I'm still on the quest for better organization in my sewing studio. The back leafs of my sewing tables are always in the up position and I have used several plastic drawer carts under them to store things. I had one larger three drawer cart that I used for stabilizer rolls, and then some of the smaller drawers in other carts for some of the smaller rolls. I've found that I tend not to be able to find what I am looking for easily, so I figured there had to be a better way to do this. I wanted something that would fit in the space I had, and help me get better organized for my stabilizer storage.
I was flipping through the Sunday paper today and Target had some laminate shoe cubbies on sale this week, and after checking the dimensions, I figured two of them would fit perfectly in the space I had and give me plenty of storage. I really wanted white, but all they had in stock was the wood color. Not bad at all. Below is a photo of the shoe cubbies with stabilizer in place. It was amazing how many rolls I had, and how many duplicates of some I have. Don't think I'll be needing to buy any stabilizer for a long time to come. I'm very pleased with the way this turned out!
On my Bernina 635, the work area lighting is not ideal. I use a lot of Ott lights in my sewing room, and I have two trained on the bed of my 635, but there is still not enough light on the working surface. I learned of a new add-on LED lighting system from CJ Tinkle by way of her Created By CJ blog in a recent post concerning Ecolux Lighting. I just had to click on the link and went and had a look see. I liked what I saw, and even though it might seem pricey, I decided to give it a try. I ordered and had within two days. Great service!
I finally got time today to install it on my 635. I got the six-light size, and it is perfect. I'm really liking this light and will not have to deal with aiming a light exactly where I want it to be. It was super easy to install. I've snapped two pictures, one with the light off and one with it on. All the shadows are gone!
On July 22 I was able to go to Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington for an afternoon with Paula Reid that was put on for Shiisa's Crazy 8s group. This was a wonderful chance for us to play with some decorative threads and do some bobbin work. Bobbin work is great in the Bernina 830s and 820s because you can use a variety of threads in the bobbin and only have to do a simple adjustment for thicker threads. For the Superior Glitter thread that I used, no adjustment was even needed. I also added some decorative stitching using a thicker varigated thread in the needle.
I really enjoyed myself and below is my finished piece; when I got home I added a few glitz embellishments to the butterfly, but it is ready to be made into a journal/notebook cover. What a fun afternoon. The link above to Paula Reid is to her blog, and you can see some of the other classes that she gave at Shiisa's when she was there.
She will be back at Shiisa's in September 2012, so I'm looking forward to taking more classes with her.
