Let's Get Acquainted

Welcome! For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Heidi, and I love sharing my latest sewing projects here at Fabric Mutt. You can stop by my about me page if you'd like to know more. I was absolutely delighted when my dear friend Beth asked me to be her guest host for this week's Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up. If you don't know Beth, you'll want to rush right over to her darling blog, Plum & June, to look at the wonderfully colorful and creative projects she posts about every week. Her "Let's Get Acquainted" series, including last year's blog hop and the weekly Monday link-up, has been a wonderful opportunity for both new and experienced bloggers to meet and share ideas.

My big accomplishment this week was finishing the expansion of my sewing area in the girls' classroom downstairs. When I first moved into the room, I wound up with about a quarter of the total space -- not really enough to have a permanent setup, and I ended up doing most of my work in the kitchen, leading to clutter galore. Now I'm thrilled to have a place where I can leave my ironing board and cutting table up and ready to go at a moment's notice.

The secretary desk and closet are still wonderful for fabric storage, though I definitely need to do some serious rearranging inside that white closet. It's not a pretty sight in there at the moment...

The glass cupboard is a perfect place to keep my scrap tins as well as any collections that I want to keep together. I have a few stacks here that are ready to be used for projects in the next month or two, including my precious Heather Ross stash.

I absolutely love using glass canning jars for just about anything, from gift containers to storage of all kinds. Scraps and cutting tools fit nicely into these two jars next to my newest pincushion. I made a small pillow out of this Denyse Schmidt print and stuffed it into a wooden frame. I absolutely love having a pincushion that doesn't slip around while in use! A small lamp on the table gives me a little extra light in the evenings.

I whipped up a quick cushion for my chair from one of Anna Maria Horner's new velveteen Field Study prints. I'm not usually wild about the color pink, but that coordinate print really grabbed me. The World War II women's recruitment poster has always been one of my favorites. I love seeing that row of brave women up on my wall -- it lets the petty issues of my life fall into their proper place.

This is my wall of inspiration. I really enjoy having fabric swatches, quotes, magazine clippings, and artwork around to give me ideas while I'm working. It's so fun to indulge in my love of all things vintage and retro too. The chalkboard was purchased from Ikea almost ten years ago, and I bought the hanging wire file basket at Home Goods this week. A length of heavy twine and some clothes pins makes a great place to hang just about anything. I have several pieces of twine hung up on the other half of this wall on top of a world map where I display my daughters' artwork and school papers. I'll share pictures of that part of the room in another post later this month.

I'm so excited about my new fabric storage area. The wire cart was purchased from Target several years back to be used as a mail station for our house, but now it makes a perfect home for my half yards and fat quarters. The wooden unit on top of that was originally made for storing photos. I'm using it to store my fat eighths and all those little pieces that are too small for the lower drawers but too big for the scrap bins. It's also the perfect size for my charm square packs. Instead of putting photographs in the windows, I cut 4 x 6" pieces of my beloved Melody Miller prints for decoration. The little chalkboard tin buckets on top are from the dollar section at Target, and I love having quick access to notions when I need them.

Is there anything better than having a friendly, cozy place to sew? It makes me happy to just sit and look at this room. Now I need to do some actual sewing...

So what have you been working on this week? Share with us! Here's how...

1. Link up any recent sewing/quilting posts.

2. In your post or on your blog, please include either a text link or a button letting people know about this link up.

3. Visit at least the two bloggers who link up before you and everyone who visits you from this post.

4. When the link tool asks for your name, write down your favorite fabric designer!