I did a little revisiting on my blog, and sadly have confirmed that during 2012 and nearly half of this year 2013 I have done very little sewing. However, during that same period there was A LOT of designing and pattern making. I am happy about that.

Toward the end of 2011 I put together a little bucket list of projects I have designed over the last few years I would actually like to sew sometime. Sadly Happily, with this project I have now completed two wall hangings on that list.

So here is my Bird in Hand wall hanging. It has been a while since I did any hand applique, and I find I still enjoy it.

The difference, though, is that I have really started to embrace embellishing, and I really had to include some bling here!

And, naturally, I do like to include some embroidery. This time I used some nice silk threads.

Nowhere to hang it now in this funny little house I’m living in. So for the time being it’s still lying on a table, before I either switch out one of the few wall hangings I do have up, or put it away to enjoy in a future house!

It’s time to enjoy the Spring 2013 Bloggers’ Quilt Festival, sponsored by Amy’s Creative Side. Click on the button in the sidebar to see other participating blogs.

I very, very rarely participate in a BOM project, be it one of my own or some other designer’s. But last year I just couldn’t resist working on the BOM project I offered on my website for 2012: Itching to be Stitching. If you know anything about me, then you already know my first love in quilting is for applique projects. That’s what I design, and that’s what I like to sew. And I normally do hand applique at that.  But I really didn’t feel I had the time to set aside to hand applique this project, so I opted for sewing it on the machine. And found I really did enjoy working on the machine… what satisfaction to get it done fast!

Finished size: 44 x 55″

My own sewing tools served as inspiration for most of the designs!

One of the things I enjoyed a lot about both designing and sewing this wall hanging was working with wording. So I now find myself incorporating sayings in more and more of my designs!

What is notable about the Ecuadorian situation is that of those 137 legislators, 100 are allied with the president’s political party (Alianza PAIS). This means the government will have 73% of the representation in the plenary, a fact that is happening for the first time in the history of Ecuador and that will have a tremendous influence when it comes to approving laws or reforms, whether they are driven by the plenary or by the President. In other words, this means the governing party will practically rule without opposition.

I won’t bore you here with too much political trivia about this tiny country I live in. What I do find interesting right now about what is happening today in my country has to do with the role and participation of women. At this moment, 40% of the Cabinet is made up by women. And 46% of the National Assembly’s members are women. That in itself shows progress. What is even more exciting is that for the first time in the history of this country, three women are at the head of the Assembly: Gabriela Rivadeneira, as president, and Rossana Alvarado and Marcela Aguinaga as first and second vice presidents. Not only that… they are young! 29, 36, and 40 years old respectively. Not only is the new president of the Assembly a woman, but she is also the youngest person to ever occupy this seat in Ecuador!

Now isn’t that something?

If anything, days here have been wetter and grayer than a month ago. I continue to work, work, work on a new project (soon to be announced), with a little heater by my desk to try and keep warm. This past week that hasn’t worked too well, though… I really miss the fireplace I had in my house in Quito, right next to my desk! There is a very large fireplace in this house, but not in my office space. Still, I have kept it going most afternoons and into the evening, trying to warm up the house a little.

So there has been a little sewing while sitting by the fire. I finally got around to working on this project, which had been on my bucket list for a while. It just needs to be quilted now.

And I’ve also been working on the scrappy afghan I posted on earlier. I’m happy to say that other than a little bit of the orange yarn, I have used up all the small amounts of leftover yarn I had. However… I didn’t have quite enough of the brown I used to join the squares. I did have another lighter brown, but it looked off. So I will have to purchase a couple of skeins to finish the border. Drat!

As you will have noted, blogging is one of the things placed on the back burner. Several work projects are pretty much consuming all my time. And one of the things I have fallen behind on is my 2013 Free BOM list. So yesterday I sat down for a bit and updated the list.

If you haven’t visited this list lately, and you are a BOM fan, I encourage you to do so now. The list does not include commercial BOMs – only free BOMs and quilt-alongs. What has been updated is marked NEW. Some of these did start back in January, but several of them have just started recently. Lots and lots of fun projects to sew!

2013 Free BOM list

I’m still not quite ready to show the latest project I have going with son Jared. That will have to wait until we’re closer to launching it. In the meantime, I’ve just bundled up and have practically been glued to my computer for long hours every day.  It’s been gray most days, so there isn’t even that wonderful view to entice me outside…

On the sewing front… very little. Basically because when it gets this cold the house also is freezing. Sometimes I light a fire in the fireplace to keep me going. I did start a little project, but it’s going slowly. Here’s a little sneak peek.

Snuggling under the blankets is the best way to keep warm. So that did motivate me to (finally) find and unpack the yarn boxes. I had oodles of loose skeins that I really needed to use up. So, yes, there’s another afghan on the horizon.

Don’t those colors just look scrumptious?

Sorry I don’t have much more to share. Life right now is pretty much about work, so not terribly exciting for you. But I did want to “check in.”

