How good it feels to bottom it!

As I use my sewing room almost every day I expect it to be a bit dusty. I use loads of fleece and knitted fabrics and cutting them out alone seems to cover every surface with a fine layer of fibres. I hadn't realised however until the other day when in the words of my mother I bottomed it just how mucky it really was! (This was apparently a well known phrase about 50 years ago in Yorkshire, but not used so much now! Although why it was a favourite of my mother a Kentish girl, I have no idea.)
Oh the shame! There was enough fluff to almost fill a cushion., so once I started there was no going back.
It did have its plus points finding as I did one or two things I had 'lost'.... Rolls of ribbon, small scissors and several reels of thread to name a few.
And now its neat and shiny again, for a few days at least and it really feels good.

I've rearranged and thinned out some of my vintage toys and sewing ephemera.

 

Hung some new bunting (remember the five sided hexagons I crocheted!) They look lovely now linked together and not such a stupid mistake anymore.

Organised my ribbons and trims and bought a couple more really useful boxes to tidy up my fabric overflow.

However I seem to be, rather worryingly, getting a bit obsessed with deep cleaning at the moment.  I'm glad (in more ways than one) that I am well past child bearing age as this sudden urge to tidy my nest might have other connotations. Last week it was the cooker this week the sewing room, whatever next?
I can see I may need to take up yet another hobby before I actually begin to plan Housework!!

Right off now to embroider a baby blanket before I start cutting out and making a mess again.

Hope you have a good week

TTFN

Jenny xx

AT LAST.....!

I am so relieved to be able to show you the two latest completed rooms. It seems like forever ago that I showed you this.....

and this......

I am sure our experience has been nothing compared to some of the traumas I read about on a daily basis, but I'm still so happy to be able to say...we did it.....

One almost perfect Sewing Room...I only say almost because you sewers and crafters out there will know that whenever we reorganise 'our space' we are never quite sure if it is just right. There will no doubt be minor tweakings (please let that be a word, I love it) for some time, but I do appreciate how very lucky I am to have it at all......

And finally the revamped Dining Room.....
I confess when I first saw the room minus my beautiful Victorian fireplace,

I almost wept. I am still not 100% sure that we have done the right thing.....bit contemporary for our 180 year old house?......
Still it is done now and DH loves it!

I do love the freshness of it and it did need redecorating but this has been a big step.
It is slowly growing on me. (Mind you I absolutely love the oak fire mantel, made locally)
So that's that and now we're planning the next projects. These old houses are like the Forth Bridge...once you think you are done it all starts again. However I think that may have to wait until after Christmas ( I did whisper that , honest) but at least I can make a start on the soft furnishings.

So lovely people if you know anyone in or around the Lincoln area who wants a fireplace and are able to fetch it, we have one we're burning to get rid of (Sorry, that was bad). The pine surround does need repainting, but the Victorian insert is complete and the tiles intact. It cost us over £1000 to have installed but would be happy to accept £300 ono, cash on collection. Ps I would throw the mirror in if anyone wanted it!

Off to play in my new room now.....I may be gone some time.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

DONT YOU JUST HATE......

.............The smell of paint being stripped with a hot air stripper!! I do and I should be used to it now. At least it wasn't me having to do this horrible job. No it was DH finishing stripping the window frame and door frame in my sewing room. It is coming on in leaps and bounds and I hope to show you the results very soon. He has already ripped out some awful cupboards in the alcoves and replaced them with thick shelves made from recycled scaffolding planks. The next job is many more power points behind my work bench and  better lighting with daylight bulbs above.
When we moved into this house 20 years ago stripped pine was all the rage and so every door, skirting board and even the stairs and 47 stair rails were stripped sanded to within an inch of their lives and left. Funny how our tastes change. Now  I look at the window frames and wonder if they should be white, well in my sewing room they will be but at least now they have a lovely clean base and the woodwork will look as it should !

 Note to self....I don't think all that stuff will fit on new shelves!!....

Of course all this renovation has meant access to my sewing machine has been sorely curtailed, but by no means stopped. So the other evening I set to and created a new cover for the Parker Knoll chair which my DH has in the dining room to watch 'his' big tele. It was perfectly OK covered in a large red and cream check, but being me and seeing it as slightly grubby I decided to wash the original and being a good fit to begin with it was a little like my clothes were a few weeks ago, not too small but certainly too snug a  fit for comfort (but that's a whole other story). So having seen these stunning patchwork sofas in many magazines lately,

 image c/o mydeco.com

 I thought I would be a bit more creative and make a patchwork cover for the seat cushion. Of course he is a 'bloke' and velvet and florals are not really his thing so the effect had to be a bit more subtle and voila..................

Amazingly he quite liked it!!

Well when the sewing machine was completely out of bounds I had to resort to the hexis and hand sewing!! My they do grow apace. Having found the new way of using the English paper piecing which does not involve sewing through the paper ( in my case card) templates, I am thrilled with the progress......

 If you haven't read my other posts check this site for hexi templates and links to easy piecing  here....it saves a lot of time and many sore fingers!

 Well yet again time has defeated me, why does it always take me a whole evening to write a post and edit a few pictures. Is it just me or does everyone go through this!
I have so many things to tell you but never seem to have enough time to do it. Never mind tomorrow is another day....and I will be back.....

TTFN

Jenny xx