The one drawback to moving from a full cabinet to the K-base tables was losing my four small drawers.  I looked at the plastic things on wheels from the big box stores, things at Target, things at Ikea, and the GORGEOUS “Perfect Caddy” from the folks at Hinterberg…you know them, the ones who make the beautiful quilt frames and hoops.  I decided that thanks to many folks (you know who you are out there..>THANK YOU!) buying my book, since I could actually afford something nice, I was going to GET something nice!  A little nudge from friend and quilter extraordinaire Pat LaPierre MacAfee didn’t hurt, either LOL!

I didn’t see exactly what I needed:  something that would fit UNDER my new tables.  I figured that including the wheels, the entire unit needed to be 27 inches or a little bit shorter.  I called the 800 number, explained what I was after, and the nice woman looked at their units and said that I could fit one with six tiers in that space.  I selected four shallow and one medium-depth (takes up two spaces) drawers, then added the drop-down flaps on either side.  More portable horizontal surfaces … yeah! The quilting book on the top gives you an idea of size.

If I unlock the casters and pull the drawer unit out, I now have (presto!) a nice extension for working on very large quilts just under my elbow!

These pieces are SO beautifully made, and for a modest $10 you can add customizable inserts to organize everything.  Why do plastic when you can have wood?

These are HEAVY–my main unit came in a large box that was over SEVENTY POUNDS!  Had to enlist my strong hubby to get it upstairs!  Thanks Pookie! The assembly took a while, but was as easy as could be.  The holes are PERFECTLY drilled and the instructions clear.

Sigh.  Contentment!   Pretty things, useful things, a nice studio.  How nice to find a good company with a good product willing to customize for you–here’s to supporting industry in your own country and rewarding folks who do good work!  Thanks Hinterberg/Perfect Caddy!   Now…to find TIME to quilt!

Wowie zowie!  Having a little bit of income and a  wonderful sponsor is, well, WONDERFUL!   Janome has come out with an upgrade to my beloved Janome 6600, and they were kind enough to send me a Horizon 7700!  Plus I had two new sewing tables built…what a way to start the new school year!

To backtrack a bit, when we moved to Maine in 2004 and I lost my home-dec-sewing name-recognition and income base, I decided if I was going to try to make a “go” of it and earn some income from quilting, that was the time.  Shortly before that, as an utter unknown with maybe ONE publication credit to my name, but three things in Houston in 2003 (the Journal Quilts, a quilt in the juried show and another in a special exhibit), I approached Janome because I really wanted the 6500 but couldn’t afford it.  I asked if they had a teacher/artist loan program, and if so if they would consider me.

To my utter astonishment and delight, Janome America said YES!  It has been a great relationship ever since, and they have generously upgraded my machine first to the 6600 then the 7700!  So MAJOR THANKS to Janome America for their continued support…. I’d say all these great things about the machines if I had paid full-price—they are a lot of value for the quilting dollar!  So here it is:

Yes, that’s a NEW table!  I had a Sylvia 1500 cabinet that I loved, but the opening was too small for the extended harp of the 7700 and couldn’t be enlarged without re-making the entire cabinet.  My friend Kate (THANK YOU!) wanted to buy my cabinet, so I decided to get new tables.  At first I thought I’d buy something from Tony at Sew Perfect Tables, but it turned out I’d lose a lot of length to the left of the needle compared to what I was used to.  So I asked Tony if I could purchase just the K-base (so-named due to the shape of the legs) used on his tables and industrial sewing machines.  He said yes, so I bought two (I’m hoping to add an HQ16 sit-down mid-arm to my arsenal next year) and had them painted lime green at New England Motorworks (I think there was a Ford Pick-up  years ago that came in this color!).  Thanks to Tony and NEM!

Then I had John Bailey of JB Builders (dad to a friend of my older son’s, builder and carpenter…and the guy who build those great shelves for my fabric, here — in the third photo down, on the left, in aqua!) make the tops to my specification.  Each tabletop is 24×60 inches, with a 12 x 27 inch opening for the machines.  The shelves for the machines are adjustable and can be raised to flush with the surface of the table (to collect more piles of stuff?).  The opening is so large because the HQ16 sit-down is a smidge over 25 inches long, so this leaves room for plugs, etc. I wanted the tables to be white, so white formica it is!  The two tables latch underneath when pushed back to back, giving me a ginormous 48 x 60 tabletop.  Eventually, there will be a machine in two of the corners, acting as a “stop” for a quilt sliding off the far corner.  Perfect!

