Finally Moved to Our New Home!

So most of you know how backbreaking and demanding moving can be. After coming across the country in April to stay in a rental while we looked for a new home, we again packed and moved across town a few days ago.

We looked at over 30 houses in person that met my extremely picky criteria and were in contract with another house until early September. We ended up canceling on that place over delays that prolonged the sale by almost two months without the needed repairs. Which was a blessing really because I prefer the place we found immediately after the cancellation.

The only real sacrifice between that house and this house is that there was a finished family room and guest room downstairs in the cancelled house. That was to be our media, guest and sewing rooms.

The house we just moved in to has no finished bonus rooms. Every room is being used for its purpose except one.

BEHOLD! My new sewing room!!!

*sigh*

Not much to look at right now is it? At least the lighting is very good, there are heat vents and we’re in the Midwest so I don’t have to worry about mildew and mold. The hydrometer assures me of the very safe for fabric percentage of 26% down there yesterday.

I’d love to actually finish it and my hubby is keen on that idea(so he can share the space with a wet bar and guest couch). I have a hard time with the idea of spending $10K on a hobby that I do for enjoyment but also to save money. There is no way I can save $10K on sewing for the next 15 years we plan to live here. Hubby assure me that we will recoup some of the finishing expense on the eventual resale of the house and I’m sure he’s right.

I’ll just have to think about it for a while and see what I can do and how it can function with what I already have. Can I paint concrete?

Here I am!

Wish I had a project to show you but I sadly do not.

It’s been almost a month since the move and I’ve finally gotten completely unpacked. On the second Saturday after our arrival, I felt that I’d unpacked enough to have a little fun and went into my sewing corner. That’s when I made a horrific and demoralizing discovery. The movers had indeed lost some things, namely, 3 or more totes of clothes and t-shirts from my sewing corner. Financially, it isn’t a big deal since these were yard sale and cast off items to reconstruct but emotionally it was quite a blow since there were about 10 items in the pile that had sentimental value including an altered sundress from my childhood that was waiting for a drawstring repair, the first thing my DH, who was then my boyfriend, purchased for me and some sentimental baby clothes that I was using in a scrapbook.

All my sweatshirts, t-shirts(over 40!), skirts, leather jumpers, wool and cashmere sweaters, blankets, fleece pullovers, nylon and lycra items, and repair items including a full length tweed coat are gone.

I now have a mere 5 t-shirts and two bed sheets in my “to reconstruct” pile. The loss threw me off so bad that I haven’t been able to go back into the sewing area and try to make anything. I have some great vintage patterns and totes of actual fabric yardage so I could make something from a pattern for a change. And that would be a huge change. It’s been at least 5 years since I worked from a pattern. And that worries me. My last project didn’t turn out well and I scrapped it.

So boo-hoo for me. It’s hard to feel excited about making something when I keep thinking of the loss of the projects I was working on. *sigh*

 

A Little Break

Due to technical issues with my computer I won’t be able to upload pictures for a week or two.
I will be sewing though and I already have two finished projects to post as soon as the photo issue is resolved.
So please excuse the quiet around here for a bit and I’ll be back as soon as possible!

More Vintage Buttons!

I never seem to find any buttons at thrift shops and yard sales so my collection is very tiny. But I did find a couple of bags of assorted vintage buttons at a thrift shop on Saturday and paid $4 for them.
I apologize again for the rotten pictures. My camera is on its’ last legs and nothing I do seems to produce good pictures anymore.
The standard buttons:

The shank buttons:

And some unusual, maybe valuable ones:

I have never seen a button like the black one in person before. I’ve seen plenty online and I don’t know what they’re called but after 20 years of sewing and shopping thrift and yard sales it’s the first I’ve actually seen. The silver buttons are very old. They are stamped with the Seal of Oklahoma and 1907. The backs have a center seam and loop shank. They were probably off of a state worker’s uniform(heavy blue thread is still attached to one button) and probably not as old as 1907 since that was just the year Oklahoma was incorporated as a state. They are old though!

Buttons!

Anyone collect buttons? I have three big spice jars full along with a baggie of old buttons on cards. 90% of them are nothing special and 100% have no value at all except to me.

 But I love retro looking shank buttons. I also love real shell buttons and opaque buttons in 1930′s or sea glass colors.

 Looking through my buttons is sooo relaxing! I plan to make a button sampler “quilt” as a wall hanging sometime this year so I can keep my beauties on display.

Here are some of my favorites:

Apologies!

I’ve obviously been neglecting my blog so far in 2010. My husband and I got some wonderful news the last week of December, we’re expecting our third child! Shortly after we got our happy news, I got debilitating, all day morning sickness. Sewing and blogging were not things I felt up to at all. But now I’ve come out of the first trimester and the morning sickness is fading and I hope to get back to normal with sewing very soon.

Thank you to everone who visits my blog and hopefully there will be many new project posts soon!

Busy, busy!

My personal life is a little bit busy right now as I start up our homeschooling year. In my down time I’m piecing a t-shirt quilt for my daughter. I hope to have pictures of the finished t-quilt up next weekend.

I also picked up the needed fabric for my baby quilt backing and today the Dalmatian quilt is sandwiched and basted ready for quilting.  You won’t see pictures of the finished quilt until November so try to control your excitement, ok?

My Sewing Space!

Imagine, if you will, a 5 ft X 8 ft corner of an eat in kitchen. Now imagine that space were occupied by 2 ceiling high shelving units, stuffed full. Imagine about a dozen large plastic totes stacked around the shelving units. Imagine cardboard boxes and gift bags and storage bags all stacked around in complete and horrible disorder.
Congrats! You have imagined the sewing space I had last year. Of course it really wasn’t so much a sewing space as a craft supply storage area. And a this and that storage area. In fact, it was just a dump zone for whatever didn’t have a home.
I spent a year purging and organizing, working on the area whenever I could. As part of a challenge at Frugal Village I managed to finish the area yesterday! (Ok, it’s 99% finished. I decided last minute that the corkboard idea wouldn’t be as handy to me as a wall mounted bookshelf and eye hooks for a hang-able clipboard. So I need to purchase and install those items.)
So, without further eloquence…Drum-roll please……..

The red unit stores lesser used kitchen appliances and gadgets. I have very few cabinets. :/

I made these two bags yesterday. they’re 12in X 24in X 24in with drawstring tops. I’m storing the clothes I keep to recycle in these.

The white cabinets are my pantry cabinets. Like I said, not enough cabinets.

I just love the view while I’m working in my space. It’s absolutely thrilling to have  everything always set up, easy to find and  coordinated! I haven’t had that since I had my own room at 14 years old.

I’m pretty happy right now. Can you tell?

Movin’ In…

I’ve been keeping a sewing blog at another location and decided that my needs were changing so I moved! Hopefully I’ll get my old posts moved here eventually. But for now my ‘archives’ are at http://www.villageblogger.com/nuisance26 . It will become pretty apparant what I’m all about when you scan through my posts. I like to sew. I like to use vintage fabrics. I like to reconstruct clothes. I like to make my own patterns. I have alot of other interests but this blog will be about my finished projects. I’m glad you stopped by and I hope you come back again!

~Constance