You may have noticed Foster’s reference to the sewing room in the his post about Panda’s new clothes.

Well, we should all know by now that my sewing room is a place of dreams. Dreams, not only of  fabulous outfits to be made, or quilts, or doll clothes, but of just being able to find the measuring tape when you need it! As you have seen, there is a book on practically every fabric, embroidery, and yarn craft known to man……buttons of every size and color…Plus it comes with its own built-in helper!And that’s nothing to swish your tail about!

But every now and then (like several times a day), I think I really should do something to organize this place. I’ve often referred to my sewing room as something akin to a mad scientist’s laboratory, except with fabric instead of chemicals! Seriously, I have to get this under control.

Having said that, I am reminded of the scripture in Matthew 17:20, where it says that with faith the size of a grain of mustard seed “ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove…”But somehow I don’t think Jesus was talking about moving the mountain from one side of the room to the other!So what do you do when your sewing room in out of control  but you really want to make it really cute and whimsical? You answered right if you said, “Look on Pinterest!” So as soon as I saw this…I had to give it a try. I had the perfect wall space. The articles I read suggested starting with a small section of a wall so you could just paint over it if you didn’t like it. I thought squares sounded easier than triangles, and yes, I know I had the quilter’s ruler upside down when I took the picture. But having (barely) passed high school geometry, I knew that a square is the same no matter which way it’s facing, so “no worries!”See? I was right!It also promised to be a way to use up those craft paints that were almost empty anyway.Just get a plate and cover it with aluminum foil, then use it as a palette.Got my trusty step stool, and I was ready to go!I thought it would be best to start from the top, in case of paint drips.Looking good so far…I used a chisel-tip Sharpie marker to outline the squares.Sitting on the floor looking up.Of course I knew the squares were not going to match the star quilt top that I had been using as a closet door. So I went in search of a shower curtain. I got this one at Target, and the sentiment was perfect. That’s what I’m doing for this room, dreaming big…and we all know I’m starting small! (And no, I’m NOT going to iron it. Maybe I’ll get a steamer someday, but until then it will have to do…)Then I happened to see a picture of some felt hearts sewn together so you could hang them up. Had to try at least one string of them.But what I really wanted was to stencil flowers or butterflies on the squares. Problem: I couldn’t find my stencils. I knew I had a lot of them and I had almost started wondering if I had thrown them away by mistake. Then, while looking for something else, days later, I found them!My first attempt turned out kind of messy. I used the chisel tip of my Sharpie, and the ink seeped through around the edges of the design. So for the rest I used the regular tip.

After that I got better results.

I started from the bottom because I thought it would be less noticeable if I decided to paint over them. This is how far I am with my stencils, again from the floor looking up.So this is how it looks right now.  And at the bottom left, you can see that the “mountain” has moved to yet another side of the room!

Maybe we should paint some birdhouses now…