Jibberish Designs by J. Irelle Beatie

I have been in the middle of a move which is why my blog has been so silent lately.  I don’t do well in the middle of disarray.  The piles of boxes is a bit overwhelming. And the progress is SLOW!

Here is how my new sewing room started.  It is a fabulous large space and a blank slate but the configuration is different enough from my previous space, that it is taking some real thought to get things arranged and organized.

         

Then it went to THIS!  And this isn’t even all of the piles of boxes that ended up here.

         

And now the problem is that the chaos has become WORSE rather than better.  I know that’s what it takes but it is very frustrating trying to find places for everything.

Sometimes I feel like all I do is move stuff from one side of the room to the other.  With my full time job and other responsibilities, it is tough to get enough hours to make any real progress.

But I think I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.  I can see most of the floor now which is PROGRESS!  Stay tuned

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

 

My sewing space is featured on A Little Bit Biased blog in her series on Sew Inspiring Spaces.  Check it out here!

It’s a bit different than my own blog post about my sewing space with a little more detail and the photo of my new buffet under my Big Board for MORE storage of fabric.

But NOW, I’m starting to pack up all this lovely fabric for the big move and my brain is working overtime to determine how to organize my new space in the new house.

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

Katy at I’m a Ginger Monkey and Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics put together this cool contest to create your own Fat Quarter Bundle from the fabric in Brenda’s store.  You use this cool Mosaic Maker tool to put your fabric choices into a great little mosaic.

I’m calling my bundle Santa Barbara Summer – We have lots of grey skies and fog in Santa Barbara especially during “May Gray” and “June Gloom” due to being on the beautiful coast of California.  However there is always a peek of sunshine but sometimes not until 4pm. So my collection features the grey skies, peek of sunshine and beautiful ocean that color Santa Barbara in May and June.

Top Row – L – R

Chevron in blue, Hop Dot in Sky, Empire Weave in Dandelion, Sea Garden in Mist

Second Row – L – R

Dots in Yellow, Rain Drops in Rain, Spots Dots in Steel, Fish Tales in Ocean

Bottom Row – L – R

Basketweave in Sky, Circle Stripes in Cloud, Waves Mist, Dew Drop in Storm

I think I’ll have to order these fabrics instead of just playing with them in the mosaic maker.

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

I have been asked by a friend to assemble a wedding quilt.  Each of the guests wrote a message on a 6″ block to be assembled into a quilt for the wedding couple. Great idea, right! My challenge is that they are also huge Laker fans so the entire quilt will be purple and gold.

So here is my first block.  I have 125 six inch blocks that have to go into this quilt so I needed a design that could use more rather than less of the message blocks. I’d like to add some interest with another design to mix in but I’ll have to see how it comes together on my design wall as I get more blocks completed.

To stay true to the Laker colors, I think I will border this block with purple. I have a few more of these in the works and then maybe I’ll reverse the colors for some contrast.

This is definitely a WIP!!!  And it will probably be in progress for awhile.  Stay tuned for updates!  Ideas are welcome

I’m linking to Freshly Pieced – WIP Wednesday.

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

 

 

If you have seen any of my prior posts, you know that I like to change out the decor in my livingroom.  I have a window seat that is the perfect place for a plethora of throw pillows! When Magnolia Lane by Laura Gunn by Michael Miller Fabrics came into my local quilt shop I knew it would be a great color scheme for my space.  It is still available here and here. I made a sample quilt for the shop which now resides on the back of my couch.

    

After making the quilt, I purchased enough additional yardage for the TWELVE throw pillows for the window seat, couch and occasional chairs.  And then I decided I had enough left over to make another quilt with a few solids thrown in.

I loved the magnolias so I fussy cut them for center squares surrounded by coordinating solids. Then I cut the remaining fabric into 3″ strips and made strips sets in threes to alternate between the solid blocks.  The number of blocks dictated the diagonal pattern made by the rows of similar blocks. I didn’t use a pattern but just used my design wall for the entire process.

    

I pieced the back with a strip of the front fabric and a tone on tone cream and coordinating batik to complete the size I needed.  My friend Heidi at Rocky Mountain Quilting did the long arm quilting.  You can see the cool quilting pattern on the back.  I bound it with the turquoise solid in the quilt. It turned out to be an oversized lap quilt and is great to snuggle up with on the couch watching TV.

