Sew On!

                My sewing area/sweatshop is consistent with my quilt creation style---an ongoing work in progress.  

          When I first set foot in this house and walked into what was then a stained glass studio, I was beside myself. The wheels in my head spun into overdrive! I had just started quilting. If we bought this house, I wouldn’t have to sew on the dining room table, I could leave my sewing machine set up permanently! 

          There would be room for fabric! The counters were built-in in a U shape, with drawers.  There was even a built in light table! And, the area was far away from the bedrooms. I could sew late into the night without waking up the whole house.

        We bought the house and I started filling my sewing area with quilting books, tools, and mountains of fabric. It wasn’t long before it was obvious that I had to get a handle on organization or risk getting buried under an avalanche of fabric.

I took measurements and fit three-drawer bins under the counters to hold fabric. I followed advice from the book Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter and wrapped my fabric around my 6 x 24” ruler so that it would all be uniformly folded.   

Then I loaded the drawers mostly by color and a few other separate categories (like Christmas fabric, fall prints, 30s/40s reproductions, novelty fabrics and batiks). It’s good that the plastic drawers are semi- transparent because then I can see the colors in each one. 

You’re not supposed to  store fabric in plastic because it can’t breathe, but stashed in the drawers, the fabric is protected from my cats who love fabric almost as much as I do.  I try to rifle through my stash often enough that there’s some” fabric breathing” going on.

       When Pacific Fabrics still had a store in Puyallup, I got hooked on their baby bolts. They cut the cardboard forms that fabric is wrapped around in half. Then they folded fabric (usually less than a yard) in half lengthwise, wrapped it around the half size cardboard, and called them baby bolts. They are so cute, they’re irresistible. My collection grew over the years. I tucked my baby bolt collection into the cradle that my daughter slept in as an infant.

Cradle full of baby bolts.

        If a piece of fabric is two yards or longer, I wrap it onto a cardboard bolt that I ask fabric stores for when they’re done with them.  These are the fabrics that I’ll use for quilt backings or borders. I plan to eventually clear a bookshelf to store them upright, like fabric stores do.

       Many quilters store their threads on wall racks, but my wall space is limited, and my cats are curious, so I keep my spools of thread stored in a small three-drawer cabinet.  One drawer is for multi-purpose thread. One is for 100% cotton quilting thread, and the third drawer is for specialty threads like metallics.

One of the walls of my open sewing area is a design wall. Initially I hung a very long wooden curtain rod on the wall and hung a queen-sized flannel sheet from it. Quilt pieces are supposed to cling to the flannel as you play with them and rearrange them. However, my design wall is along the pathway to the garage, and anytime someone walked by it, pieces fluttered to the floor. I started pinning them to the flannel. It slowed creativity down.

My design wall with Kaffe Fassett quilt in-progress.

 Then I read somewhere about wrapping a 4’ x 8’ piece of polystyrene foam board with flannel.  This called for a trip to the hardware store.  Johnny duct taped two of the boards together, and slid them behind the flannel sheet and under the curtain rod. Other people wrap the foam board in flannel and attach it to the wall, but since I already had the curtain rod up, my method was easier. The curtain rod keeps the foam board from falling down. Now I just smooth quilt pieces onto the flannel and stick pins through them into the foam board like a bulletin board.

My books are organized by specialized types of quilting (applique, paper piecing, traditional blocks, etc.), and alphabetically by author. I have a master list of them that I try to keep current. I started the list when my library grew big enough that I couldn’t remember what I had and bought the same book twice. I’d like to say that they’re all neatly stored on shelves, and most of them are, but there are also a lot of stacks of books wherever I can wedge one in.

Inspired by the Winter 2012 issue of Studios magazine and looking at people’s studio ideas on Pinterest, I got busy reorganizing and tidying up my studio—again. I decided to clear away the calendar and artwork that I had on the wall behind my ironing center and dedicate it to storing tools instead. John put up a pegboard that now holds my rulers, and templates. That freed up room around my light table making it easier to find what I need quickly.

John putting the pegboard up!

Standing back, I took in my spruced up sewing area and thought it needed a little something extra, so I made a sign to hang at the top of the pegboard.  I painted wooden letters “SEW” turquoise and glued them onto a scrap of white bead board. It’s the perfect touch!

Pegboard fully loaded and the finished "SEW" sign.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, sorting and reducing, and re-vamping the TV/stereo system, but the cutting table is cleared off and the structure of the room is in place. I’m probably three fourths of the way through, and my sewing area is turning into a real studio!

Laura Keolanui Stark is still working on organizing her studio, and trying very hard not to start working on any of the projects she unearthed until the “remodeling” is complete. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. Good sources of organization ideas are in the books: Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space Sewing-Room Makeovers for any space and any budget, by Lois L. Hallock, and Organizing Your Craft Space, by Jo Packham.

