Happy Birthday!

AND THE WINNER IS DEBB!
Congrats!!

 The fat quarters to be included in my birthday giveaway drawing on Friday, February 10th.
Tell your friends and comment with a sewing room organizing idea below. Thanks.


Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.

Sammy Hagar

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

Voltaire

February marks many firsts in my life.

The most important is my birthday. Not a significant one this year, but simply the odd year right before the next big birthday (ending in a zero!).

The second is the first anniversary (or birthday) of my blog. This Quilting Mama blog has provided me great joy and the added discipline of thinking and writing about my quilt art. It has been a lovely year and only the beginning of this journey for me. I hope you all have enjoyed my small contribution to the world of quilting as much as I have enjoyed putting the pieces together and sending them out into cyberspace.

This year, however, I've decided to get organized. The concept of "A place for everything and everything in its place" has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I hope, however, to conquer some spaces in my home this year, as well as those ever multiplying "important" papers. The little book "Organize now!" by Jennifer Ford Berry (purchased at Lowe's) is my guide. (Link: Organize NOW!)

It helps the normal person to organize their entire life and space in a 52 week plan. Naturally, I skimmed  and skipped weeks 1-4 Organize your Mind, Schedule, Cleaning Schedule and Priorities respectfully deciding that those are life-skills and will take much, MUCH longer and went straight to the doable Week 20: Organize your Entryway or Mudroom. 

Here are the first attempts at this work:

 The foyer. You'd think we all had six or more feet!

A seemingly useless space in the kitchen which now houses a cork pin board for all the childrens' school work, papers and reminders.

Finally, this 3-6 foot closet system was used to help get a handle on our laundry room, seen below.

Behind the photographer is the washer and dryer and a window.  Now I can hang things to dry. Someday, I will have a horizontal surface for drying sweaters, until then, the top of the dryer will have to do.

Now most importantly, the little cupcake quilt seen here was created from Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland's book "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks: fun with free-form piecing." (See description and link here: Out of the Box ) This is not a book I would usually buy, but instead have enjoyed the free nature of the piecing and the 'no errors' method to fun wonky quilt blocks. Won in a free giveaway, I love this book and am glad to have been the lucky winner.

 

I'm celebrating this month of birthdays with a giveaway of my own. As you saw above my organizing had not yet included my quilting space. I already have a design wall and a way to organize fabric, but I would love to conquer the rest of the mess. To enter my give away, which will be 6 random fat quarters from the Quilting Mama's stash, please comment below with a tip which you've used to organize your quilting or hobby space. 

THANK YOU!  I will be posting progress later this year. The giveaway winner will be randomly chosen on February 10th.

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Description of "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks" from the Martingale Press Website

Using step-by-step instructions, learn to make out-of-the-box blocks, square them up, and fit them together in a dynamic border or quilt top.

• Treat yourself to patterns for 13 whimsical blocks and seven colorful quilts
• Make pictorial blocks, such as cats, shoes, ice pops, and letters, as well as wonky traditional blocks, such as Nine Patch and Stars
• Enjoy confidence-building projects that anyone can make