Closet Makeover

Last Saturday, I visited my friend Linda at The Container Store and she planned two closets for me in my master bedroom. I have a lot of clothes. I've commandeered both closets in the master bedroom (Thank you, sweet understanding husband Michael) as well as two storage bag style closets in the basement (you know, those canvas-covered rack on a frame type thing that eventually collapse). Please note that my closets do not house my Imelda Marcos award-winning shoe collection, although I unearthed a couple of extra pairs in closet 2 during my excavation.

Here is closet 1 before the makeover. In this photo,
somehow it doesn't look so bad, but that's because there's
a boatload of clothes that moved downstairs to the basement.

Here is closet 2 before the makeover. I've had the milk
crates on the top shelf since I was in college. They
currently hold my t-shirts. I've had the horrible bright
green duffel bag (seen in the middle) since high school.
It was a graduation gift that keeps following me.

In order for the installers to put in the new closet system, you have
to EMPTY the closets first. Looks like my closets threw up all
over my room!

I've wanted to do this for years but was afraid that it was going to cost a small fortune. I drool over The Container Store catalog, but when you read the fine print, the average closet has almost $1,500 worth of racks and shelves in it. Apparently, those are Really Big closets in mansions, because the hardware for my closets was under $200 apiece (FYI--my closets are 59 inches wide). I also sprang for the installation because The Container Store was having a 30% off sale and I figured that they could do it a lot faster than Mike and I could.

I have nothing but nice things to say about The Container Store and the installation team (apparently a separate company, but somehow affiliated with TCS). I put my order in on a Saturday afternoon and the installation was available to be scheduled for Tuesday. Jonathan, the installer, arrived promptly at 6pm, and was finished by 7:30 pm. He did the whole installation by himself and cleaned everything up afterwards. The only thing I had to do was somehow put all this mess stuff back into my closets. Unbelievably, Mike and I did make it to bed before 11pm.

Larry Pug prepares for the big reveal! He's never seen an empty
closet before (at least at our house!)

Closet 1 after the makeover. Long storage on the right and two rows of
double hanging storage on the left. Plus two shelves that I can actually reach!
And now there's even room for more clothes!

Closet 2 after the makeover. Four racks of double hanging storage.
I will eventually find a new home for the Rubbermaid boxes,
cheap rolling drawers from Walmart and the shoe rack.
The milk crates will probably move as well. Look at all that room!

A couple of things I discovered while doing this project:

1. Zebra and leopard print play a major role in my wardrobe (probably only Cher has more jungle print clothing than I do).
2. Time to do another clothing purge. Now that I can see everything I own, I decided that there are definitely some things that are destined for the Goodwill bin.
3. Projects always beget more projects. Next on my list -- hanger unification. Identical, fat, plastic hangers for my jackets and skinny fabric-covered hangers for the slippery, lighter weight clothes that used to fall on the floor. As Joan Crawford would say, "no more wire hangers!"

Thanks to my good friend Linda and The Container Store, I've gone from the Closet Hall of Shame to the Closet Hall of Fame! Yes, Real Simple, I'm ready for my close-up now.

Sorry, nothing actually quilting-related in this post, although if you look carefully you can see a couple of my hand-made quilted jackets in the upper right corner of closet 2. But I figure that once all my organizing and cleaning projects are done, I'll have lots more time to sew!

Have a great night!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

The Queen of Clean

While the flu bug has reached epidemic stages here in Boston, I've been bitten by a bug of another kind...I can't stop cleaning! I like to say that I'm getting a clean start for the new year but it feels more like an attack of St. Vitus' dance, since everywhere I turn, I find another cleaning opportunity.

Last week, I attacked a nasty corner of the Quilting Studio. When I started, it looked like this.

Auditioning for Hoarders?

Kind of scary and insurmountable. What was in this pile anyway? Part of the impetus to clean is that I've been finishing the Studio for the last year or so, and now I want to have the walls painted. Also, you probably can't see it, but there is actually room on the shelves at right that are blocked by the clutter.

Getting better.

Half way through the cleaning session, it began to look like this (see above). Marion came over to sew on Saturday morning and she urged me on. She graciously gave me permission to throw things out--like scraps that were too tiny to sew with and left over pieces from quilted jackets that I was never going to make into cute little wallets. Marion only stayed for about 45 minutes then had to go home because she wasn't feeling well (maybe it was from being surrounded by clutter). Note: Marion is fully recovered after a nap on her couch.

