in the living room! Check it out--the plastic drawers on the right are filled with paper, punches, and coloring things--chalks, colored pencils, etc. The rolling cart under the table holds metal containers (free at the office surplus supply giveaway/sale) filled with rubber stamps. The drafting table and stool were purchased from a neighbor's garage sale several years back and have served me well. I love having it as a work area.

A few weekends ago, I framed out the pegboard and added support bars to the back. It's not perfect, and I didn't get the trim painted, and the mitered corners don't match, but it's turned out to be SO useful. Lots of ribbon, scissors, glues and tapes, and other stuff fill the board, and there are, in fact, still some empty containers, believe it or not. After I had it all arranged on the pegboard, I realized I needed to do more than just lean it against the wall. I took a bunch of it down, moved it to the floor, secured the back slats in place with screws and added big ole' OOK hooks along the top and on the wall so it was secured in place. With plaster walls, those OOK hooks are fabulous.

Valentine's weekend, I "won" a metal board with magnetic containers at the Camp Shaw fundraiser. Some of the containers are filled, some are empty, but again, that gives me room to get better organized. The colored containers hold eyelets; the little plastic containers were getting to be too much to handle and they kept opening at inopportune times. I did mix the colors, which seemed like it would be okay, since I was cautious about it and put very different colors/shapes in each container. The multicolored tins came from American Science and Surplus this week. I had to add magnets, also from American Science and Surplus, but that worked fine, because I was able to glue them to the back of some plastic containers I had around (see the top right corner). They hold eyelet setting tools and some extra stamped bits.

In all, I think this station will be great to work at, once I get the rest of the room all cleaned up! I'm looking forward to making some great stuff in this room!

As I mentioned before, I flipped the bedrooms in my house to give myself a little more space in the sewing and craft room and to get my cardmaking station out of the living room and into the craft room where it ought to be. I shared the "before" shot last weekend and thought I'd give you an update. Over the weekend, I organized the fat quarters into great containers from Ikea that fit perfectly on the shelf in my closet. Here's the mound of fat quarters, sorted by color with the help of my favorite four-year-old. It may not LOOK sorted, but it is.

Next, here's the closet "after", looking a whole lot better than it did in the "before" photo. The shelves were all already in place. Before I got organized, the plastic containers were on the top shelf, leaning over because the shelves were sagging. Now, with everything organized and in proper containers, I have a lot more space and everything I'm looking for is in its place. As you can see from the picture below, the little containers that fit so perfectly on that shelf are filled with fat quarters by color. And the nine-section shoe sorter holds fabrics that I bought in the past to make some quick quilts on which I can practice using my quilting machine.

I'm thrilled with how the closet is looking. This is the first step in getting this room pulled together. I still have to put the rest of the fabric, the non-fat-quarter-fabric, in containers by color. That's this weekend's project.

Stay tuned from the next section of the clean-up: the cardmaking station.

What a weekend! I got a bit of reorganizing done in the sewing room and I found the pattern that I'd misplaced. I was able to organize the fabrics that I've bought over the past year-plus on my travels, especially all those fat quarters I've amassed. First, I should share a "before" photo. As you can see in the photo, all those bags across the shelf were fabrics that I'd picked up at shows, on travels, and along the way the last year and a half or so. And that closet is where I'm hoping all of it will live once I get it organized. So organizing suggestions are welcome--any ideas would be great. I don't want to build shelves, which is the logical solution, so it will be containers and such. I tried sweater storage things that hang from the curtain rod, but they aren't built strong enough and most of them are too long and hit the shelf, so I'm somewhat back to square one. When I stack the containers on the shelf, the poor shelves sag so badly! So I'm still working on solutions--we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'll try to keep you posted via photos of the progress.

For updates, see the closet "after" post and the cardmaking station "after" post.

As I type this, I can hear the fireworks over at Disneyland. I had a great day, a really fabulous day, and, though I'm exhausted, I'm really looking forward to another wonderful day tomorrow. The day started by attending the Awards Ceremony and Keynote Speaker, Dr. Martha Beck. Her presentation was inspiring, exciting, and energizing, and I'm so glad I'd listened to Steering by Starlight in the weeks leading up to the show so I felt like I got even more out of her presentation. I also purchased her book and she was gracious enough to sign it and permit us to take this photograph. That's me in the middle, with Martha Beck on the right and Carol Zentgraf, a former coworker from McCall's Needlework on the left.

I was able to see so much today. So many new products, presentations, and people. It's amazing to be surrounded by wonderful, creative people, all of whom share the same goal--in some way, helping the consumers learn a new craft, explore their creativity, or hone their skills and talents. It's about service; I believe that everyone in this industry is in it because they believe their products, designs, programs, publications, etc., will serve the consumer or help the retailer do so. And that's what it's all about. It was a blast to see new products that made me say "That's the coolest idea--I'm SO glad someone came up with that idea!" I'll update you in the next few days about some of those items.

