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.

I was in Toronto last weekend for a CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) board meeting. Because of how I had to book my flight, I had 6 hours from the time I landed until I had to be at the hotel for the start of the weekend. Yes, you guessed it, that was just enough time to visit a few quilt shops. But since the week prior had gotten a bit chaotic, I hadn't had a chance to do much research online to double-check locations, hours, etc. I located addresses of several shops, thanks to Dad's GPS, but only two of them were still where they were located when I printed a quick map from Google. But one shop staffer suggested another shop, so in the end I visited three shops and still had the chance to look around the town and get ready for the meeting.

What shops did I visit?, you ask.

First, I stopped at Cock-a-Doodle Quilts. I found some fat quarters--I'm assuming they're quarter meters, which is slightly larger than a US fat quarter. But since fabric is more expensive in Canada, I didn't want to get carried away. They had some lovely batiks, this adorable farm print (I'm pretty sure this is bigger than a fat quarter, but I don't have it here to measure), and a panel that I can't yet disclose. As always, you know I'm a sucker for farm fabrics.

Next, after a few misses, I had another hit. The Quilter's Block is a smaller shop, but it was filled with some great fabrics. It's more of an urban shop, which was a new experience for me. As often happens, I ended up with two of the same prints in different colorways. And I also picked up a black-and-white and a black-and-gray print, which are also becoming a pattern for me. And the gal in the shop was very helpful, as we chatted about my mini-shop-hop, she suggested one other store in the area. So off I went.

The shop she suggested was Sewing Machine Factory Outlet in Scarborough. (Again, thank goodness for Dad's GPS!) I found some bolts of fabric that weren't full price--some marked down and some buy-one-get-one-free. Yes, at this shop, I bought yardage, but only off of four bolts. And then there were two fat quarters. As before, the two circle prints are the same print in different colorways--and I love circles and dots. I absolutely fell for the geometric print--it reminded me of some of the ones I picked up in Utah. As for the mosaic-looking print, I thought it would be a great fabric to use to get some practice freehand quilting with that big ole machine of mine. It's beautiful--shades of teal, creams, and brown, and there are birds and florals. I'll do another show-and-tell after I get it quilted--I'm itching to play with that machine again. I need much more free time! As for the two fat quarters, just some batiks that I thought were interesting.

And to round out my trip, here's a funny story. As I walked into the shop, I noticed a gentleman just hanging out in the store. Turned out, he was a fabric rep. I should have guessed--this is not the first time I've been visiting a shop while the fabric rep is trying to do show-and-tell. I don't mind it at all, I love to get a sneak peek at fabric lines, but I always feel bad for the shop owner and the rep, as it's much easier to do fabric selection when there's no one around and you don't have interruptions. I know when I was managing the quilt shop in Florida, we did our best to have the reps come in the evening, which was probably quite inconvenient for them but was very convenient for us. When I was in North Carolina on that vacation I mentioned a few weeks ago, the same thing happened and I bought a lot of fabric then too, partially because I wanted to make it easier on the shop owner, so I just had her cut half-yards. Talk about a tough time getting everything to fit in an already-packed-full suitcase! I was much more frugal with my purchases this trip and was able to get the fabric in my carry-on bag without too much trouble.

So that's my tour of the quilt shops in Toronto. I'm sure I missed some, so if you know of any that I missed, share it in the comment section so anyone who stumbles upon this posting looking for quilt shops in Toronto will have a more complete list for shop hops of their own.

(P.S. If you haven't heard, CHA's planning another Craft SuperShow in Anaheim in January 2010. For a recap of the Summer show, check out these blog posts: Judikins, fabric, Kaiser, JustRite Stamps.)

Yesterday's creative endeavor--the one that I forgot to take a picture of--was dinner--chicken enchiladas verdes, spanish rice, and strawberry shortcakes (from Jiffy muffin mix). I have leftovers of all of it, which is just fine with me. Rich was appreciative of a homemade dinner and I love those enchiladas. And they freeze great, so I can take them for lunch in the days to come.

Meanwhile, over the last few days, I've been getting organized around here. I did a bunch of cleaning up, finishing up the sewing room purging from back in late 2008. I feel like I got a really good handle on what's there to make and my own personal pledge is that I do everything I can to convert those raw materials into finished projects to give as gifts this Christmas. And my pledge is that whatever I don't have turned into projects by the end of 2009 goes to some other creative soul who might want to create something with them. With one exception. I don't think I can give away the printed embroidery-ready pillowcases that I got when my grandmother passed away almost a decade ago that still need to be embroidered. I don't know who will want embroidered pillowcases once I finish them, but I feel the need to finish them anyway.

