Just a Little Organization

 My small sewing space, which my DH so fondly refers to as the Girl Cave, was a cluttered mess.  (I had moved into the dining room)

 

It once was organized but still not functional.  I had access to only two-thirds of the cutting table because of the way that it was turned and the items I had stored underneath were pretty much out of reach.

Well my sweetie put up a couple of shelves for me today.  I did a little rearranging… then put up a couple of design walls. 

Much better…

 My cutting table is completely open

 

 My projects are in plain site and easily accessible

 

Check back in a couple of days and I’ll share the results of my Stitch Therapy J

Hope you all have a wonderful week!  Remember...

(A gift from my BFF)

Keep it Slammin’

Farmer's Market, 3 New Men in My Life and a Lesson Learned

So many of you have posted pictures of your gardens and it has me looking forward to the day I will have time to plant my own.  We love fresh fruits and vegetables but have to rely on our local farmer's markets and produce stands to provide the bounty.

My DH and I do our food shopping on Saturday mornings.  Here are a few pictures from our spree yesterday...

And this is what we brought home...

The cranberry walnut bread is absolutely fantastic!

On the stitching front, I've started another helmet liner that I spoke about here. And I put together these three cuties...

 

 

Meet the Three Wise Gingerbread Men from the Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber Deck-Ade the Halls project.  They are the three new men in my life.  We spent the whole day together today :)

 

I also made some progress on Doreen's Jelly Roll quilt along but not near enough and I didn't even touch my DD's graduation quilt.  It seems that I've set unattainable goals for myself.  Between my full-time job and household duties I simply do not have enough time to keep up with a UFO / stashbuster quilt along, a new seasonal quilt, my DD's gift AND knitting for the soldiers.

 

So, my new plan is to finish Doreen's project, catch up and keep up with Deck-Ade the Halls and not start anything new until the graduation gift is finished.  My DD's quilt is very important and must be as close to perfect as I can possibly make it.

 

Since I can knit on the commute to and from work, I'll still be able to work on the helmet liners.   This project is also very important to me.

 

This adventure is still very new and it will take me some time to figure out a schedule that works.  For now, I am enjoying my time at the sewing machine and keeping up with YOU, my friends in blogland.

 

Hope you have a slammin' week...just like me :)

 

 

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Noooo…. No wedding, just an outline of what has been going on around here.  Sounds like it could be a lot but I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels.

Something Old – Stash buster project.  I’ve joined Aunt Reen’s Jelly Roll Sew Along.  The jelly roll I chose is American Primer by Minick & Simpson for Moda (now that’s OLD).

I still need to choose background fabric and get started…yes I’m two weeks behind on this one.

Something New – Fat Quarter Shop’s Jolly Jabber: Deck-Ade the Halls.  This is, so far, my favorite online quilt shop.  Our LQS closed a couple of years ago so I’ve resorted to either online shopping or driving a distance.  I love FQS’s customer service and they package everything soooo neatly.

Aspen Frost by Basic Grey for Moda. I’m in the cutting stage on this one.

Something Borrowed – Operation: Warm & Fuzzy.  This is a campaign to knit helmet liners for soldiers.  The company I work for has a generous community volunteer corps.  They donate the yarn and volunteers knit up the liners.  In the fall, the liners are donated to The Forgotten Soldiers Outreach, Inc. (FSO) in Lake Worth, FL and they ship them to the soldiers.

From our company flyer: FSO sends care packages and letters of encouragement to deployed service members. The goal of this agency is to provide support to the men and women who are fighting abroad, and to inspire hope, strength and courage while they are separated from loved ones, families, and friends. To date, FSO has helped more than 250,000 military personnel serving overseas.

Ok, this is a stretch but I am ‘borrowing’ the skein of yarn and ‘returning’ it in the form of a helmet liner.  Cheesy, I know.  I’ve completed two so far this campaign which started in May.

This photo is from Paton, their yarn works up nicely.

Below is my very first helmet liner.  I learned how to knit on this one, it’s from last year’s campaign.  Just in case you are wondering, yes…I’ve gotten better J

Something Blue – DD’s graduation quilt.  Well, let’s just say there has been more UNsewing than sewing with this project.  I realized my quarter inch seam allowance was off, way off.  So it’s been a little slow going.  I did skip ahead and complete one block to make sure my I had corrected my seam allowance.

 

I hope to make some real progress this week and have a better report to share next Sunday.

Now off to celebrate Father’s Day with my DH and DD.

Have a ‘slammin’ week everyone J

Happy Father's Day

My Daddy & Me

(OK, a long time ago...)

 

 

Bloglovin'

Happy Friday!!!!

