House Tour: The Laundry Room

**We moved in November and we just starting to get situated and unpacking all of the stuff we brought with us.  Not just unpacking, but making it our home.  Here's a virtual tour:

In our former home, the laundry was in an alcove just off the kitchen and visible to all.  My sewing room and our office shared a room.  In our new (to us) home, things are a little different!  Hubby and I share an office that doubles as a schoolroom for the kiddos.  As Hubby says, "This is where we work and learn.  We don't play in here!"  (This is to avoid an influx of legos, potato heads, and cowboys.)

It excites me to no end to have a room I can close the door on the laundry and a room where I can create!  Welcome to my room...

I bought this jelly cabinet at an auction for a dollar.  Original milk paint and finish.  It stores my fabric stash organized by color families.

This lamp is without a shade.  It was made by my dear friend Doris, who had a custom made lampshade to match her bedroom.  I was helping her at her rummage sale when a woman bought her bedroom bedding.  I tried to talk her into buying the matching lamps.  She argued that she already had lamps but did like the shades.  I told her if she wanted the shades, I would split the cost with her and I'd take the bases.  I got two of these awesome lamps for $5!!  Now, to make a shade...

Here's the laundry section.  I was using the washer as an ironing station.  (Yes, I know there's an ironing board right there, but I was doing small projects and didn't want to set that big thing up.)

 A large storage unit for supplies, books and patterns.  Also, my scrap baskets (one for strips and one for misc. scraps), my yarn stash, stamps and paper goods.

 Usually my sewing machine is stored in the cabinet which folds up, but I'm sewing late into the nights these days so I'm leaving it open.  (Current project on the chair...)

This is a closet for smaller supplies:  paint, brushes, sewing notions, tools, buttons, batting, stuffing, etc.

 This is my crafting table/folding laundry table.  There is room underneath for laundry baskets to fold into.  

The space above is filled with small wooden paintings from the first artist I ever knew.  She was an older neighbor lady who loved to paint the things in her life.  My mom bought all of these and kept them wrapped away in a box. When I was cleaning out this house, I found this treasure!

 Simple things like a lilac painted on a piece of lilac wood.

A meadowlark on a piece of old fencepost (where you will most often find meadowlarks, perched on fenceposts).

Her mailbox and her cat, looking at a butterfly.

I love these pieces!  They inspire me to create from the world around me.

 My mom is a professional crafter and I sold the vast majority of her stuff because there is no way I could keep it all, nor do something with all of it.  My rule was:  If I don't have a plan to use it in the next five years, I didn't keep it.

Here's something I did keep, baby blanket flannel.  When we were pregnant with Kiddo1, we took a class called "Happiest Baby on the Block" that absolutely saved us as parents.  One aspect of that is to swaddle your baby.  But the swaddle blankets sold in stores are too small once your baby is about a month old.  You need bigger ones to swaddle bigger babies!  So I made a stack of fourteen swaddle blankets from my mom's stash that we will donate to the class.  To help other parents (who may not be able to sew their own swaddle blankets) have peaceful and happy babies!

Speaking of stash...this is my UFO stash.  My UnFinished Objects stash.  It's an entire laundry basket!  And that's after I went through it to weed out the stuff that I don't want to finish and never want to see again (which was three small things).  That black quilt is my nemesis.  I've called it naughty names.  It's beautiful, which is why I don't just burn it in frustration.  I'm going to ask a friend of mine with a long arm quilter if she will finish it for me and save me from myself!

The other items are table runners I just need to add borders to and quilt.  A paper-pieced wall quilt that will be stunning.  Some embroidery projects that need framing.  A series of monthly snowman wall quilts that I'm working on right now.

Then there's my mom's stash!  Again, I only kept the projects that I knew I would do in the next five years.  This basket is AFTER I sewed up all that flannel!

I've decided I need to do some stash-busting if I want to do any new projects before spring hits.  So each night I'm working from 9:30ish until 1am on sewing down that stash.

Here's what I did last night!

This is Kiddo3's baby quilt.  Doesn't it just make you happy?  It's totally her.  Hubby asked, "Is this the quilt she'll never sleep with?"  Yes.  Yes, it is.  I did an heirloom quilt for Kiddo1 that I hand appliqued and hand embroidered.  Kiddo2's quilt is hand pieced (and not done, about halfway).  I would hand or machine quilt these, but Hubby has four wonderful aunts who handquilt.  I love that my kids will each have a piece made by their mom and handquilted by their great-aunts!

Do you have a "space" that allows you to create??