Here’s a wider angle view of the sewing side of the table (more on the drawer unit in a future post):

You can just barely see the second sewing machine shelf on the far left corner as it is raised even with the surface.  The total cost for all this custom work ended up being just about $200 more than if I had bought two smaller tables from Tony–I am THRILLED!  So thanks to Tony, John B., NE Motorworks and Janome.  I am SO looking forward to sewing and quilting with my new set-up!

Moms across Maine are celebrating:

It is Back To School Week!!!!!!!!!!!

Every year I take a picture on back-to-school day.   They are getting less and less cooperative each year.  Here is the older one, this morning–looks thrilled, eh?

And the younger one, who started yesterday (he cooperated a bit after stern words from his dad):

And this morning they couldn’t even stand on the rock next to each other for a nanosecond…this is all I got (notice the death-glare from the teenager LOL!):

I waved goodbye, wished them a wonderful day, and punched my fist into the air in elation as I entered the garage…WOOOT!   I am taking the WHOLE DAY off (after I finish this blogpost and one for the next post) and sewing! WOOT WOOT WOOOOOOT! Normalcy (well, what passes for it in this house) returns!

There was even more inspiration in the gardens at the Getty Museum when I visited in spring.  One of the coolest things were the bougainvillea “trees.”   Rebar…the stuff used to reinforce concrete walls, was formed into these tree shapes, then the bougainvillea vine grew up the center and out into this colorful canopy:

Here’s what it looked like underneath:

How utter cool is that?  If we ever have a garden with SUN so I can grow flowers instead of moss, guess what I’m gonna try (albeit on a more modest scale!)?

The flowers were varied and beautiful…couldn’t resist this shot of a rose alongside the path down to the lower part of the lower gardens:

Again, I was lured by the tracery of the branches:

and their shadows; in this next photo, the “braid” pattern in the stonework is repeated in the wood of the bridge over the run-off culvert which was when I was there a very small babbling streamlet:

Here’s a wide-angle view from the gardens looking back up to two of the main exhibit buildings:

At the very bottom there is a maze/knot hedge which “floats” on raised beds inside a circular pond…. spectacular (I bet you’re tired of my gushing about this place, eh?

Even the drain covers had pleasing designs (notice my lovely lime green sneakers, too):

Another of my obsessive “through the trees” shots:

And a final view back up the hill:

Wow…what a place!

The landscaping at the Getty Museum gardens is just as much a work of art as the buildings and their contents.   The picture above is of the run-off culvert and bridges, with Los Angeles city in the distance.  The Getty website page about the landscape says:

Landscaping the Getty Center has been a collaborative effort involving a number of distinguished landscape architects, consultants and craftspeople through the years. Emmet Wemple, landscape architect for the Getty Villa in Malibu, began the project and conceived preliminary designs. Richard Meier conceived the master plan, which called for developing 19 of 24 acres as landscape or gardens. Dennis Hickok of Richard Meier & Partners served as liaison and for design and development of the works for the architects and landscape architects. Laurie Olin and the Olin Partnership, Philadelphia, PA, joined the team in 1992, and have remained through the project’s completion. Fong and Associates of Orange County and Raymond Hansen assisted in plant selection, procurement, and administration. Daniel Urban Kiley consulted on the project beginning in 1990. The landscaping would not have been possible without the work of numerous other consultants, contractors and craftspeople who helped create this impressive environment.

I love the tracery cast by the shadows of tree branches especially in the non-leafy seasons.  Here, Joyce is walking down the stairs and  path in front of me:

And here I am taking a picture of someone taking a picture…ya think this place inspires?

Again, successful use of elements of design:  rhythm, repetition, line, contrast (trees are organic, walls and stones are rectilinear), depth and dimension…..sigh….. I want to make art every time I look at these pictures! The next photo is one I think, with some tweaking in Photoshop, could make be used to make a great screen for printing onto cloth…..

Here is a view of the lower gardens:

On the way, you pass this stunning building-view:

And a cropped version that I may turn into a quilt for a Frayed Edges project:

Hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of my trip to the Getty…clearly way more than a day’s worth of   inspiration in just one visit!  more down the line…