Studio Reset

I'm getting a bit stir crazy, and it's not just the wave of cold we've had, but the fact that I can't even whittle away at my sewing machine while I'm stuck in the house. I, foolishly in hindsight, did not take my sewing machine to the larger repair shop that's an hour away to save the drive time, but I'm paying for it in spades as the smaller shop near me is taking much longer to get around to fixing it. Hopefully I'll have it back in just a few more days. 

Just the start of the blues... apparently I have way more of these than anything else, so I think an azure quilt might be in order later this year.

I've used the down time to reorganize my studio and watch some short quilting tutorials. I thought I'd re-rainbowtize my stash, and in doing so, refold to fit more on the shelf. Um, yeah, that took a lot longer than expected : P Still working on the reds and pinks, and then I'll share a pic of it all tidied up. In the meantime, my new Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool that I received for Christmas has been a big help in sorting! And I've watched a few of the freebie Craftsy classes as I've worked (saving the in-depth ones in my queue for a day I can actually SEW while I follow along!), including A New Look at Longarm Quilting with Mandy Leins and Piece, Patch, Quilt: Basic Quiltmaking Skills with Gail Kessler. The latter of these is really, really basic, but I find value in listening to this type of class as a refresher. (Seriously, I need to be told a million more times not to sew over pins! When will I learn?!) Plus, sometimes I glean new tips that are helpful, such as when Gail explained the difference between cross-wound thread and stacked thread, and that you position your spool holder horizontally or vertically depending on the type - I never knew that!

Hope you're all having a very productive start to the year. I'm chomping at the bit to get started on all the crafty things I have planned, but I've found the silver lining in my hold up is that now my work space is so much less cluttered : )