I've been doing the  courses that Kathy Shaw has provided FREE of charge over the last year.

Well I emailed Kathy to say she hadn't sent me the next lesson of the last course, not realizing there wasn't another one to come.  So she suggested I go back to the start and redo it.  Well not quiet, but what does one do with all those blocks we've just embellished.

Well we have purchased our next 'mobile home' to continue our travels around Australia.
Old one:

New one:
My 'Craft room' consists of four plastic drawers and a sewing machine. In the previous van hubby had pulled out the lounge and my 4 drawers sat nicely there with a curtain that come over the top and latched into the wall at the bottom. This stopped movement whilst we were traveling.

But as this has a different floor plan we've had to re-think where to put my 'Craft room' - four drawers. So two will be situated at the front of the van in the bedroom area one either side. The other two will fit under the kitchen table. Now that they are separated we can't use the same curtain set up. This photo show's the back of the van where the table and lounge is. Can't pull the lounge out on this one, too difficult.

So I thought about it for a while and came up with the idea of individual slip covers for them. This way if they fall over during travel the drawers will stay in and the contents won't spill over the floor.
So using the blocks from this course I am making four covers. Here is the first one, three more to go.
Front view:
 The top, I will eventually embellish this, as it's also lined.
 Sides have the same fabric, the back is just calico (muslin).
 Close up of the block. Didn't end up putting a beetle on, would have gotten caught on a lot of things.

There is always different uses for our blocks, not just quilts or covers for books etc. Think outside the box everyone.

Thank you Kathy for another excellent class.

Arlene

Well this time 12 months ago I was moving into my BIG new craft room, the renovated half of our double garage.
12 months on and I am moving again, but downsizing this time.  This is the area that will be my 'new craft room' for the next couple of years. The cushions and back board will be removed and a board placed on the bottom for extra support.
Yep, it's in a caravan. Now I only get the area where the cushions are, the bottom section below the cushions is where the 'operating system' of the caravan is. Batteries, charging system, fuses etc.  Now I have to put into this area: 60kg approximately. My bead box, with the hands free hoop,
 these 9 drawers
 The blue box, red bag on top, the bright blue box and the school port.  Other than my sewing machine, cutting mat and rulers that's it.
Could you cope with such a small area????? I'm going to have to and I'm still reshuffling stuff, as I'm still over weight (not me, but my gear - ha ha ha).  I didn't think weight would be one of my issues, but we only have 400kg to add to our van, as it would then become overweight and that can cause big problems on the road. I still need to cull about 10kg, so I think I'll be leaving some of the beads behind, as there really is no where else for me to remove that kinda weight.

The 400 kg includes all food, water (yes water too), gas bottles, BBQ, hubby's Kite surfing gear, kitchen gear, all the linen, our clothing, washing machine (twin tub weighing only 5kg), laptops, TV, etc.  It all adds up.  Thankfully hubby has got most of the real heavy stuff sorted (Tools, his diving gear, pushbikes) as it will live in the back of our towing vehicle.

Here's our new home:



Well would love to hear your thoughts.

Arlene

At Christmas time we have a tradition in our small family to put a list on the fridge for what we would like for Christmas instead of trying to find out what each would like.  Some things are really outrageous, and we don't always get what's on the list, we not exactly, like one year Darling Son (was 18 at the time) put a Ferrari on there, so we bought him a matchbox Ferrari, he didn't specify what size.... anyway I digress.  One of my wishes was a craft room makeover.... outrageous I know, but, I was hoping it was going to happen whilst I was away at the Scout Jamboree, in hind sight (great thing that hind sight), I'm glad it didn't.  The shifting, sorting of stuff, destashing some items etc, was just something I wouldn't want to leave to my boys....  Now it came about by hubby drowning his phone on Norfolk Island, and wanting a lawn mower that mulches.... You see he bought these two new items, using the money I had saved in our PayPal account for my new cupboards, well, I let hubby know this and he said I could just go and use the credit card instead..... well, I did.... and here is my new craft room makeover, one week later... sore back, knee's, legs, anything that bends.....
 Inspirations, and Cross-stitch and Embroidery Magazines and my beads in the corner, new white clear door cupboard for the rest of my books and magazines.
 The nic nac cupboard, items that wouldn't fit in the other cupboard, like finished items, my 'gold' supplies and felt box. The coloured drawers are now in the other spare room also, it's got all my scrap booking stuff in it.
These tall boys house all my fabric, except for my linens and aida cloths, there still in another draw in the other spare room. The lovely wood grain drawers are my threads (I got that for last Christmas), and the small bookshelf beside this has all my Crazy quilting books and stitch dictionaries.
I also changed my desk to a smaller one, less chance to clutter as much, but still have the built in cupboard to sort....
I first need to find a home for my post stamp collection, which is lining the back of that top shelf, I've collected since a teenager.

So what do you think, I'm spoiled, yes I know, and I let him know how much I like my new room.