SSF Post # 8 : Sewing Small

Hi all... 

To all my Aussie friends, Happy Australia Day!!! And to all my Indian Friends Happy Republic Day!

The Republic Day of India commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India on 26 January 1950. The date 26 January was chosen to honour the memory of the declaration of independence of 1930. It is one of the three national holidays in India, and while the main parade, Republic Day Parade takes place at the Rajpath, in the national capital New Delhi, where the president views the parade, state capitals also have their state celebrations.

Today's guest post is by Kelly who blogs at http://kelbysews.blogspot.com/. I know her from the numerous swaps on Flickr!

Hi y’all!  I’m Kelly, can you tell I’m Southern?  Ha ha!  You check out my humble blog at http://kelbysews.blogspot.com/.  I began sewing a year ago right before I turned 30.  I had always wanted to learn so I thought I could teach myself.  Never having operated a sewing machine before, my introduction to sewing was rocky at best.  Little by little I became more confident and now I’m addicted.  Yes, my name is Kelly and I’m a sewing addict………and a fabric addict……..and a Flickr addict.  Yipes!  That’s a lot of addictions!

I began sewing using our dining room.  My stuff was everywhere and it was really embarrassing when people came over because you see the dining room first when you walk into the house.  Fabric and notions everywhere!  See for yourself:

Frightening isn’t it?  Recently, I made the move upstairs to our crafty nook.  We have an open loft area at the top of the stairs.  The loft area is where the kids play, but there is a nook of sorts off to the side that has lots of shelving and great natural light.  My dad got us a super sturdy folding table and I thought it might just work as a sewing table.  It’s half the size of our dining room table, but I have really enjoyed my tiny table!  I have just enough room for the essentials.

Please excuse my son down there, he likes to participate in crafty photo shoots.  Pretty basic, but it keeps me focused.  Because I’m sewing in closer quarters, I’ve become much more neat and organized.  
  

This area is to the right of my sewing table (if I’m sitting at the table, it’s to my right) and is where I store all my fabric, notions, batting and random crafty supplies.  As a side note, I’ve gotten a few comments lately at how quickly I finish projects.  I don’t particularly think I’m fast, but I have a couple of secrets.  Shhhh.  Are you ready?  My number one secret for fast finishes is to only work on one project at a time!  I don’t have a WIP storage because I don’t have WIPs!  I will confess to one exception and that is a quilt I started a few months ago.  I have all the blocks done, but I didn’t buy the sashing until recently.  It’s been so long since I worked on it, I’m not as enthusiastic now.  See?  This is why I try and finish a project before started another.  I know myself.  I’ll lose interest if I project hop and nothing will ever get done.  


Alright, ready for my second secret?  Work in a small space.  You simply don’t have room for multiple projects!  I still sigh with longing when I see other people’s gorgeous sewing spaces with huge cutting tables and acres of wall space, but I’m happy with my little nook and small sewing table!