Design Wall Monday

Good morning! No school for me today since it is Columbus Day. I had Friday off, too! That was a Teacher's Institute day. I am an aide so I don't work. I visited my son's school for an IEP meeting. He attends Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville, Illinois. Then I spent Friday night with my parents who live near there. It was nice to visit with them. My dad is suffering with the early stages of dementia. He is very frustrated that he is unable to remember the names of places and people that he knows.



On my wall is part of the back for the Winter Blues quilt. I am using the leftovers of the Snowman Gatherings charm packs.

I decided to rearrange my sewing area. The way it was set up was not working very well. Lots of walking between the sewing machine and the ironing board. And, every time I need to iron I walked between my husband and the TV. This was my set-up.

This is at the ironing board facing the sewing machine. That big chair to the right is my husbands chair. You can't see the TV but it is on the left behind that partition.

 This picture is from the sewing machine looking towards the ironing board. See, lots of walking.

There is a (now) nonfunctional fireplace in the center of a wall in this room. There are 5 foot spaces on each side of that fireplace. The TV is on the right. I got a small table that I set up on the left to use for the sewing machine. I will take down the 6 foot table in front of the bay window and move a chair over there.
The Hoosier cabinet is going upstairs. I hate to do that because I love it, but there isn't room for it downstairs if I rearrange everything. I was able to move the bottom half upstairs by myself. The top is too heavy for me to do it alone so I am waiting for the husband to have a moment when he feels like helping. He is farming right now so I really don't want to push him for help. It can wait.

 Things are piled everywhere. Most of the things on the quilt frame and ironing board will go into that top half of the cabinet.
It is a mess, but it will be better soon.

Since I will be losing a big cutting surface that I would cut some fabric for more projects while the big table was still up - and cleared off! My machine had been sitting at one end. I was cutting the fabric for this kit - Charming Beauty. I saw that I was running short of one of the fabrics and then realized I had double cut some of the long pieces that are for borders. Rats! Those borders are narrower that what I need for some of the other pieces. I have been looking on-line and at stores between hear and Jacksonville with no luck.

 It is a beautiful pattern with beautiful fabric.

 This is the fabric that I cut wrong.

I am off today to go find something similar, I hope. I am also looking for fabrics for a T-shirt quilt I am starting for a former teacher. She taught my son during his high school days. She retired at the end of this past year and insisted she wanted me to make her quilt.

I will also be looking for a new phone and answering machine. We have been having trouble with awful static for the past few weeks. This often happens when we get a rain. The phone company has been out here twice and it isn't any better. The phone repair guy just left. He had to come in the house and test the phone. Our phone is bad. Oh, well. We have had it for a while. I am just glad he was here so early - 7:30 am. I wasn't even dressed yet! Now I have the rest of the day for shopping!

Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else is up to.http://www.patchworktimes.com/