Today, I'm updating you on a product I mentioned yesterday after the Creative Options reception. I stopped by their booth today to see if they'd send one of these to us at the office to review, but Kathy was kind enough to send me home with one to pass along to the staff. And as I carried it around the show floor, a lot of people noticed it and asked me about it. Everyone commented on the shape and the lines of it (as did I), but I told them all that the best part was inside. So I'd do a little show-and-tell and open it up. And here it is....six shelves with segmented containers in each shelf, perfect for beading supplies or embellishments, such as brads, eyelets, or other doo-dads. I find myself wishing for a bunch of them for my cardmaking area in my craft room--wouldn't they be great hanging on the wall or something! And I still do love this color scheme! Everyone I showed it to oohed and aahed about it, wishing they had one, so I'd tell them to stop by the Creative Options booth and check it out.

Tomorrow's another day of meetings and trend-spotting and learning and seeing. I'm on a panel tomorrow talking about how designers in this industry can market themselves. I'm addressing the publishing aspect and can't wait to hear what the other presenters have to say and what the attendees want to know. Here's to Monday!

I got to do a little more wandering around the CHA Craft SuperShow today. In addition, I toured the LA Convention Center and the LA Live area that surrounds it. And then I attended the Creative Options by Plano Molding reception, where they unveiled their new color scheme for their totes and containers. The new line is called Vineyard and it's lovely! In addition to containers like this, they make the rolling totes and all of that as well! The line is beautiful, and the company is located near where I grew up, so it always holds a special place in my heart. But it's their ingenuity that always impresses me. They have an awesome container for beads that I just love the shape of. I'll try to get by their booth tomorrow and snap a few more pictures. Meanwhile, these pictures show the inside and outside of the container.

After that reception, I got to catch up with my artistic and wonderful friend from college, Victoria, and her almost-17-year-old daughter. We had a great meal, got to catch up, and it was marvelous. And on the drive back to the hotel, the Disney fireworks display started, so we got to see that too! All in all, a fabulous day!

An update on the reorganizing project. Though the sewing room is a wreck, the bedroom is looking better. I had to run out this morning to get a few things to finish organizing the closet and I still have to install those. I should clarify--the bedroom isn't actually LOOKING better--it's looking quite messy, but at least the right furniture's in there now and I've cleaned out some of the clothing that I don't need.

The sewing room, well, it's not looking quite as good. But a lot of the stuff that needs to be in there is in there, so that's good. Now it's just a matter of getting that room pulled together. Some thought needs to go into where everything goes. Suggestions welcome!

So it's the last week of the year, and if you remember correctly, last year I tackled cleaning out and organizing the sewing room to make room for the quilting machine. You may also remember that the quilting machine didn't get much action this year, a fact that I'd like to remedy in 2010. So I bit the bullet and did what I thought I ought to do when I first moved into this flat--I'm putting my sleeping quarters in the front, smaller bedroom and moving the sewing and quilting and craft room into the back, larger bedroom. Seriously, how much floor space does one need for sleeping and dressing? (And if those of you with master suites with walk-in closets and sitting areas could just keep that answer to yourself and not chime in with your square footage, I'd be much beholden.)

Monday didn't see much action, as I was driving home from Illinois and stopping along the way to pick up things I needed and check out an after-Christmas sale or two. So Tuesday was my first day of really working on this project. I'm proud to say that I got the sewing room emptied out, the bed and two dressers moved in, and a bunch of the sewing room stuff into the sewing room. Unfortunately, things are still crazy, with a lot of sewing room stuff still in the living room and dining room, in addition to the room they're supposed to be in. But I was able to sleep in my bed last night, so that's something anyway. Turns out, head pointing east works for me. The bedroom is by no means tidy and finished, but having most of the furniture in the right room is a good first step. Meanwhile, it's on to the chaos. Just me, my handtruck to help with the heavy lifting, and my MP3 player. Send organizing thoughts my way!

Facebook is a marvelous thing. I've been able to catch up with old friends--friends from grade school and college, 4-H camp, and from all five of the states I've lived in since college. Lately, two different friends asked me if I knew anything about making t-shirt quilts. Honestly, I've never made one myself, but when I managed the quilt shop in Florida (which I ought to blog about sometime--it was a GREAT job), I picked up a lot of knowledge about it. Sunnie Malesky taught the class for us and I was always able to pick up tips to pass along to customers when they needed advice between classes. But as for those friends that asked, since they can't head to Florida for one of Sunnie's classes, I've passed along those tips to them.

This week, Cathie Filian blogged about making a t-shirt quilt. As I was trying to get rid of extra stuff in my house, I ran across sorority letter shirts and tee's and sweatshirts from date parties and such. I can't donate them; I thought about making tote bags out of them a while back but didn't know if the young women at my college sorority house would use them. But now it seems like the concept of a t-shirt quilt is coming at me from all angles. Though I have to go through the drawers to see how many I have and what parts of them are salvageable, I might have a good start. Now I'll just have to use Facebook to round up more from those years from Gamma Phi Beta sisters who are savers like me. Oh yeah, and then actually put it together. But no deadline, so I've got time.

