Welcome to Friendship Crossing!

Where strangers cross paths to become friends, sharing their love of PRIMITIVE/SEASONAL decorating, CROSS STITCH/ WOOL/SEWING/QUILTING/CRAFTING, recipes and home life.

**I have an Etsy shop filled w/the newest PATTERNS/SUPPLIES/KITS that are mostly PRIMITIVE, SEASONAL or WHIMSICAL in style. To take a peek, just click the button below on the sidebar .

***I LOVE reading your comments and thanks to all who take the time to write them. If you ever need to contact me, the best way is to just leave a comment on the most recent post and it will go directly to my email inbox first, w/out being published.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your visit!!

Tanya (pronounced like the color TAN) : ))


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Craft Barn Tour Part 3

Hi! Welcome back to my craft barn!

First I'm going to start off by showing you some of my overdyed floss. I like to use a pegboard as I can arrange them alphabetically. This saves a lot of time hunting for the right color. I have them mostly separated by companies. This is the Gentle Art Sampler Threads to the right. (to tell you a secret, I still have several skeins that I haven't hung yet, but 'shhhhhhhhh', don't tell anyone)! LOL
This side holds mostly my Weeks Dye Works and Crescent Colors, plus a few Valdani.
A ring of my thicker overdyed Watercolor threads from the Caron Collection.
This corner houses mostly Six Strand Sweets, DMC overdyed and overdyed Pearl Cottons. Plus anytime I use one for a project, I just slip the remainder of the skein into a floss bag and alphabatize them on a ring.

I used to have all my regular #5 Pearl Cottons hanging too, but ran out of hooks, so tossed them into a clear box. Later on I will re-hang them in numerical order, when I get more hooks of course!
This is on another wall above the old Singer sewing machine. These bins are all of my wooden rubber stamps and the shelf on top has a lot of my cardmaking supplies on them. These shelves were added a few months ago.
The black baskets hold all of my 100% wool fabric.Another angle of the wall and corner.
This is another desk added recently to accomodate my stamping area. Notice the rain gutter ~ it holds a lot of my rolled ribbon. I have lots of loose ribbon in little bins that have compartments. I used to love making handmade greeting cards, but haven't been in the mood lately.
Here's some more shelves w/various craft items back in the closet. I love to label everything for easier access. I hate trying to guess what's in each storage bin.
By now you can tell how much I like to have my things in either bins or baskets. I love being able to find things easily.

This is another wall in my long, narrow closet. This shorter side houses the smaller items and the black baskets hold all of my wool felt, assorted by colors.
Since our major renovation last yr. on our house, my closet is a bit messier than it used to be. We used the barn to 'toss' things into while our house was a mess and it still isn't as neat as it used to be.

This wall holds another peg board that I use for the wreaths I made. It gets them up and out of the way so they don't get smashed this way.

For all you cross stitch fans out there, here is one of my clear bins that holds most of my bigger graphs.
I have them separated by theme.
This is one of my comfy chairs I use to stitch in. It is actually more burgandy in person (the flash makes it look lighter and more faded out than it actually is). It sits to the left of the old Singer machine/cabinet that I showed in the first barn tour.
Well, that's it folks, for today's tour.....but I hope you'll come back again soon, as I still have a few more pics of some things out in the barn, plus some stitched items that I've been working on.
Also, I have an Americana-themed first giveaway that I'm still working on and I'll be posting about it in the next couple of weeks, hopefully.
Thanks again for stopping by and have a great week!
Tanya

Monday, April 19, 2010

Table Top Tues~Craft Barn Tour Part Two

Welcome back! Please come in. I'm so glad you came to visit again. For those of you who missed part one of the barn tour, just scroll down to the previous post.
We'll continue our tour w/the wall I left off on last week. This wall contains mostly all of my fabric bins. But first I'll stop a second to show you another tabletop decor. This one has a few of my 'barn' decor and two little drawer cabinets that hold some buttons, snaps and safety pins, or anything really tiny, etc. I still need to paint them black. I found them on clearance at Hobby Lobby a couple of yrs. ago.


Here is how I store all my material. First I sort them by color, and sometimes by season. I bought all the black plastic baskets at the $$$ Store for $1.00 each. The wood cubbies I bought on sale at Target. Each bin holds 9 cubbies.As you can see I used to sew a LOT! LOL I love to make various crafts, but cross stitch has always been a passion of mine, so a lot of times, I use the fabric for making pillows out of a cross stitched piece. I would love to learn how to make other things as well, like pin keeps, cubes, floss tags, etc. and hope to teach myself one day soon.
I have two cubbies stacked on top of each other to save on wall space, along w/one on either side. I like to make vignettes out of my sewing things to make the room more cozy.

