Thursday 15 January 2009

Mariner's Compass block and my new room (164)

Yesterday was the first day of the Intermediate Patchwork and Quilting course that I'm taking - it lasts for one full day and five half days, every fortnight or so. And the first day was quite a challenge, and pretty tiring, making the mariner's compass block for the centre of the quilt. I wasn't very happy with it in the end, neither the construction or the choice of colours, so I remade it today. It was helpful having had a first attempt yesterday as I knew where I needed to take more care. It hadn't helped yesterday that my needle position was a bit out and so my quarter inch seams weren't accurate. I took it to be serviced and sorted this morning, and sewed on my old machine. It's worked pretty well. The slightly mismatched seam in the middle won't matter as it's still to have a circle appliqued over it!


Well, my sewing and craft room is nearly there.

The window still needs painting, as do some shelves, and there's still a bit of sorting out to do, but it's useable now and lovely to have everything together in one place. I've ordered some inserts for the sewing table, so that I can lower the machine and have it sitting flush with the table, and another which fills the hole up, so that I can use it as a desk or cutting table.

This is the door going out into the corridor, with my fabric stash to one side, and some cork tiles on the wall with some of my stitcheries on. As you can see, my fabric stash is still fairly minimal, most of those pieces are fat quarters or smaller, with just a few half yards hidden in there somewhere ready for the Angel's Story quilt.

Woops, just noticed the bits of paper on the floor, waiting to be read. The bag in front of the fabric is full of scraps waiting to be cut and sorted.

This is the trolley we found, the top is exactly the same size as my cutting mat and just the right height for standing at. It just squeezes in between the open door and the end of the bed base. I've got to make an ironing pad to go on it so that I don't have to keep running up to the second floor bedroom all the time. You can just see the side of the bag of scraps on the right there.

This book shelf fits neatly between the radiator and the airing cupboard, and houses all of my craft and sewing stuff. You can see the wall with the stitcheries on there on the left, so that finishes the tour of my little room. It's pretty small as you can see, in fact I've had to press back as far as I can to take each photograph, so there's no room for many more purchases, either fabric or craft goodies. I need to get hold of a chair for the sewing machine though, and I may squeeze a Lloyd Loom wickerwork armchair in there too. No room to swing a cat once that's all in there! Not that I could even lift Rosie to swing here if I wanted to (which I don't of course) she's so fat.

 And just to finish off this post, here is Rosie - can you spot her? She must have thought it was cold yesterday, as I found her not only under the quilt, but under the duvet as well!


21 comments:

crafty diane said...

I love your little sewing room! I must say, I am envious. I so wish I had a room just for all my sewing and craft stuff. My hubby says I just need to get rid of a lot of stuff as our bedroom is crammed packed with all my sewing and craft stuff! I am holding onto it all in hopes that one day when the kids are all grown and gone I will have a room to put it in! Since it has gotten colder weather here our calico cat, Mollie, has taken to getting under the quilt on our bed to sleep!
Have a Blessed Day,
Diane

crafty diane said...

Forgot to mention, you did fantastic on the Mariner's Compass! I have never sewn one. They just look so complicated!
Diane

maria said...

Your sewing room looks great. After years of using the dining table I now have our small spare bedroom as a sewing room. It's great to able to leave everything without putting it away every time. You can go in and grab a few minutes sewing when you can.
The cover for the bed base looks very clever.
Maria x

Amelia said...

The room looks great...just right for all kinds of creative work...quilting or card crafting.

Yes, you must add a place to iron in there...Will you have to purchase another iron?

Gina said...

Loved the tour of your sewing room. Mine is tidy aswell. there's just enough floor space for Stanley to lie down in.
I love the colours you used for your Mariner's Compass

Love and hugs Gina xxx

Lynn said...

I recently worked on a mariners compass block - thank goodness for the circle appliqued onto the center! I like that fabric choice - will it be a complete quilt top when you finish the class or just learning new techniques? Your new room is looking splendid!

Gretchen said...

Rosie is very cute hiding under covers. It is very cold here in and I want to do that too! I love your sewing room!

Tanya said...

Lovely colors on your Mariner's compass and great use of the stripes in the middle. I must remember to use stripes next time I make a Mariner's. Very effective!

scraphappy said...

You are so brave to try the Mariner's Compass Block. I've always thought it was lovely, but very intimidating. Especially with the circle around the outside. And to do it not just once, but twice is quite ambitious. Your sewing room looks like it is coming along very nicely. It will be so lovely to have a real sewing home and not feel like you are invading someone else's space.

Candace said...

I love your block and your room. It makes me want to see what I can do to improve my sewing room. I also love the quilt on your bed, I'm a sucker for plaids. Not to mention your trolley, I have been looking at one with a marble top in the 'Tuesday Morning' store in our town. I'm not sure how I could fit it in though.

Amy said...

WOW, WOW, WOW!
WOW on the Mariner's Compass! I'm assuming you paper-pieced it? It's the only way I've seen ANY MC created, and I just don't know how to do it! Way to go!

And WOW on your sewing room! Thanks for sharing all those great pics!

Anonymous said...

Your sewing room is going to be wonderful, a very special room.

Your compass is great, i may do one of these maybe as im a fishermans daughter, im hoping to do my x-stitch boat designs one day too.

Take care have a great weekend,

Katie said...

Your compass looks wonderful. The points are so sharp! The room is great too. You must love it. :-)

Liz said...

Hi Amanda,
Looks like you have a very lovely and cosy little sewing space all ready for lots of sewing in 2009!
You have done well fitting it out.
The Mariners Compass block looks great. I would like to have a go at one some day. They look challenging. The divan cover looks good and a good idea to use the stitchery blocks so you can admire them all the time. I'm sure you can call that a project ufo finished for the challenge. I still haven't finished my blocks!!
Have a gre8t day/evening sewing.
Kind regards from Liz

Faith said...

its amazing what ideas and tips you pick up from talking to other quilters seeing their work and looking round the sewing room i love the idea that you have the narrow cd rack but using this to store fabric instead using rainbow colours. Thankfully I still have one of this up in the music studio so hee hee im going to pinch this back again and put fabrics in just like you.
Ohh I marvel at your lovely mariners compass Im not that clever yet but i hope to achieve this one day. Thankyou so much for showing us all.

Kay said...

This may sound a little silly but I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I've been by to look at the photos on this post. I didn't leave a comment because I kept getting called away or the dial up was killing me.
I just love LOVE LOVE your little craft-sewing room. I'm a little organizer by nature and seeing your room just made me feel so good. It's so perfect with all the little boxes and supplies for your projects. I actually went out and bought some materials at JoAnne Fabrics yesterday. I still don't have a sewing machine but I now have 6 yards of fabric! Art said that was little hmmmmm....(I forgot the word he used..... excessive?) since now I'll have to make room for it in our luggage back to Hawaii and it's not like we don't have fabric stores in Hawaii.

Ah well... your room made me dream.

Clare said...

Lovely Mariner's Compass.

Your room is looking great.

Comfort Cove Designs said...

I enjoyed the tour of your sewing room! I hope to have my dream sewing room/studio before the end of this year. First of all I have to buy the house to fit the room in :)

My cat Missy does the same thing your Rosie does! I call her my oversized bed bug when she sleeps under the quilts!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Skibunny said...

A Dalek what a whimsical surprise in your craft rooom. Does it ensure that you work hard?

The mariners compass looks lovely and light, I am very impressed by your fabric choice.

Sue said...

Your sewing room is lovely! Great job on your Mariner's Compass. Lestat my cat does the same as Rosie whenever we have visitors....straight under the doona.

Sue
Western Australia

Karen said...

Your Mariner's Compass block looks very good. The first quilt class I ever took was for a Mariner's Compass. The shop owner must have been wanting to get people signed up for classes as she told me it was an easy class. I would not recommend that for a beginner. Fortunately, the instructor was very good and we hand pieced it, so it turned out. Did you paper piece yours?