I've got all of the pieces and parts organized in containers. Now to just figure out what to do with the containers. Maybe once I get the papers and stuff that were from the sewing room and are currently on the sun porch all sorted through, the containers can go out there. Or maybe there's space in the closet in the sewing room... I know, one step at a time...

Hey pals! I had a great day today! I attended a quilt show with a schedule of quilting classes (quilting more than piecing) and I got a lot of great ideas on how to use templates to design patterns for my quilts. I can see that I'm probably going to need a lot of practice to get good at this, but now I've got the ideas to try and some visuals to aspire to. I took two classes: one from Patricia Simons of Quilter's Rule, Inc. called "Unlocking Your Creativity, Templates are the Key!" and the other by Sheri Wood called "Not your Grandmother's Feathers." Both taught me a lot and I'm so glad I attended. And then there were the fat quarters that needed to come home with me.

I'll show you some of the sketches from those classes later, but I did actually get something creative done today! I had a special Valentine dinner with My Favorite Three Year Old and her folks. But while I was up in West Bend after the quilt show, I found the PERFECT gift for the Wee One--fleece fabric printed with Curious George! She adores George and with my penchant for the music from the movie, we talk about George often. So I bought two yards and fringed the edges using my rotary cutter, Shape Cut ruler, and mat. And that's it--less than an hour later, a fringed Curious George blanket! I thought about doing two layers and knotting them together, but she gets pretty toasty when she's bundled up in my two-layer fleece blanket, so I figured one layer was better for her. That monkey is SO cute that I almost wished I was keeping it for myself. But she was so fascinated with the process, since I did all the fringe-cutting at her house. She was right there next to me while I cut the fringe--her Mom said if she got any closer, she'd have had to be tattooed on my arm. I love the idea of teaching her to make things when she gets bigger. I got her the little stitch-around shapes for Christmas (Disney Princesses), so I'm already helping her out with her fine motor skills!

I'm going to do a little more work on my afghan tonight while I watch the end of The King & I. I've been working on it in the carpool (when I'm the passenger, of course) and I can get one complete two-row pattern done on most commutes--four rows or two fans each day. So I'm making some good progress and I'm excited about that.

Tomorrow I'll finish the cards for my One World, One Heart winner, finish the laundry, and go to the gym after Mass. I'm so looking forward to a quiet day at home tomorrow. But I figured you'd all want to see my not-excessively-creative creativity for today.

So it's the end of day 5 and I really feel as though I've accomplished a great deal in these five days. Here's the rundown:

Basement--tidied up and organized
Sewing room--reorganized
Quilting machine and frame--set up and ready to go
Christmas decorations--packed away
Living room--rearranged
Excess craft supplies--in the car and ready to share with my coworkers
Turkey breast--cooked
Ham bone--boiled down into broth
Dozen eggs--hard boiled
Papers--shredded
Lots of trash and recycling on the curb

So there it is. My five days in a nutshell. I'm really proud of what I got done and I'm okay with how much I accomplished. Of course, you always think you'll get more done than you do, but I'm really okay with that list. There's still more to do--the stamping corner in the living room still needs to be organized, but I can't do that until I get the "new" piece of furniture for the living room, and the dining room is still a wreck, filled with all of the things I want to make in the next few months for gifts for 2009. And then there's the Christmas cards and letters...

So thanks for hanging out with me for this 5-day trek through my house-clearing "staycation" (if that's what they're calling it these days). Here's to the next week of finishing it up.

My long-arm Voyager quilting machine is on the frame and all hooked up. I haven't taken it for a test drive yet. I can't take the risk of losing too much time playing with it yet. I've got SO much to go through from the sewing room, stuff to look through and make decisions about and to figure out where and how to store it. So it's me, my chaise, and the West Wing DVDs and classic Christmas movies while I go through piles of displaced craft supplies. I've never been good about .....

As I was typing that, the power went out. And was out for 3-1/2 hours. So I got some "quiet time" because candles only kick off so much light and when you can't hardly see, you can't see enough to make decisions about what to keep and what to toss. But it's back on now, and I'm heading back to the sorting.

And for the record, it seems that tea lights burn for about 3-1/2 hours. They started burning out just about the time that the power came back on. Handy, really, as it meant I didn't have to blow out a whole bunch of candles.