Starting April 5th through April 8th, a different set of Craftsy classes will be on sale each day, up to 75% off their normal price. If you are like me, you probably have a class or two on your wish list, just waiting for a sale like this one. If you don’t see the class you want on sale, keep checking back, as new courses will be on sale every day. And here’s a hint:  Saturday is the day where the most classes will be on sale, so you sure won’t want to miss the offers that day. Just click on the image below to go to the sale.

However… it was definitely worth taking this class for the tiny gold nuggets it unveiled for me. There were basically three tips that led to an “aha!” moment.

1. This is the first time I’ve been able to sew with a metallic thread without it breaking. In my case, it basically consisted in not being afraid to lower my thread tension. I actually had to bring it down to zero… and it worked!

2. I have a small collection of sequins that I have used only occasionally, and a reasonable collection of beads.

In both cases I have used them for embellishment purposes, where I have held down the sequin with a seed bead.

But had not thought about layering the sequins themselves. Duh! Something so simple, and what a nice effect!

3. Although I have run fabric through my printer on many occasions, I had never considered running ribbon or twill tape through it. Eureka! I’m sure I will be doing that often enough from now on!

And here is the finished piece. Now to see if there is any little space left to hang it up on one of the few straight walls in this house!

In preparation for all this sewing time I envisioned I would be having, a couple of months ago I treated myself to a subscription to The Quilt Show. And I finally got around to exploring  just what that membership entitled me to! Besides the shows themselves, what I find appealing are the classrooms. Having never had the opportunity to take a quilting class in my life, it’s been fun discovering what this site has to offer.

So this weekend I decided to take an online class. Mind you, it was initially offered over a period of several weeks, but since all the lessons are posted I decided to do it all this weekend. This particular class is called “Fabric Fancification,” and is taught by Lauren Vlcek. It is basically an embellishment class, and I was probably drawn to it by the fabrics she used. I love her color combinations and have pretty much used the same myself.

So I’ve spent the morning with the sewing, quilting, and playing with machine decorative stitches, and plan on spending the rest of the day (or weekend?) finishing this little piece.

Ah… it feels so good to sew, doesn’t it?

I decided to take over the living room for my sewing space, as it was the largest open area available.

Once again, the slanted walls posed a challenge. Even though the space is (theoretically) large, because of the slant a lot of space is wasted, making the usable area a lot smaller. Although the area in square feet is larger than my old studio, I actually was not able to fit all my stuff in this space, and I had to spill over into other areas. I have a large table I use when I want to spread out and/or where my sewing circle has sat in the past. That I placed in the middle of the room and, because there was no other place, at one end I put a small wardrobe and a bookcase — back to back — with a filing cabinet sandwiched in between. The filing cabinet holds all my printed patterns, and on top of all three pieces I have put my small baskets of scraps and my jewelry-making materials. It looks kind of odd… but that’s the way it’s staying.

In my old studio I had a whole wall of shelves where I was able to organize my fabrics and sewing supplies in such a way that I could easily see (and find) things. The only option I have had now is to put shelves under the tables and keep things in large plastic containers. This is my main “storage” area, but is still not quite working for me… I feel lost, not knowing what supplies are in what container. So I guess I’m going to have to reorganize this part and label the containers in a way that makes better sense to me.

On the left side of the room is this little nook where I have organized my cutting and sewing area. There is a long narrow table under the window, where I have placed all my threads and sewing tools. To the left is my light box and in front of it the ironing board. This kind of works. Except the space is a little narrow and I keep bumping my head on the wall/ceiling when I iron. There are a lot of things on the table that used to hang on a wall, which has been impossible to do in this situation. Still trying to figure out how to make this area better organized.

On the other side of the room (by the fireplace), I have placed my industrial sewing machine and another desk for a spare sewing machine and/or serger. What you see to the right is that bookcase plunked in the middle of the room, which holds all my painting supplies and some non-quilting fabrics.

Talking about fabrics, this is probably one of the reasons I feel lost in this space. The only vertical wall in this area is off the living room, in a small hallway leading into the bedroom. So I placed the only bookshelf that would fit there and re-folded my larger pieces of quilting fabrics to fit on these shelves. To the right is a narrow piece of furniture with all these drawers where I keep my trims and ribbons. Not very close to the sewing area, but at least they are put away in order.

I keep all my fat quarters organized by color in these baskets , which also used to sit on shelves and now live in that small wardrobe in the middle of the room.

My “office” just didn’t fit anywhere in this space, so I had to set up shop on one side of the large master bedroom. This is probably the main reason why I haven’t been sewing much. I was used to having my computer in the studio, where I could look up and be tempted into the sewing area. Now I tend to sit and work, and work. Hmm… maybe I should put some project on that desk to tempt me now and then…

So I told myself this was the weekend to do some sewing and start “owning” this new studio. I figured if I sat down with a small project it would force me to rethink where I need things to be. Perhaps slowly I will start to figure out a new way to organize my things and feel more at home here. I keep reminding myself of other moments in my life where I didn’t have any dedicated space like this one, where I had to use a corner of the dining room table and pack things away after I finished sewing. When I look at it that way… this space actually starts to look great! It’s just a matter of perspective, isn’t it?