What have I been up to?

Over the weekend I went down to Pennsylvania to deliver a sofa to This Guy's apartment (The Peanut's fiance) and attend a Bridal Shower for The Peanut. I had a great time visiting and getting lost in the suburbs of Pittsburgh (This Guy transferred to that area a short time ago).

On the way home, I stopped at Ikea :) It is close to the half way point, so I usually stop there. Have you ever shopped at Ikea? They have such cool stores! I always love the "complete home in XXX square feet" displays - so creative!

I picked up some Billy bookcases as I needed to do something different in the Sewing Dungeon. I had some plastic cabinets that worked great in our basement in PA. The basement there was damp and these helped keep my fabric dry (with DampRid containers inside). Here in MI, my basement is dry and those cabinets were not the easiest to access with the quilt frame so close.

It is hard to see to the back of the cabinets, the shelves are 18" deep and the doors are always in the way ... I was finding piles of unsorted fabrics were gathering in awkward places, just because it was hard to get them back in the cabinets.

I put together two Billy cabinets today :) The new shelves are 15" deep (meaning I gain about 5" of floor space as those cabinet doors are rounded out beyond the shelves!). They are white (hey, it was less expensive!) so the depths of the shelves are easier to see, and the shelves are a bit wider than the cabinets. AND they are taller :) I have more room in these shelves, even though they aren't as deep!

Now  I just need to find better baskets or some other solution for the small pieces of fabric. Those white tubs are just too narrow for these shelves ...

While this will look messier because the shelves are open, I am confident that I will be putting fabrics away much more and (I'm hoping) I'll be more inspired because the fabrics are in view!

Now to tackle the piles of stuff dumped in front of the quilt frame. I have several quilts that must be finished up in the next two weeks and that won't happen if I can't access the frame!

What is on My Design Wall Today?

not much :)

 I did get into the Sewing Dungeon this week :) And I have got borders started for this small piece that I did a couple of years ago. The field of the quilt is 12" X 15" ... and I think I'm going to miter the borders (something I've hardly ever done!).

I also made some fabric postcards last week for a swap. The theme of the swap was "What Makes You Happy" and I had a hard time narrowing it down! I chose to use Batiks, in Radiating Designs, with Swirls. Variegated Thread and using a lot of Blue, Pink and Purple. All those things do make me happy :)

What is on YOUR design wall? More design walls featured at Patchwork Times.

At the Renaissance Festival

Last weekend I sold soap at a Renaissance Festival.Caterina of Castile was a popular soap as it has an orange/patchouli essential oil blend ... though Lavender, Good Queen Bess (white ginger and amber), Orchard Breeze, Spiced Honey Mead and The Herbalist were all favorites of the shoppers.

This was the first year for the Cadillac Renaissance Festival and I hope it can grow as it would be nice to have one in that area :) We all went in costume (guess who spent a lot of time over the previous week on those?) as vendors were required to have some sort of garb and the children wanted to dress up anyway.

The two teenagers had a lot of fun, but Princess Sunshine did beat The Boybarian at this battle:

She was ruthless ;)

The entertainment was top-notch (though I don't have any pictures of the jousting :( ) with lots of applause and laughter echoing through the grounds.Wish I had more pictures of all the acts, but being a vendor, I was limited in how far away I could wander.

At the end of the Faire, Thee Bluebeard and the other entertainers sent us on our merry way with dreams of further adventures in the Renaissance :)

May there be more frolicking in Cadillac!