Tonight is the night that Crockett's Public House and the Starks make their debut on Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives! Tune into the Food Network at 7:00 and 10:00 Pacific Time, Season16/episode 8, Decadent Dishes, and watch us enjoy Fire Grilled Artichokes, Mom's Sloppy Joe, and Public House Meatballs with Guy Fieri!

If you'd like to read about what happened behind the scenes of the filming in Crockett's, read my blog posted on 11-3-2012.

Laura Stark will be watching the show in Crockett's located in beautiful downtown Puyallup. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Cure for the Common Cold

       It’s cold and flu season and everybody has their own reaction to being sick. Some people try to power through it by ignoring their symptoms. They are a virus’s best friend, spreading the bug through offices and schools, wherever they go while they’re in denial.

        Some people in my family view sickness as a personal affront. How could their bodies betray them with a virus? Being sick is a sign of weakness.

        Women often say that men are the biggest babies when they get sick. They demand constant care and attention. I think that’s probably because the mom of the family is expected to take care of everyone no matter what, but if the dad can get off of work, he expects to be cared for.

         Some people are whiners, complaining through stuffed up noses about their misery, beyond childhood days.

         Then there are the wimps, like me. I don’t fight it at all.  I don’t whine, I just go right down for the count. That’s exactly what I did two weeks ago.  For a day, my throat hurt and I had the sniffles. I thought maybe it was just allergies. But the next day it was obvious that I had a cold.

         Part one of my “Oh man, I’m sick” strategy is to stop the sickness from spreading. I kicked John out of our bedroom and isolated myself under mountains of covers. In the middle of the night I got up and went through the house with Clorox wipes.  I wiped down the refrigerator door, the microwave, the TV remotes, telephone, the light switches, door knobs, banister, and anything else I thought I’d touched. I walked through rooms, spraying Lysol in the air and then retreated to my bed.

For the next couple of days John and Johnny would come in to check on me when they got home from work and I’d shoo them away.  Sarah kept tabs on me via phone from WSU after she called the first morning and thought she had a wrong number because my voice was unrecognizable.

Part two of my sickness plan is to get better as fast as I can, that’s why I surrender immediately. On my house sanitizing mission, I’d mixed up a glass of Airborne and drank that down. (A friend swears by Zicam, another recommends Cold-Eze.) I spent the next two days in bed surrounded by tissue boxes, watching remodeling and real estate shows on HGTV, reading old magazines, and eating Campbell’s Soup on the Go from our pantry. 

For dinner, John got take-out Pho for us and when the cook heard that I had a cold, he threw in some extra hot sauce for me. Everybody has their personal cold remedies.

My trusty laptop was with me in the sick bed, so I looked up information like how to tell the difference between the flu and a cold. I didn’t have a fever or muscle aches, and it came on gradually, so this was probably a cold. I’d had a pneumonia shot a few years ago, so I didn’t have to worry about it turning into something more serious.

I logged into Pinterest and looked up cold remedies. Several people mentioned a tea recipe. It sounded good, I was drinking tea anyway, and I knew I had the ingredients. It didn’t instantly cure me, but maybe it shortened the duration of the cold, and it tasted good. Here’s the recipe, from prettylittlepantry.blogspot.com:

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Tazo Orange Blossom Tea

1 Tsp Honey

1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp Ginger

Dash of Cayenne Pepper (Optional)

Brew the Tazo tea as you normally would. 

Once the tea has brewed for about a minute or two add the Tsp of Honey, the 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, the 1/4 tsp Ginger, and the dash of Cayenne if you are really congested. Stir and enjoy. 

I used Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea, which I mistakenly thought was the same as the Orange Blossom tea, and it still tasted delicious, but maybe I would have gotten better faster if I’d used the right tea. Either way, lots of fluids are good when you’re sick.

I only went out once while I was still miserable—to get more tissue when I exhausted my stockpile from Costco. I dashed into the store in the middle of the day, when most people are at work, and I splurged on the expensive name brand, with lotion tissue. After going through six boxes of what now felt like sandpaper tissue, I figured I’d earned the good stuff. I also grabbed a tube of Nivea Milk and Honey lip balm (Sarah’s recommendation), then made my way back to my cocoon.

After two days in bed, contemplating life’s big questions like: why don’t dogs and cats get colds? I began to feel more human. The head cold ran its course. My throat stopped hurting. Then I switched from blowing my nose constantly to coughing. Eventually that also calmed down. 

It took a full two weeks, but I’m healthy again just in time to report to my part time job and of course, Zumba. I’ve cleared away the tissue box, teapot, and lip balm from my nightstand. Amazingly, nobody else in my house got the cold, so my germaphobic techniques were a success.

Laura Keolanui Stark is up and running again. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Zumba for the New Year!

