Making a Garage Space into My Craft Space by Ali

Garages, most everyone has one.  Most have cast offs from children, a random assortment of house hold items that aren't used regularly, a hodgepodge of tools, and of course... stuff.  The catch-all.  The vast unknown area that once held our vehicles, the garage.  Ours has the usual assortment of Christmas decorations, fishing gear, house hold items like paints and light bulbs, and of course, the 'stuff.' Our 'stuff' had taken over and you could barely walk from one side to another.  I employed the help of a dear friend and we cleaned that sucker out.  Totally out.  Took everything out, separated it into give away, recycle, keep, garbage, and items my husband needed to sift through.  Two hours and a half hours later, the garage was now clean, organized, sorted, and things were taken to Goodwill.  Ahh.  We now have space for an upright freezer and food storage.
My space.  Yep, I need it.  I want it.  I'm going to have it.  My own space in my house where I can craft and store my things without them cluttering up the house.  I had to reorganize the garage again, moving boxes and shelving to accommodate the six foot long folding table Kerr gave me and the storage cubes for scrapbooking.
Awesome.  I have the table against the wall, my cubes to the side and behind my seat.  Ugh, theses walls are bland and uninspiring.  I figured out that I also needed more light.  The puny compact fluorescent and the light from the garage door opener were not going to cut it.  Home Depot sells 'puck lights,' no electrical experience necessary because you mount them and plug them in.  Genius.  Something I can do and not electrocute myself.
     
For $45, I bought the kit of 5 lights, two 12" wall brackets, a fastener kit for the brackets, a power strip and a piece of plywood from the bargain bin.  The directions are easy to follow to mount the lights.  I did have the lady at Home Depot plug one in before I bought it to see how bright a 20 watt xenon bulb was.  I easily found the studs in the drywall, marked where I should drill holes for the screws and installed the brackets.  Presto chango, let there be light.  It's still missing something.
Here's the great part about Kerr and I.... we have tons and tons of fabric scraps.  Why not use them to make a decorative wall hanging that can be used to liven up the space and that I can hang ideas off of?  Here it is.  Get your scraps.  Pick any color family and go with it.  I used reds, pinks, teals, and greys.

     

Using a cutting mat, omnigrid, and rotary cutter. I cut rectangles from the assorted fabrics and set them in a layout.

I took the red rectangle and appliqued an 'a' on it to make it a bit more personal.  Then you simply sew the pieces together (this was a bit tricky because the pieces differ in size).  Add a bias tape border and voile!  A colorful way to brighten up a garage.

And the finished product...

   

   

    My beautiful granite counter top.           My own space.