In the Studio II

I have a small collection of items pinned to the wall by my sewing machine - its sort of an inspirational place. There's a photo of Amy and my oldest daughter, Penny, taken on a bloody hot day at Times Square, a small art quilt I began in a class with Susan Shie, photos of two of my favorite pets taken by a friend just before I had back surgery (so they could come to the hospital with me - little did we know that our hospital encourages you to bring the pet in to visit the patient!), a little oriental hanky folded into a kimono shape and other little things that bring joy to my day, and also inspire me to continue working on this dream of running a quilt shop that inspires others as well. Boy that's probably one good run-on sentence! The adjacent photo is of the top drawer of my sewing desk. It is often left open, and its where my most often used items are stashed. I've found that consciously making a place for the things I use in my studio and then always, yes always, returning the thing to its assigned place makes my sewing life so much easier. By nature I'm a stacker, and that just doesn't work well when you're working on a project with some sort of deadline, and you can't find the thingamajiggy no matter which pile you search in. It takes a lot of self-monitoring for me to do this, but the agony of the search, and then the periodic - let's just throw a grenade in there! - cleaning out takes too much time. Besides I end up in the living room wild eyed, hair on end, and completely irrational, just sure that DH has appropriated my seam ripper for some unholy oily wrench and hammer man-job out in his studio. Which he never, ever does....... It keeps the holy bonds of matrimony much less of tempest if I keep my studio organized.

Most of the time, not always, I'm the person who sews the garments and handbags for samples for the quilt shop. I'm making the adorable Lily Top by Pink Fig out of Sandy Henderson's collection by Michael Miller. Its going to be an amazing little outfit!

Then I thought I'd include a photo of the progress on the Bitty Dog pincushions by Bunny Hill.

I wasn't too sure if I should include it - it looks sort of like some sort of doggy dismemberment park. Speaking of which - I have the little grey herringbone Bitty Dog all ready for the permanent attachment of his teeny hind legs, and mystery of mysteries, one of the little hind legs has gone AWOL!Now, I searched the basket I had all the Bitty Dog parts in several times (I usually do hand work in the living room in the evening with my husband watching TV - only educational things of course, or movies of significant value....... are you laughing yet?). I took the cushion out of my recliner and dug around in the places you don't actually want to put your hand after owning a piece of furniture for 6 years, and only turned up lots of crumbs of mystery food, loose change, and the lovely surprise of a missing earring! Still no grey herringbone rear leg for the grey bitty dog. A bitty mystery. If you find it when you're cleaning under your couch cushions, send it on home, ok?

Birdy hearts to you all!

Angela