What Constitutes Studio Time

Much of today's time in the studio was not spent on designing, or cutting or construction - things that immediately come to mind if one says "I'm putting in time in the studio." Instead, it involved working on set-up, which I've decided is legitimate to count towards the hours I want to get in this week. It's hard to work if your set-up isn't right, your work space cluttered, tools and materials hard to find. And I've learned that small irritations turn into major distractions, so it's just as well to address them rather than continue to work around them. The irritation becoming a distraction happened to be my design wall flannel, hastily hung and in need of fixing. What I really need to do is find a large piece of grey felt to continuously fill the space between windows, but until I do, the two pieces of white flannel must suffice. They are hung with velcro along the top, and in the past I've added short strips of velcro along the sides to hold it flat against the wall, but I didn't want to do that anymore. Been brooding about how better to attach it while trying to work around the curls and flapping. Today was the day to do something about it, so I herringbone stitched the two pieces together where they weren't meeting well, then used small tacks around the outer edges. Not real pretty but so much better, and much more inviting to use.

And so I was more willing to tackle tree trunk placement on my pinwheel quilt. I admit I was over-thinking this process, working way too hard to get them just right. I even printed out a few reference pictures rather than throw them up quickly as I'd done for the picture here. Eventually, I settled on an arrangement, pinned them in place and will satin stitch them down tomorrow.

Why not stitch them today? Because the machine I use for satin stitching and free motion work had recently returned from servicing and I'd not set up its work area yet. So I unboxed the extension table, moved the small table into place and popped the top off the machine. As I was sliding it into place, I noticed that the back had not been put back on right by the repairman, leaving a gap that would not only collect gruck, but probably catch fabric on the way through. Arrgghh! I should have boxed it back up and taken it in to have him do it right, but hey, I don't want to spend the time and I'm pretty handy with a screwdriver...

Wouldn't you know, the screws holding things together have a weird head on them, but surely there's the right tool in the tool box I inherited. Ah, hex keys! That's what I need and there's a full set. Thank you Allen! In no time I had the back popped in correctly, extension table height adjusted and machine plugged in. Minor irritations duly attended to!