I just read an article on Oprah.com about what you could do if you weren't standing in your own way, basically. Martha Beck wrote it, and I keep saying I'm going to read or listen to one of her books--just haven't figured out which one I should start with yet, so suggestions are welcome if you've read any of hers. (Sadly, I might have one, or have had one, but I can't remember...) But that thought reminded me of my project from this weekend, so I thought I'd share.

As I've mentioned before, when I cleaned out the sewing room to put in the quilting machine, I created a pile of projects that I decided either got finished by Dec. 31, 2009 or left the house as supplies soon after. So the other day I realized I had a baby gift project that hadn't been given to said baby yet. I pulled it out, thinking that between the cake I needed to bake for the Father's day get-together at Mom and Dad's, and decorating that cake with my nephews, and going to Six Flags Great America on Sunday with my sister, her boys, and Rich, and dropping things off at my cousin's house, I might be able to complete this project and leave it with my Mom would surely wouldn't mind dropping it off to the baby in question for me. And as for my thoughts on how much time it would take, well, it was just a tied fleece blanket--how long could it take?

So after I didn't get it done Friday night or Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon, I pulled it out at 9:30pm (yes, 9:30pm, the PERFECT time to start a project, right?) at Mom's and got to work. My sweet, wonderful, and generous mother offered to help me with the tying once I got the fringe cut. My sister Alice offered to watch and cheer us on until she was too tired to keep her eyes open. So I cut the fringe and Mom and I sat at the kitchen table and got it tied. Getting that project finished took about 90 minutes on Saturday night. Yes, we were up until 11pm. But we talked and laughed and spent some time together, just us girls (or until Alice went to sleep, then it was Mom and I talking and laughing REALLY QUIETLY).

And why did Martha Beck's story on Oprah.com make me think of this project? Well, I think that that stack of boxes, bags, etc., has been daunting to me. So instead of spending some time working on a project in my spare time watching tv, I've been unsure of what to tackle, as few of these projects has a true deadline or a target date, aside from the 12/31/09 date that looms ahead. But now that I've finished the blanket, the relief of completing one project from my list and elimating one large bag from the stack of bags, boxes, and storage containers is really unmeasureable. And knowing that one new little farmer boy will have this blanket to roll around and nap on and curl up under when it's chilly and that my loving momma helped me work on it... well, that part is priceless. Now, it's on to the next project, whichever it may be. Maybe it's a good idea to get some of the quick ones done first, so that I can see real progress in the number of containers of supplies dropping and the number of containers of finished projects increasing or, in some cases, see those finished projects get delivered to their destination. What do you think: start on something that might not be completed for a week or more or knock out some done-in-a-night projects?

I braved it today, going into work, but I didn't make it a full day. Don't know what this illness is, but it's more powerful than I thought it was. And with the snow overnight and the wind chill of 9 below, I find being home in my slippers and jammies to be a pretty good place to be. I have a retreat tomorrow for work, so we'll see if I make it through tomorrow without needing a nap.

So here's what I've discovered. This organizing thing can take over. Every time I think "well, that's pulled together," I discover something else that needs to be dealt with. The other day I ran out to find some pretty baskets I could use under the new cabinet, and it turns out the baskets were the perfect size for the video tapes. So I pulled those out of the drawers because it seemed like there were other things that should be stored in the drawers and shelves in the cabinet that couldn't be stored in the baskets below. So then I had to figure out what was best stored in the cabinet. That led to emptying the old suitcases and trunks I have been using for storing photos (I know, a travesty--I'm sure they aren't acid free). Now I have to organize all the photos into albums which could be stored in the cabinets. And then I had to fill the trunks with other things that need to be stored, primarily the linens from the built in china cabinets (so now I have to figure out what goes in all of those drawers. I keep thinking that if I can get some of the pieces of furniture out of the living room and dining room, it will look neater and tidier. So we'll see if I can reach that.

Meanwhile, Saturday morning had me dropping my car off at the repair shop, as the heater just wasn't heating as well as it had been and I'd had the radiator flushed to see if that was the problem. (It wasn't, but it needed to be done anyway.) Since the garage was so close, and it was 8AM on a Saturday, I walked the 8 blocks home. When I got here, I shoveled the sidewalk and the ENTIRE driveway, and about the time I finished, the car was done and they were kind enough to pick me up (as I was pretty exhausted from the shoveling). About 3PM, the sore throat started. :( Perhaps the shoveling put me over the edge and let the germs take hold.

After 14 hours of sleep (no joke), I'm not feeling a whole lot better, so I'm taking it pretty easy today. There's still so much to do around here, but I'm just taking it one step at a time.

If you've gotten sucked into this organizational dilemna I'm experiencing, I'd appreciate ANY advice you've got to share. I'm getting to feel a little overwhelmed, so advice is needed at this point!