Newly sorted: table runner weight batting in the green bin, medium size batting scraps and pattern trace in the blue bin and small batting scraps in the paper bag. The girls wanted me to throw out the small batting scraps, but I am hanging on to them for now...might be useful for wallets or purse handles or stuffed animals. Not pictured, but also found and sorted: fusible fleece, interfacing and a couple of UFOs. Remember: friends don't let friends buy more batting!

Then Joannie arrived to continue working on her Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt. She got distracted by all my fabric goodness and helped me sort pieces of scrap fabric into piles by color. If I hadn't been planning to meet my friend Linda for lunch, I might have gotten even more carried away and started cutting them into 2.5 inch strips...

Clutter corner no more! Bins are labelled and ready.

It took a while, but it sure felt good to get this done! Later that day I met my friend Linda who works at The Container Store for lunch. Before we left for lunch, she planned two closets for my Master Bedroom using their Elfa system. They are getting installed tomorrow night and I promise before and after closet photos. I spent last night cleaning my bedroom to get ready for the installers...that took a couple of hours and was way too scary to photograph.

As a reward to myself, I bought myself a present at The Container Store...

A batting cage for quilters! You can find this at
The Container Store. They call it a toy barrel.
Larry Pug sneaks into the photo at lower right.

Now my Mom wants me to go back to Florida to help clean my Dad's garage...think Augean Stables...

This post is dedicated to my good friend Linda, aka The Queen of Organization, with thanks to Marion and Joannie for spurring me on.

Linking up to Sew Many Ways. I'm number 173.

Happy Monday! (only one month to Valentine's Day and two months to my birthday!)
Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

First Finishes of 2013

My first finish for 2013 was a set of two dog pillowcases for my good friend Cindy. Cindy is our dog walker, dog fairy godmother, and dog advisor all rolled up into one very good friend. She has worked for me since Romeo was three months old, coming by to take him for an afternoon walk while I was at the office.

Cindy's birthday is in November, and I am too impatient to wait another 10 months, so I classified these as an extra belated Christmas gift and gave them to her immediately. You can tell by her smile that she really liked them.

I really like the fabric. It is by Makower and it is really good quality. Even better is that I picked it up at Sewphisticates for $3 a yard. The fabric has Labrador retrievers of all different colors. Although Cindy is a Chihuahua owner, she loves dogs of all kinds. And yes, I've already made her Chihuahua pillowcases.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Happy Friday!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Easy Street, Part Whatever...

I have not given up on Easy Street, merely put it away for the time being. As I've said before, this quilt has A LOT of pieces. I got together with the quilt girls on Sunday and here is how the rest of the team is doing...

Kim is in Florida visiting her parents. She hasn't checked in, but knowing her, we suspect that her quilt top is probably almost finished. Terry came late so I forgot to take her photo, but she is busily working on Step 3.

Joannie was working on Steps 3 and 4. Watch out for this girl, once she
gets started, she is a machine! Sally, at left, in black, and in motion, is also
working on Step 3. Joan S., on the far right, isn't working on Easy Street.

Marion is happily ironing. Looks like Step 2 or Step 3.

Joannie also came over tonight (Monday) and worked on
her quilt some more. Larry and Romeo competed shamelessly
for her attention, but she was not distracted.

Looking good, Joannie!

Quilt studio mascots, Romeo and Elvis

Elvis (again) and baby brother Larry.

Although I did not work on Easy Street, I did have my bathroom painted Bonnie Hunter blue! Recognize the paint? It's the middle color from the paint strip, called Exotic Sea (Valspar by Lowe's, #5004-10B). Isn't it pretty? Wonder what rooms I should paint lime green and purple...

For those of you further along than we are, check out this blog for some great border ideas, It's the cat's house, I just live here where she created several different options in EQ.

Linking up to Bonnie's blog about Easy Street. Looks like we'll be number 137 this week.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

A Visit With Some Old Friends

My husband Mike and I went to Florida for a few days to visit my family. We had a belated 50th anniversary gathering for my parents. My Mom didn't want to have a party, she just wanted all of us to visit. We were joined by my brother Jeff and his family who came all the way from California. I am still gathering photos from various cameras and iPhones, so I will post more about our family visit later.

In the interim, I caught up with some old friends...quilts from my pre-blog days that I had given to my parents over the past decade or so...

I made these two quilts for my parents' 35th anniversary back in 1997, which was also the year that my niece Rachel was born. The only reason I'm able to remember this is that I was diligent and labelled the back of both quilts! The quilts are from the book, Two for Your Money by Jo Parrott. I took a workshop with her in 1996 when she visited Massachusetts. I remember that my car broke down on the way to the workshop and I spent some quality time waiting in a gas station in the pouring rain for my car to be fixed. A couple of hours, and a new alternator later, I finally made it. Luckily it was a 2-day workshop. The larger, pinwheel-like top quilt was made first, and the bottom quilt, the basket quilt, was made with the left-over pieces. I made these quilts to match my parents' living room sofas, that fortunately moved from Massachusetts to Florida with them when they retired.

