Fun On The Horizon

I have a couple of fun projects coming up that I wanted to talk about today.

The first is a quilter's challenge sponsored by the saucy ladies- Terry Stegmiller, Vicki Welsh and Sue Bleiweiss- over at 3 Creative Studios. Understanding that there are a lot of quilting and mixed-media challenges floating around, but not nearly enough for all the talented artists who want to join, they've started their own quilting challenge that anyone can join! Fresh off my experience with Compositional Conversation, it sounded like it was right up my alley, so I signed up.

It's called 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge 2010. Go check it out and think about joining the fun!

The second fun thing happening this week is the beginning of an almost total garage-to-quilting-studio make-over.

As a painter, I'd set up shop for many years in my home garage, slowly converting it to an art studio with additions of storage space, work space and task lighting. But I live near Houston, in south Texas. The heat, humidity, bugs and street dust and debris were impossible to keep out. It wasn't unusual for me to be out there in the middle of August for hours at a time, painting and sweating, painting and sweating.

Finally, when our daughter moved out on her own, I took over her bedroom, painted and moved my stuff in, and voila! I had an indoor studio. A really lovely, well-lit, tiny, cramped indoor studio without the 8' x 4' horizontal work space I'd grown accustomed to. Yeah, it was a tight fit, which I complained about here in my blog at least once.

So, back out to the garage and reclaiming my work space (which is about 2/3 of the space available... thank you, honey!)

I have a long laundry list of changes and additions. There will be a new, insulated garage door which will be fully trimmed to keep out two of my key enemies- dirt and bugs- and a garage door opener for my honey.

Next, we'll be addressing the heat and humidity issue by installing a wall-mounted AC/Heating unit that will be vented to the outside and plumed to drain properly. And since it does require plumbing to code, a laundry sink is also being installed. This will be fantastic for me- no more bringing dye-splattered items and fabrics through the house into the kitchen for the wash-out! My indoor carpet will be thanking me.

Finally, power and lighting will be addressed. More lighting will be added in the form of new overhead fixtures and a new track light to flood what will become my design wall. New electrical plugs will be added on all walls carrying more current  than the plugs we now have (so my lights will stop dimming when my iron heats up).

I'm excited to make these changes (and nervous, too, being my own general contractor on a job this large). I'll post photos of before and after, once the job is complete.

In the meantime, happy creating!