Being able to find something quickly saves me lots of time searching for something. I used to have all my fabric just stacked inside the cubbies, but they kept toppling over, so the baskets are really nice for holding everything in place. (please excuse all the dust, oops, I forgot to do that before taking pics).
This cubby holds all my cross stitch fabric. I have them sorted by count and then by color, aida, evenweave and linen. I just pull out a basket when I'm ready to start a new project.


This is my cutting table. It's 3 ft. by 6 ft. which makes it nice to spread my material on.
I keep it on risers for the most part, as it makes it much easier on my back when I use the rotary cutter.

This hangs on the wall in between the cubbies and the corner unit. It used to hold a candle and berry ring, but a very dear friend of mine gave me the stacked resin animals and it just seemed to fit there perfectly. Hey, a girl has to have a few animals out in the barn, ya know. LOL
The corner unit has been in several different rooms in three different places we've lived, so I never knew what color to paint it. I think painting just the trim part black would look good since I have black cabinets over on the other walls. What'cha all think?

This was the name of my shop I had several yrs. ago. My part time gals stitched this and framed it themselves as a gift to me. I thought they did a great job!
Another friend from my shop made the glass jar in the middle(well not the jar itself)LOL. She stenciled and made the little topper and filled it w/buttons for me.

I also have a mug w/the same sewing machine design on it. This is on the bottom shelf.

And since we're in the sewing area, I thought I'd share something I made just recently. I had fun making this apron out of 'vintage' fabric I found at Hobby Lobby awhile back.

I hope you enjoyed part two of the barn tour. Please come again soon as I'll be sharing what all is on the other walls and closet, as well as some more tabletop vignettes.

There's lots more to share, but I'll save it for another post or two. Plus you won't want to miss when I announce my very first giveaway in the near future ~ it's going to be an 'Americana' themed giveaway, plus pics of my Americana living room.
Thanks for coming by for another visit and don't forget to stop by Marty's for another fun Table Top Tues!

Have a great week everyone!

Tanya



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Table Top Tues.~Sneak Peek Inside My Craft Barn~ Part One

Here, let me open the door for you. Come in, come in. Welcome to my craft barn my hubby made for me a few yrs. ago when I closed my cross stitch shop. Hey, a gal has to have a place to go with all her stuff, ya know. wink, wink.

This old Singer sewing machine used to belong to my hubby's great aunt, then my MIL had it for several yrs., then I was fortunate enough to receive it from her. It holds a special place in my heart being passed down to me, and I wanted it to have a special place out in the barn. It is the first thing you see when you enter.

This little snippet jar holds my leftover floss. I gave 12 of these out for Christmas one yr. to all the gals in my stitch-in group. We used to meet once a month for dinner and a stitch-in. What fun times they were and we'd stitch till midnight or later. The highlight of the evening was our show and tell, where everyone would show what they were working on and we'd all ooh and aah over everyone's piece.

This sewing desk area is actually a 'nook' that is about 4ft. by 8ft. long. I painted and sanded all the cabinets above and below, black, yrs. before it became such a popular prim color. Sometimes this tabletop is extremely messy, but it does a good job of holding what I need when I get in the MOOD for sewing. Yes, I have to be in the MOOD, LOL. Anyone else like that?
I love having natural lighting while stitching or sewing and I have a nice view of the back of the house.
I tried to talk Mr. Fix It into putting in more windows, but he thought I needed more wall space for cabinets and decorating, silly man.
One of the gals who worked part time for me stitched this towel as a shop model. I thought it looked appropriate on the wire towel rack.

Ten Commandments of my Sewing Room. I ordered this plaque yrs. ago and it has some cute sayings on it. Click on the pic to enlarge if you need to. Notice it has my name engraved on the sewing machine.
Hey, a girl's gotta have some color choices ya know. Actually I have more thread in a little basket.
After having a very simple Singer sewing machine for 20+ yrs. and a Kenmore that I grew up with, I must admit that I love my Janome my hubby bought as a Christmas gift two yrs. ago. Guess he got tired of listening to me stomp w/the old one everytime the foot pedal stuck. LOL

My MIL found these for me recently when she found out I was finally getting into vintage style. I think one of the first things I ever made was an apron for my dear sweet mama back in the 7th grade.

Thought I'd show just a few more pics of the adjacent wall to share a peek at what's to come in some future posts. Gotta tempt ya'll to come back. wink, wink.
I have lots more pics of how I organize all my cross stitch fabric and regular fabric, as well as all my floss, patterns, and two other walls, plus my craft closet, not to mention all my cardmaking supplies.
This little stitchery I designed and framed myself. The resin sewing items were a gift from a very dear friend of mine.

This is one of my oldest sewing tins I have. It holds a lot of my buttons.
Please join Marty for some more unique tabletop designs. Thanks for the visit and don't forget to come back again soon for the rest of the tour.