Life Update: 09.09.2025
- vafibrearts
- Sep 9
- 5 min read
Hello Friends and Welcome!
The last few weeks have been really busy for me as I've been preparing for a big change; I'm moving!
I had never intended to keep this secret, but the process got underway a little faster than I expected and there were a few people I needed to notify before I could share the news here.
Now that I've had time to do that, I'm excited to let you all know!
My Moving History
While this isn't my first major move, it is the first one I actually remember.
My family moved from the house where I was born to my childhood home when I was 2 or 3 years old, so I don't remember that first house at all, and my parents still live in the house we moved to.
During university, I lived with my Grandma, and after graduation, I moved in with my then-partner-now-husband. Both of these places were fully furnished, so I was just moving personal items like clothing, and school or sewing supplies, and neither of them had a closing date, so I could take my time and move things in smaller, more manageable loads.
That is to say, selling and moving a whole house is a totally new experience to me! Though it will be a lot of work, I'm sure it will be worth it to find a new place that suits our lifestyle even better than where we are now!
Packing the Sewing Studio
I won't be showing off the whole house, but I did want to share a little of the moving process with you all by showing off my sewing studio!
I tried searching through my photos for a picture that shows the normal state of my sewing studio, and this one from August 2023 is the best one I could find;
I have lots of project bags shoved onto the shelves, bits of other projects stacked on the trunk, something in progress on the ironing board, and Meara sitting in the middle of all of it!
I have never been the neatest or most organized person, and tend to find a room more relaxing when there's a little bit of clutter in it. Even so, I do my best to keep the clutter contained to the shelf and trunk area.
For the other side of the room, I found a photo from October 2024, also featuring Meara;
This is where my cutting table and sewing machine are kept.
The cutting table typically is covered in whatever project I'm working on, and under it, I store my sewing machine travel case and my repurposed denim boxes. I also had some old couch cushions that were stored there temporarily.
Getting started on my packing, the first step was to get everything off the shelves and out of the drawers under the ironing board so I knew what I had and could get all my books, fabric, and notions sorted. It looks like a LOT when all laid out on the floor, but I did get through it eventually!
Papers were sorted into one of three categories; books, patterns, and unbound sketches.
Notions got their own box because I don't actually have a lot of those.
Fabric was my biggest category. Whenever I found a piece of fabric, it went through a flowchart process to determine where it would go;
if being used for an ongoing project, it goes into that project's box
if not part of a project and is denim, it goes in the denim box
if not part of a project and not denim or quilting cotton, it goes in the miscellaneous fabric box
if not part of a project, is quilting cotton, and is pieced, it goes in the orphan block box
if not part of a project, is quilting cotton, is not pieced, and;
is small, it goes into a scrap bag, scrap bags are sorted by colour, including a bag for scraps that are multicolour and don't fit in one of the other bags
is a precut shape, it goes into the big box
is large, it goes into the big box
The big box is the big, clear one at the front, the miscellaneous box is the same as the big box, but not shown in the picture, the two blue boxes behind the big box are both denim, and the two clear boxes with the pink cardstock on top of them are filled with scrap bags, coloured in the top box and neutrals in the bottom one.
Most of my fabric stash being contained in just six boxes feels a little weird, though I can't decide if I feel like that's too much or too little. Perhaps I just miss having it here where I can see it?
After sorting and boxing everything, the sewing studio is now feeling a little empty. It has also developed an echo, which I find a quite unnerving.
On the shelving side of the room, I have a few project boxes that I've kept to work on while we wait for the house to sell (we've been told it will likely take a few months). The projects I've kept are Ice Cream Soda, Midnight Circus, Potato Chip, and the Generations Quilt, which gives me a nice mix of machine and hand stitching!
All my other fabric and project boxes are being stored at my parents' house, where they will be safe and out of the way during staging! However, Mom did make sure to put the project boxes somewhere accessible in case I finish everything I kept!
On the other side of the room, I have my cutting table and sit-down sewing table. The smaller table and chair fit under my cutting table, so these pieces can be brought out when I want to use them, or put away for open houses!
I think we've done a pretty good job clearing out the space for tours, while also balancing our own needs since we will be living in this house until it sells. And when we find our new home, I can look forward to making myself a new perfect sewing studio!
Friends, I am so happy to finally be able to tell you all about this exciting new change!
While I plan to continue sewing and sharing my projects while we wait for the house to sell, I expect there may be some interruptions to my regular posting schedule. I'll do my best to let you know when those are happening, but I may not always be able to, so I hope you'll be patient with me!
As for the Midnight Circus quilt along, I don't believe the moving process will affect the scheduled release of each month's pattern. I plan to have the posts drafted and queued for release in advance of their scheduled posting date to avoid any more technical issues or interference from the moving process!
I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for me and for the Fibre Arts blog as we move into this new experience!
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