Mom and Dad were recruited to hold up the quilt. Mom painted the portrait of
my niece Rachel that appears over the center of the quilt.

The quilting on both quilts is stunning. I sent them to a machine quilter that I had found
in Texas in early Internet days. If you double-click on the photo, it should enlarge.

Mom and Dad's wedding photo, November 1962

I made two identical quilts, above, for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary (only one is shown). I didn't realize that the photo was blurry or I would have taken another. They are Terry Atkinson's Yellow Brick Road, one of my favorite (so easy!) patterns to make. The colors are much lovelier in person. My Mom and I picked out all the fabrics together at one of my favorite quilt shops, Portsmouth Fabric Company. I remember that my Mom was concerned about finding so many different colors to put together in one quilt. And ten years later, I still have the remaining fat quarters (I bought half yards, so I could split them) reserved in my stash to make a quilt for me.

My Mom painted these two paintings, shown above, to match her quilts. They hang above my parents' bed.

I made this stained glass wall hanging so long ago, I can't find it anywhere on my finished projects list (which I first started keeping back in 2001) and I forgot to check the back of the quilt to see if it had a label. There is supposed to be a matching Iris quilt...I actually started it a number of years ago, but mistakenly traced half the pieces backwards, so I put it away...for a while....

I finished this beautiful Irish Chain quilt a few years ago and gave it to my Mom when she requested something with purple in it for her guest bedroom. This quilt was made from my stash and started at least 14 years ago in a class at the long defunct Quilted or Not. I really like the purple pansy fabric on the back (seen on the left in the photo) as well.

If you look closely, you can see some of the table runner that
matches my parents' 35th wedding anniversary quilts.

50 Happy Years Later! Dad, Mom, and me.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

A Scottie-themed Gift for Eleanor

My friend Eleanor is one of my few close friends who is not a quilter. We met at work and became good friends. We love to go out to eat, shop, get pedicures, and go to chick movies. Eleanor is a shopper extraordinaire. She loves the thrill of a bargain hunt. If shopping was an Olympic sport, she'd be a gold medalist. She shopped with me for weeks to help me find the perfect wedding dress and the most amazing fuchsia satin wedding shoes. She was my friend who got up at 7 am on my wedding day and went to the beauty salon with me. She is also a dog lover. Her little man is Cole Haan, who is a Scottie dog.

This Christmas, I went a little Scottie dog crazy while shopping for her. It all started off innocently enough this summer when I found these adorable salt and pepper shakers at a shop called Tuesday Morning. Lucky me! They came in a pug version too!

Next, I found both a Scottie dog chalk board and a Scottie dog bulletin board at Target. These unfortunately did NOT come in a pug version. Aren't they cute? They are just the right size for Eleanor's office cubicle.

I was then inspired to make Eleanor this Chubby Charmer tote bag, modeled by Larry Pug. You can read more about the making of this bag here.

The inside of the bag is really pretty too. Check out my Scottie dog pockets. All of the fabric came from my stash. I made Eleanor a pillowcase last year with the pink Scottie dog fabric. The polka dots were originally intended for another project, but I thought they looked perfect with the Scotties. The pink fabric that is the handles and the lining still had the sales tag on it from the original Fabric Place, before it was Fabric Place Basement. I bought it in 2007. If you think that is old, the pillowcase I made last night also had the original Fabric Place tag on it -- from 1994! At least I'm using it up!

I also made two yummy flannel Scottie dog pillowcases. I purchased this fabric online at JoAnn's.

Lastly, I found Eleanor a Scottie dog nightgown at Walmart!

Pretty cool, don't you think? Eleanor was thrilled with her gifts.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Two hours in the studio

Two hours in the studio today was enough time to cut out six pillowcases (three for gifts and three for our Etsy shop) and to start to piece together a Star Wars fleece blanket for my nephew Ben. I bought two different Star Wars no sew fleece blanket kits a couple of months ago at JoAnn Fabrics. One has a horizontal orientation (featuring the Star Wars logo), the other depicts the primary characters in a vertical orientation. I'm using the blue fleece that was included for the backing to piece extra borders to make the whole thing larger and make it reversible. Nothing to show you yet! I'm sewing tomorrow night with the Thursday Girls, so check back soon for photos.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy