Hello, everyone! How are things going in your corner of the world? Here in Houston, we seem to be taking a few steps back from the original plan to move forward with re-opening the state. Our COVID-19 counts have skyrocketed, and people don’t seem to be taking quite as much personal responsibility as officials hoped they would. I’m just hoping they don’t start shutting stores down again. I don’t get out much, and I do use curbside pick up frequently, but I hope they don’t shut down things as completely as they were a couple of months ago.

I thought by now, I’d have Prairie Life completed, but that was not to be. Last week, I posted about how my machine is skipping stitches. I received some suggestions to try, but I haven’t been able to give them a go yet; I got busy with studio changes. Check out my new IKEA Kallax ironing station!

Not the best photo, but it’s sort of wedged in to that corner. A couple of months ago, I moved from a very large studio in our formal living and dining to a very small one in a secondary bedroom, and I’m still not used to the lack of space. But I do love this Kallax unit! Chris added six legs to the bottom to make it taller, and I made the top using a layer of Warm Company’s Insul Bright and a layer of their Warm & Natural Cotton Batting. Then I covered it with this beautiful purple fabric I got from Hobby Lobby. I’m keeping my regular ironing board in case I need it, but it won’t be in the studio anymore. I will be putting it in the closet in our bedroom. Please excuse the 16 year old carpet the landlord won’t replace; it’s been through a lot of kids, so even when it’s vacuumed, it still looks like crap.

The ironing surface for my new station is 61″ x 18″, so it’s a great size. The top isn’t actually attached to the Kallax, but I put one of those grippy pads that are used in tool boxes under the top. I just cut it to the size I need, and laid it on the top of the Kallax, then put the ironing board on top of that. I suppose that if someone really knocked in to it hard, or pulled on it really hard, it would come off, but I don’t have small children in the house, so I’m not worried about it. If I find that it doesn’t stay in place, I’ll attach it with a couple of L brackets.

The first week of the month is always very busy at work, but I’m still hoping to make some progress on the Bee Patriotic quilt. I also want to get Prairie Life finished, but I’m sort of stuck on that until I can either figure out why the Pfaff is skipping stitches, or my Sew Steady table comes in for the Viking. I ordered it early last week, but it takes two to five weeks for the table to ship, so I’m not expecting it until mid to late July. :-\ I have also been trying to acquire a straight stitch needle plate for the Viking, but my dealer doesn’t have them in stock, and I don’t know of another Viking dealer that’s even remotely close to me. Still, I do want to make some progress on Bee Patriotic, if nothing else this week.

My next studio project is to add a table for the Viking, and to replace the bookcase where that table will go with some wall shelving from Container Store. I think once that’s done, I will be quite happy with my studio space, even though it overflows in to our bedroom. I love what I have completed so far, but there is still a fair amount of work to be done.

 

I intend to move the TV from the cart to a shelf on the wall, but I need to move things around in order to do that. I am going to try to get that done the weekend of the 4th of July.

 

It’s not really clean at this point, but I’m working on it. And again, please overlook the floor. It’s not nearly as dirty as it looks in these photos. LOL If we owned this house, the floor in my studio would be laminate, because it’s easy to care for and isn’t carpet. I have a deep and abiding intense dislike for carpet. You can tell from the two fans in here that this room is probably the hottest in the house. Around mid-morning, I will lower the blinds over the desk to keep it from getting too hot, but it will still be quite warm by the end of the day. Still, it’s my little slice of heaven. I have a couple of small wall hangings to put up, my big poster you can see the top of in the photo just above this paragraph, and some other things that make me smile. I’m not one of those who will put something like “Create” or “Make” on my wall; it’s just not my style. I want things that are pretty, colorful and that will make me smile or laugh when I see them. I bought this adorable picture at Hobby Lobby this weekend, and I can’t wait to get it on my wall.

 

I am also considering going back and getting this one, but I’ve not quite made up my mind.

At any rate, I’m ready to put the decorating aside and get back to quilting. Next week, I hope to give you a proper update about that!

Happy sewing!