Many thanks to Kaaren at The Painted Quilt for the tip that we must 'claim' our blog at Bloglovin' before Google Reader goes away at the end of this month.  Bloglovin' makes it super easy to transfer all of the blogs you follow on Google Reader to them.  Please see Kaaren's post and check out her super Safe Harbor quilt ;)

So now...I proclaim that this blog as MINE ;)  Who else would want a Slammin' Screen Door?  And I truly hope that you keep showing me the love with Bloglovin' ...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Happy Weekend...check back Sunday for my progress report!

...and slam that door a time or two!

Feeling the Love and Graduation Quilts

WOW!  Lots and lots of blog lovin’ has come my way since the first post only 3 days ago!  I am overwhelmed by Karen’s kind words and Candace’s willingness to display my button on her blog.  Due to their generous support I instantly gained many friends.

Everyone has given me a warm welcome into blogland.  I have discovered so many places to visit for inspiration and I’ve learned so much already!  I’ve made new friends from all over the world and even a new one right here where I live.  Suzy from Sunshine and Lollipops and I will be getting together for coffee soon!

I believe I responded to all of your wonderful comments.  For  those that were “no reply” , please know that I appreciate you stopping by and giving me words of encouragement.

Now, down to business…

Let’s just say I’m still on a huge learning curve when comes to taking good photos.  I’m using my DD’s Canon T2i which is pretty dummy proof (that’s what I need) but I realize there just aren’t good ‘display’ options around here for photographing quilts.  That is something I will have to work on.

Since I know so many of you are watching and are willing to hold me accountable for completing my UFOs, I finished a graduation gift J

This is my DD’s special someone and he graduated with her a couple of weeks ago.  I made him a Senior Year memory quilt and I’ll have to say that I am disappointed in the printable fabric I chose.  The package read 100% cotton so I expected it to be softer.  It’s colorfast quality is great! 

Can you recommend a good printable fabric?  I would love to make another one… perhaps one larger than a wall hanging so it will need to be cuddle-worthy J

In 2010, I surprised my DS with his graduation quilt (below).  The pattern is Shoeboxes from Atkinson Designs.

And DD knows that Mom would be fair and do the same for her this year.  Therefore, I allowed her to choose her pattern and fabric.  She chose Butterfly Trails, again from Atkinson Designs.  Their patterns are so easy to follow. 

I have everything cut so it is time to sew!

This pattern calls for only two fabrics!  New one for me…

Since the quilt wasn’t her surprise gift, there was no hurry to finish before graduation.

I know this is crazy…inserting photos AND ‘linking up’ for the first time in the SAME post, but I did!

Linking up to Karen’s Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party…Week 118

 

Thank you again for all of your blog lovin’…now I’m off to catch up with YOU at YOUR place J

Have a great week and keep the screen door slammin’

 

What's In A Name?

First, let me welcome and introduce you to my first blog, Slammin’ the Screen Door.  I have been a reader and follower of some pretty awesome blogs over the years and will now attempt to come off the sidelines and join the virtual world of sharing.

Now for the name… I grew up in south Alabama and my grandparent’s home had a wooden screen door on the back porch. As children - always in a hurry- we ran in and out of that door and never took the time to keep it from slamming.  Oddly, my grandmother never corrected us.

Over the years, my imaginary screen door has not stopped slamming and this is not a complaint.  It is an indicator of how busy life has been (with all good things).  As a teenager, I was involved in many school functions and after school activities.  As an adult, I have been blessed with a full time job, lots of hobbies and most importantly, I became a wife and mom.

My husband and I have two fantastic kids… just ask us J  Our son (21) is in the Navy and our daughter (18) just graduated high school in May.  This is our first summer without scouts or some sort of travel sport schedule to follow and we will no longer have the many school activities to attend.

To keep my screen door slamming, I plan to take this new found freedom and get back to the many hobbies I’ve dabbled in over the years.  This includes scrapbooking and reading but mostly I enjoy activities that involve a stitch of some sort like quilting, embroidery, knitting and crocheting.

Slamming the Screen Door will be my place to reveal the long list of UFOs in my ‘craft room’ (which is more like an oversized closet!) and hope that you will help keep me accountable J

How do you tackle UFOs?  Do you work on only one until it is done or do you keep a few going at a time?

Before signing off, many bloggers have inspired me over the years (see my Favorite Reads?) and there are a few people that I need to thank…

For her encouragement, quilty inspiration, sharing her beautiful garden and travel posts…Candace @ Squash House Quilts

For her encouragement, Blog Buddy posts and many wonderful ideas…Karen @ Sew Many Ways

For her incredible talents as a blog designer and patience with the newbies…Karen @ KarenValentineDesign.  You can also find her here.

I promise pictures on the next post and it will be a "quilty" one.

Thank you so much for visiting!

May your screen door keep slammin’ too J