        2013 is knocking on the door, and one of the all-time top new year’s resolutions is to get in shape. For six years I’ve been shaking it and sweating in Zumba^R  classes. If you’ve decided to Zumba yourself into shape, I’ve got some pointers for you.

       Even though Zumba was invented by a man, Beto Perez, most of the people in my Zumba class are
women, so my advice is more female oriented.

        Before you go to class, get two good pairs of shoes. 

Nike Musique IV shoes with pivot point.

Nike makes Musique dance/cheer shoes that have a pivot point under the ball of the foot. Cross training shoes are also good. I’ve found that heel support is not as important as a shoe that can flex, because I dance more up on the balls of my feet than on my heels. Running shoes can trip you up when you move side to side. You can use them, but beware. Two pairs of shoes allow you to alternate them so they won't wear out as fast.

Absorbent socks are a good thing. When I get home from Zumba, I put my shoes in front of a heating vent to help them dry out.

After you’re done shoe shopping, pick up a few good, supportive, sports bras. Be prepared. A whole lotta shakin’ and shimmying goes on in class. You can wear anything over the sports bra, a tight tank top, a loose t-shirt, or whatever you’re most comfortable in. If you get too hot, and you're daring enough, you can go with just the sports bra.

I usually pull my hair up in a pony tail to keep it out of my face. Others use head bands, or have the foresight and time to braid their hair. Some have short hair and don’t need to do a thing.

As for what to wear on your lower half, in my class, there’s a lot of variety: Yoga pants, capris, running shorts, and tennis skirts, depending mostly on the temperature outside. Fabrics made to wick away moisture are the way to go. Keep in mind that dark colors are better at hiding sweat.

Sometimes for fun I’ll wear a belly dance hip scarf over my yoga pants. Keeping the coins jingling on beat is a challenge, and I like to think of it as doing Zumba with weights.

Don't buy too many new workout clothes though because it probably won't be long before you have to buy more in smaller sizes. Zumba melts the fat off quickly.

Finally, before you leave home, fill up a water bottle. You’ll need at least 20 ounces to stay hydrated during an hour of 600-800 calorie burning Zumba. Some people like ice in their water. I prefer mine room temperature. Smart Water with electrolytes is another option. If I’m doing a 90-minute class, I’ll bring either two 20 oz. water bottles, two bottles of G-Series Performance Gatorade, or a combination of both.

Now that you’re ready, on to class. Get there before class to meet the teacher, and fill out any forms. Trust me, everybody’s nervous before their first Zumba class. Will you know the steps? No. Will you make mistakes? Yes. Will everybody be watching you? No, unless you make the mistake of standing in the front row.

Don’t stand in the front row until you’ve been doing Zumba for awhile and know most of the routines. If you stand in the back, staggered between the two people in front of you, you will be able to watch everybody in front of you and follow them even if you can’t see the teacher. The gals in the front row usually know what they’re doing, and when they started, they started in the back. It won’t take long before you too will know the difference between a cha cha and salsa, hip hop and belly dancing. Then the new people will be pushing you up to the front row.

My Halloween Zumba class.

Put your water bottle, somewhere nearby, but not where anyone can trip on it. You can grab a drink between songs. Introduce yourself to the people around you because sooner or later, you’ll be turning the wrong way and running into them, so you may as well get to know them before hand. They were all beginners before, so they know how you feel. A quick smile and the ability to laugh at yourself go a long way toward making class fun.

One of the great things about Zumba is that you don’t have time to over analyze what you’re doing or fret over any mistakes you make. If everybody is moving left, you better be too, even if your footwork isn’t perfect. Keep moving with the school of fish. Don’t stop dead or you’ll get run over. The music dictates how fast you better be moving.

Sometimes you can divide how fast you move your feet in half if you need to, but you’ve still got to pay attention to the beat. If you can’t find the beat, find someone else’s feet to watch, or if there’s a cowbell clanging, follow it. When I get lost, I focus on correcting my feet first, arms second. You can adjust your movements to be high energy, or low impact. When you’re just starting out, don’t go too big or it’s hard to recover and get back to where you should be. As with anything, the more you practice, they better you'll get, so keep showing up for class if you want to improve.

Ready for a Zumba flash mob.

With thousands of Zumba miles on my many pairs of dancing shoes, the thing that keeps me going back for more, is that I don’t think of it as grueling exercise that I have to endure. It’s an energy filled dance party that I get to go to five or more times a week. There are new songs and routines to figure out each week. My teachers also rotate and keep things fresh. Each one has her own style or “flava.”

Before every class, before the music takes over, my Zumba Maniacs teachers call out to us, “Bend your knees! Pick up your feet! Have fun!” That’s not hard to do at all!

Laura Keolanui Stark will Zumba-on through 2013. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.