Resource Center Musings

I found this notepad in my stack of paper when we were moving all of our stuff from the garage back to the office.  I think this says it all... and I'm a contender!!

A notepad from my desk

In previous posts and in my blog header I've talked about my stash.  I've discussed the reasons why I believe a serious sewist should have a stash. 

1. When your colors are out of season, or the stores want to sell brown and you like black, you can shop where the proprietor stocks what you need.
2. When you want to sew at 11 p.m. or 5 a.m. and the stores aren't open yet, you're good to go.
3. When you have to make a blue monster costume on Sunday night for Monday morning, well, you get the picture!!

So you probably weren't surprised when I showed my stack of bins...

or my boxes of patterns...

But did I tell you that I ran completely out of muslin??  Or that I somehow have failed to store even one single black zipper of ANY size?  How does this happen?

I recently decided to take inventory of my sewing supplies, just for curiosity's sake, and perhaps to give a list of things to my insurance man for a rider on my homeowners policy.

I have approximately $300 worth of sewing machine needles. 

I have six different kinds of straight pin and three magnetic pincushions.  And before you comment, yes I DO use the various kinds of pins.  Maybe not daily but they gather no dust!  When I decide to cut patterns out, I will sometimes do as many as a dozen projects, and I leave SOME pins in each piece, so some are out of circulation, in the baggies I use for my 'ready to sew' kits.

You've seen these before...

I spent some time in the resource center trying to finish up DD's quilt so I can move on to other things.  I have a blouse to put button holes into, and another one that needs some interfacing.  I have about oh maybe 45 yards of interfacings in my resource center.  When I find it on sale at 50% off I buy 10 yards of the light weight or medium weight, and any time I find the stuff that's sold by Palmer & Pletsch, I get several packages of each weight in black and white.

Recently I donated two baggies of flat buttons to our preschool for craft projects.  I barely made a dent in the button collection.  But I did thin out the singles and the big buttons that didn't really appeal to me anymore.  I'm happy to make some 3 and 4 year olds happy.  :-)

What I didn't realize was how many SCRAPS I have saved over time!!  I used to make doll clothes, in fact I started my sewing career making clothes for my Barbie dolls.  I have an affinity for things Barbie.  I loved her professional outfits, I get a fluttery feeling in my tummy thinking about an outfit I bought her way back when, with its Chanel style jacket and matching purse and heels!!  My Barbie was stylin'!

SO I sorted out my scraps into a couple of piles -- Barbie-sized pieces, 18" doll sized pieces and baby doll/Cabbage Patch pieces.

You know those big plastic bins that hold however many gallons??  You know, the ones up near the top of this blog??  Well, there are two that are full of potential 18" and baby doll outfits, and the potential Barbie outfits fill a half-sized bin.  I guess I'd better get to work!!

Know any naked Barbies??  I guess you could send them my way...

Laughing out loud ---

Keep on sewing!

Nancy Zieman Tablet Keeper

This month Nancy Zieman is asking several people to test her new Tablet Keeper templates.  Each day someone different is posting their results, sometimes making more than one size or design.  Of course the one Nancy featured was beautiful, they do great work up in Beaver Dam.  It made me want to buy the template set and get started!  (You think that was their purpose??  Nah...)

So this past weekend I spent some time in my sewing room looking for possible candidate fabrics for a couple of Tablet Keepers of my own.  I have a Kindle, an idea notebook, several other notebooks for which a cover or holder might be nice.

I found some quilt squares that were left over from projects that were started or abandoned.  I also located the 1/2 yard of blue print that I was missing so I might be able to finish binding the quilt I made for my bed a couple of years ago.  I'm using it right now with the edges serged off so they don't ravel.  Additionally I found the pattern pieces for a couple of projects.  These pieces need to be returned to their envelope at some point, in case they are to be used again.

I have lots of fabric sorted by type and color, most of it stored in these plastic boxes...

some big tubs, some small ones, but all very necessary.  We've had tiny livestock in the basement for the last couple of years.  Last year they started moving in for the winter, and to make room for themselves they chewed through the folded side of 1.5 yards of a silk and wool blend that I was saving for a jacket.  Why can't they develop a taste for polyester??? 

I moved several stacks of things around.  Moving things next to things sometimes results in interesting combinations.  Nothing was too inspiring.  Maybe I need to take a pile of things with me to Friday night sewing and look at them in someone else's sewing space.  Or maybe I have been too limiting in what I'm looking at.  A third possibility exists -- I may just have to agument my stash somehow.  I have a lot but maybe I don't have the RIGHT stuff!  (OMG, I'm truly crazy.)

My oldest grand came over looking for an "artifact", something "from history that's older than grampa"... we dug around and I found some antique linens that I picked up in Columbus.  We had to write down who might have made them and what they might have been used for so she could take them to history class.

 I wandered back to the living room.  I looked through a stack of books on the coffee table and started reading one.  Since there was no Green Bay football game, hubby was not shouting and pounding the arm of the chair, and I guess I took a little nap.  When I woke it was 5:13 p.m.

I still have no idea what I might use to make my Tablet Keeper.  But since my DD stopped over during the search, now I also have to make one for the Nook she has.  Once she locates the fabric she wants me to use...