    

The bright greens and turquoise of this fabric collection looks bright and cheery even on the rainy and cloudy days we get on occasion.

On to the next project!  I just bought 27 yards of aqua fabric from Aneela Hoey’s Little Apples collection to make curtains for my granddaughter’s room in our new house. More on that project later!

I’m linking to Amylouwho: sew & tell and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday. Check out all the great blogs and projects!

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I’m spoiled.  I have a fabulous LARGE quilt studio to enjoy while I pursue my quilting passion.  I’m going to give you a tour. But before you see what it is now, let’s look back on what it was before.

I bought my condo in 2003 and the second bedroom was a room for a child. The first thing I did was take down the border and paint the walls blue.

My roommate had this room for the first four years and the blue paint was her request.  When she moved out, I converted it to my home office. I had the desk built in for my sewing. I was making princess dresses for my oldest granddaughter and pillow covers for the throw pillows in my windowseat in the living room.  The armoire in the corner is my “office”.  This photo is a wide angle shot of the blue office.

I work from home as a property casualty insurance underwriter so having a home office was a great idea until I rediscovered quilting!  For the first year and a half or so after I started back into quilting, my work and my quilting shared the space. I don’t have any shots of how my quilting studio started to crowd out my office space but trust me, it was like bamboo. As my stash grew, it was taking nearly every available space.  The shelving units that at one time held office supplies were now filled with baskets of fat quarters. So I bought another shelf.  One day I realized that I NEVER used the first floor of my condo.  I slept upstairs, I worked upstairs and I quilted upstairs and only ventured down the stairs to go to the kitchen.  SO – I decided to move my office to the livingroom and make the office into a quilting studio. Best decision I ever made!

SO here is my beautiful quilting studio!

    

I have an L-shaped sewing table formed by a 6 foot table and my Janome 6600 table. Along the same wall is my fabric stash or at least part of it.

The wall under the window has the built in cabinet that was my original sewing space but is now my computer space for designing patterns and reading and writing blogs.

I even have the luxury of a cutting table.  It could fold down but I leave it up most of the time.  It sits under my library of quilting books. And I have a disappearing design wall that pulls down over my closet.  It usually stays down but if I need access to the closet, it rolls up into the shelf.

The wall with the door has my big board for pressing and ironing and a dresser for miscellaneous storage. This room also has an attached bath for convenience.

    

I always thought my storage was pretty neat until I took photos of my closet behind those doors and my design wall.  I think I could do a bit of work with this space

    

I have a boatload of project boxes – all full; patterns, batting, interfacing, pillow forms and all the other stuff that I don’t necessarily want to look at.  My fabric stash is what I like to look at!

I love all the little storage items from Ikea.  Hanging buckets for scraps, a magnetic strip with cannisters for safety pins, sewing machine needles, pins and buttons. A bulletin board and magnetic board hold quilt inspiration and ideas.

So now that you’ve seen my fabulous quilting studio, I have to tell you …….  I’m MOVING!!  I sold my condo and will be moving into a duplex of sorts with my daughter and her family.  The good news is that my quilting studio is EVEN BIGGER!! Of course that’s because I will be sleeping in the little room!  I do have priorities!!

I’m looking forward to reorganizing EVERYTHING.  Everything seen here goes with me except I lose the computer desk but that space wasn’t really necessary.  I need to find a way to organize my stash that makes more sense.  By color ? By size of yardage? It probably wouldn’t hurt if I did a little de-stashing before I move.  I’m going to be searching for great organizational ideas in the next few weeks.

And now that you’ve seen my quilting studio, I’m going to get back to it.  Two baby quilts in progress and so many ideas in my head that are begging to get made.

I’m linking to Sew Darn Crafty because this is my crafty space.

Thanks for checking in.

Irelle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As an avid quilter, I am happy to donate my quilting skills to benefit my grandchildren’s elementary school.

Dominic’s kindergarten class asked me to make a twin size quilt with matching pillow sham and banner for the upcoming Hoedown Auction which is their school’s largest fundraising event.

    

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