Sewing room update!

Just a quick post today.
I've been working hard on my current sewing project so there hasn't been much activity to post; just me sewing away...
Well the exciting news I wanted to share is nothing new in the sewing world but I am happy to report my hubby made me leg extensions for my cutting table. Now I can cut at a comfortable height without straining my back. Plus this gives me more room under the table to store crafts.

He made them really nice looking for PVC piping. I sew excited I can't wait to get to the cutting stage again on one of my sewing projects.

Thanks for reading♥

How I plan out a quilt

I thought I would share with you how I plan out a quilt from sketch to finish. Currently I do not have quilting software although it is on my wish list so for now I plan out my quilts on paper.

Below are four fabrics that I am using on my next quilt project this is going to be a gift so I may hold off on the final reveal. I thought it would be easier to visualize this project and the planning process if you knew the fabrics going into it.

As you can see my main fabric has kitties in it and I wanted them to be the focus and the other three to compliment it, I would call this a minimalist color palette almost monochromatic except for the red. I also wanted to play with the block puss in the corner since this is a quilt with kitties. I found dozens of different versions and settled on two of them the oldest and simplest I could find being block B in my final design. and the other a slight variation to add interest. Below I did a preliminary sketch of what I wanted the quilt to look like. I say preliminary because I didn't use my ruler and I wasn't 100% sure.

Then I redrew the design on graph paper using a ruler and pencil. Next I photocopied the image on my printer.

This gives me nice clean crisp lines and allows me to audition different color layouts without redrawing the entire design. Below you can see I colored in a couple of different options.

When I settled on one I started to figure out how many squares I needed and about how much yardage. The yardage per square  or squares per yardage can be calculated with the Robert Kaufman free quilt calculator app. This is a great app it even does borders and backing what a great tool. Now I had only so much yardage out of some of the fabrics so that ended up dictating the design a little I wasn't able to do my original  color layout. or the number of blocks I wanted to make the size I was hoping for.

In the end I settled on the design below figuring I had enough yardage and could even add some borders to get the dimensions I wanted. On this copy I wrote final design and filed the others away to avoid further confusion.

Then on my final design sheet I broke my quilt down into the two blocks and figured the sizes and number of squares needed for each and wrote them down like a key or a legend on a map.

Now that all of those steps are done I am ready to start cutting and I don't have to worry if I have enough fabric because I've done all my homework and I know that I do.

How do you plan your quilts?
Do you still use a paper method or do you have software?

Thanks for reading♥

How to stop your rulers from slipping

Are your rulers giving you the slip? There are several products out there to help give your rulers some extra grip, in addition there are also newer rulers that have some extra grip already built in. Such as my Omnigrip below.

 Like many of you I have invested in many different rulers and these are not easily replaced mostly due to cost or availability. So while working on one of my current projects I was encountering said slippage and it was frustrating and slowing me down. So I searched the internet and found a simple solution that really works and cost zero to little money.

Rubber cement. 

 Below you can see I just coated either end not the entire ruler and let dry.

 For this project I needed to cut all the way around the template and as I was sliding my little pink mat around the ruler kept moving. The rubber cement solved that problem my ruler did not slip and I had more control and accuracy of my cutting.

 And when I was all finished the cement showed some fuzz although it did not stick to my fabric or ruin my material. I was able to then just rub the cement off with my fingers. My ruler is just as pretty and clean as when I started. Gotta love this stuff.

I have not tried or purchased any of the other grip products out there so I can't compare but this worked pretty neat for me and I will definitely do this again. Have you tried this method before? What do you think?

Thanks for reading♥

Fabric organization time!

For some reason this time of year makes me want to clean and organize. So today I thought I would share some of my findings in how I organize my fabric.
I have my fabric organized(or some might think unorganized) in many different ways I don't really have any one system that works but I've tried several and here's what I have.

First off I have some of my fabric organized onto "the fabric orgnaizer" which is a piece of acid free white corrugated plastic cut to about 10 x 14".

This is something I saw in a magazine and went online to order, they now have several other sizes to offer. They run about $2 a piece for the large 10 x 14" size I got some of the small but have never used them as they picture with strips of fabric.

I really like these and love the idea of displaying my fabric like a little fabric shop however I don't have the right shelving to best display them in this way. You need to make sure that your shelves are at least 14½" apart to fit the organizer. I'm also not in love with the price roughly $2 a piece is a bit steep and you do get better pricing when buying in bulk however you're still paying $1.75 so not much savings there. I think if these were more easily available some place like Joann's where you could use a 50% coupon I would be tempted to buy more.

Have you tried these organizers? What do you think?

Next I discovered the art of folding your fabric around your ruler... well hey it's free.

Using my 12½" ruler I folded my fabric lengthwise selvedge to fold.

And then began flipping my ruler to wrap the fabric around like a bolt.

Then... because I want my ruler back, I slid the ruler out and end up with...

This nicely folded fabric that looks like a cute half bolt without the bolt.
Which fits perfectly into my Art Bin Yay!

Just as a side note I've been marking my fabrics with the yardage of how much I bought so I know how much I've got. It's much easier to do immediately after you purchase and sometimes your receipts might say yardage in case you forget or purchase an odd amount.

While filling up my Art Bin's and thinking hmm maybe I need more I discovered that the beautifully folded fabrics also fit perfectly in my Iris storage boxes.

In case you were wondering I folded up some single yards of fabric and they come out like this...

This is also a good way to estimate how much yardage you do have since the ruler is 12½"  each fold will roughly be a foot but you can count the folds and see how many feet/yards of fabric you have.

Another  product I love is the closet maid  fabric drawers, the mini ones are my new favorite.

This one has single yards folded in thirds and below you can see they are truly perfect for fat quarters.

The short tied bundles can be stacked 2 high. I love how this keeps a collection or color grouped together but easy to grab the whole lot.

How do you store your fabrics? What organizing products do you love?

Thanks for reading♥