Nearly Insane Quilt - Draw 9

 

Red and Cream Nearly Insane Quilt - July 2013

This is my Nearly Insane zone in my workroom.  It is just a shelf where I am stacking up the blocks, sashing and cornerstones, ready for when I want to pull them out and play with them. In this picture the pile doesn't look that big - oh dear.  Back in January I was meant to be sorting out my workroom, which I did start, but I have been too keen to get involved in actual projects, rather than redesign my room.  Perhaps once the quilt is quilted ....
Anyway, I seem to have caught up with myself on my Nearly Insane blocks, so it is time for the next Draw.  Here are the Blocks

 9 - 60 - 72 - 88

Block 9 seems to be a variation on Block 64 (which I am currently doing) and Block 80 , which I have done in scrappy fabrics, maybe this one deserves a new approach?  Also Block 88 is an edge block, but the same one as Block 41, the Basket Block, so it will be fun to choose different fabrics for that one.

Addressing Fabric Stash Storage

Yesterday I had great plans to tidy up the Fabadashery workroom, knowing that I had come to the end of piecing the back and the front of my Easy Street Quilt.  I had a plan for a smaller project made up from the scraps of my scrappy Easy Street Quilt, but I needed to clear the decks properly. There were yards of fabric that had been dragged out and piled up, which had auditioned for the mystery quilt back in November.

I didn't know where to start, as my current system of storing my fabric in large plastic boxes was just not working for me.  By the end of the day all of my fabric was out of my cupboard.  It was time for a re-think on my fabric stash storage. There was not going to be any sewing today. If I am honest, I had planned to put aside the holidays to address the storage of my fabric stash, along with a load of other catch-up jobs, but the Easy Street quilt took over.  Since moving into the house in 2010, it has only been recently that I have finally had time to address my workspace. 

BEFORE - Fabric Stash Storage

A lot of stuff had ended up in here, piled up on these Billy bookcases from IKEA.  I have a workroom with a storage room attached to it. I wanted a dark room to store my fabric, so that it didn't fade. This works well as it is dark, and the light comes on and off automatically with a PIR, as I go in and out, so no risk of leaving the light on.

 

I split the fabric into Solids, Prints, Batiks, and Liberty Lovelies.  Then I sorted them into colour families.

AFTER - Fabric Stash Storage

The majority of the solid fabrics I have adopted, and didn't really have a grip on what I actually had.  I tend to avoid solids, as I find they can deaden a quilt in one easy move. However, looking at the selection, it is not bad, and there is enough to justify  a 'solid' project.  In fact, I have been even more tempted after seeing this 'solid' fabric project by Rhoda.

Halfway through sorting my fabrics I decided to pull all the batiks prints from the fabric colour collections.  Batiks are great for blending and carrying colour, and sometimes if I am looking for a particular colour, it is often only the batik fabrics that seem to do the job.  However, they do not always belong to every quilt, and I find that a whole quilt in batiks, often doesn't demand enough of me with regard to fabric colour choice, as the fabric seems to do a lot of the work for you.  I thought by keeping them separate, I would look at them in a new light.

With the little Liberty fabrics, because of their lighter lawn cotton, and multi-coloured prints (which were hard to classify within the new system!), I let them have a little pile of their own.  The same could be said for the Rowan / Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Yes, they are lovely, but I have found it hard to mix them up successfully with the rest of my stash, so I rarely buy them.
It was a great exercise in familiarising myself with my fabric again. You will also see that I have taken the opportuity to tidy up my library of quilting and embroidery books.  It is starting to look as if I mean business! 

Couture for IKEA, with Bemz

When we built our house, I made sure that it accommodated a workroom for me and my sewing.  Even though we have been in the house for over two years, it is only now that I have started to make the room, my space. 
Over the summer I made some check curtains and a pelmet out of the Voyage Lorient Contemporary range, called Bonnie ( .. is that a coincidence?), which I purchased from Fabric Mills, Monmouth.  I have made lots of curtains over the last few years, and with the lines of the check to follow, these were by far the easiest - why didn't I start with them? 
With the curtains in place, it has started to feel more comfortable, so we popped to IKEA to buy an easy chair as an addition to the room.  I had visions of me looking out of the window, watching the world go by, as I sat quilting, with some relaxing music in the background...


IKEA Jennylund chair from the EKTORP range

We purchased the Jennylund chair from the EKTORP range at IKEA, as the back was a bit higher for you to rest your head.  You can purchase them without a slipcover, so it comes with just a plain cotton cover.
At the NEC Festival of Quilts, on the Rowan stand, I noticed that within their display they had covered some IKEA chairs in some of their bright Kaffe Fassett quilt fabric.  They looked amazing, and they have even produced some patterns for other IKEA chairs (Henriksdal, Tullsta) which can be found on the Coats Craft website.  However, I felt this was a project too far for me at this stage.
Whilst I like the quality and design of IKEA furniture, I am rarely taken with the quality and colourway of the covers, so I looked elsewhere. There are a handful of companies which make covers especially for IKEA furniture - Save My Sofa, Ikuva and Bemz, are the ones I know about. 

www.bemz.com

Their websites allow you to order free samples so you can check the colours and the quaity of fabric.  I have ordered covers from Bemz before, and the quality is really good.  I was looking for something to go with the new curtains, so after waiting for the samples in the post, I finally decided on a textured cotton 'Tegner Melange Sand Beige' from Bemz. 

Bemz fabric samples

Bemz are based in Sweden, but as far as I know, they ship all over the world. The covers are preshrunk and machine washable at 40 degrees C.
Anyway, my cover has arrived, and today I have put it on the chair. 

Jennylund chair, with Bemz Cover
(Tegner Melange Sand Beige)

If I wasn't so busy with the Easy Street Mystery Quilt, I might have a moment to sit down in it!