My sewing room

We sure love to see each other's creative spaces, don't we?

I'm going to try to do a short video of mine tomorrow.  I say "try" because I'm sorely lacking in mad camera skills.

Tonight though, I thought I'd share pictures of some of my favorite things in the room.

Edit:  yesterday I posted the size as 10' x 13'.  It's actually a wee bit larger at 10' x 14 1/2'.

So, this is where I started, the blank  10 x 14 1/2' canvas.  Actually, I should back up.  I've probably spent most of my life wanting to get to this point, to set up a sewing room that works how I need it to and, that I love to be in.  Sometimes it feels like a game of Jenga trying to make everything fit but, a game I feel that I won. I love everything about this room from the lighting to the functionality and everything in between. 

I love this quote and had it made into a poster.  "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep."   I found a magnetic board at The Container Store and used it for the thought bubble.  I have it mounted on the door to the room.

The original Ikea table no longer fit the look I was going for so, I stained it and purchased a black, slightly larger, Ikea top.  This is my cutting table.

I found this old drafting table in a Salvation Army store a few years ago, It just needed to be cleaned up a little and was the perfect size to hold my Accuquilt Studio cutter. It's not as dark as the Ikea table but, because it's flanked on each side by dark pieces it works okay aesthetically too.

I purchased this Closet Maid cart from Target at least 20 years ago. It used to be white.  I thought about getting one of those cute little teal rolling carts from Ikea but, why?  This one works exactly like I need it to.  It has four shelves. I've learned my lesson with UFO's.  (I don't have room to store them!)  Once I get caught up... don't laugh!  I will! I'm going to limit myself to a max of four on-going projects at a time.   From the point forward, no quilt project gets started unless there's an open spot for it on the cart.  And, nothing gets removed from the cart and put away for "later".  

Right now, you can see I have the jeans I'm cutting up (for 2 memorial quilts for my sons of my friend that passed away a couple of months ago), fabric for a second Tumbler quilt, and the fabric to bind the three tops I've made from the Safe Haven UFO.  That bottom shelf tho... (I'm cringing now) the dreaded alterations!  I have several black yoga type pants I need to hem there.  That's why they're on the bottom.  Alterations and clothing repair rank right beneath going to the dentist as my least favorite thing to do.

The fluted bowls were made by heating record albums in the oven.  I found them at a Habitat rehab store for $1 each a couple of years ago.  One sits on my cutting table and I toss scraps that need to be trimmed in it, and the other is usually on my ironing board to hold cut threads and a pair of thread snips.  

Contrary to the writing on the drawers, this actually stores fat quarters and lives under my cutting table.  I'm transitioning to 1/3 yard cuts to roll them into groupings.  A suggestion I should have paid attention to when I first heard it years ago!  The cart is so old I don't believe they still carry them at Home Depot. I stained the 1/4" plywood fronts Sam cut out for me, painted chalkboard and then lettered with a chalkboard marker.  The handles were made from a men's brown leather belt I bought at Goodwill.  It has a 1/2" thick plywood top.  

I wanted to display my mother's ruler from her quilt guild's 10 year anniversary celebration (especially since I'm now also a member of the same guild).  I found these clothes pin style  Command Hooks in Home depot.  I took them apart and painted them blue. Luckily, they went back together without a hitch!  So, it has a place by my sewing machine and holds a sample block and/or pattern that I can see while I'm sewing.  It also reminds me of my mom every day.  I love to sew almost as much as she did. ♥

I made a reversible design "wall".  It's a quilt with no backing so the exposed batting on the opposite side (first photo) is where I can put my quilt blocks to check the layout before sewing them together.  I quilted horizontal rows every 10 inches, just enough to hold the layers together.  The soft decorations in the room are all spectrum/rainbow colors. 

We've since had to rehang it.  My first idea didn't work.  It was too heavy for the rod and, it was difficult to get to my fabric stashed in the closet behind it.  Sam installed a shower curtain rod for me and I put grommets in the quilt.  The curtain rings are an S shape so it's easy to change from the quilt side to the design wall side any time I want to.  It also slides like a curtain now so I have easy access to the closet.  The grommets should hold up well without ripping out of the fabric.  The opposite side had a double sleeve for the original rod so the grommet is installed through 5 layers of fabric plus the batting. And if it doesn't, I just make a new one with a header of heavier fabric.  Where there's a will, there's a way, right?

Sometimes it's the little things, right?  I just love this Superman invisible bookend.

These little cork boards are from the Container Store.  They look like black and tan half square triangles.  Hard to tell with all the inspiration photos I have pinned to them.  I like to keep ideas where I can see them.  I save images I see on the web and when Walgreens has a sale on photo prints, I order all the ones I've saved since the previous order.  Most of them end up in an inspiration photo album but the ones I'm eager to make get pinned here temporarily.  

All of the little quilts on my walls in the room are mounted on steel rods.  I bought the hooks, made by 3M on Amazon.  (They have adhesive backs but, aren't easily removed like their Command hooks).  I found the steel rods and cap ends in the hardware (rather than decorative) section of Home Depot.  I think the industrial look goes well with the aluminum long arm quilt frame in the room.  I'll make sure to get photos of the little quilts on the wall.  This one is the Illusion pattern by Caryl Breyer Fallert.
  

Another one of Sam's upcycled roadside finds.  It was a rusty metal shoe rack that I primed and painted with aluminum colored paint.  It's now the same color as the long arm frame it sits under.  I use it to hold fabric strings.  The top shelf holds the blocks and strings I'm currently working on. 

There is a 2" deep long tray (that he also found on a different day) on the very bottom.  Right now it's holding a couple of string quilt pattern books but, when I cut up more muslin foundations, I'll store them there. I asked him to put it on wheels for me so I can easily move it when I want to pull the long arm away from the wall to quilt from the back of it.  He just finished adding the casters  today.  He had to build a little aluminum frame to attach to the bottom.  It worked out great!  That little frame gave me just enough room to add an extra narrow tray that I hadn't anticipated. 

My tv sat a little too low for me to see when I'm sewing so I purchased a black steel mesh computer monitor riser from Amazon.  There is a shelf below it and two metal pockets on the left side, room for my glasses, post-it notes, a pen, and my pad of graph paper.   (And, the remotes aren't always falling onto the floor now!) This little Coats & Clarke thread cabinet is where I keep my cross stitch and applique supplies.  And, as you might have guessed by now, Sam put casters on it for me too.  Being located between my sewing machine and the cutting table you can imagine how often pieces of fabric I can't find are hiding on the floor behind it.   It's nice to easily roll it out of the way to retrieve them!  

My granddaughter's favorite thing in the room, a tiny plastic rolling garbage bin from Dollar Tree!  (Of course she needed one for her Barbie house too!)

And last, but not least, is this cabinet.  If you guessed it was an upcycled find you'd be right!  It was cast off by a local Winn Dixie grocery store.  The wood stain was green but, it had these great adjustable shelves!  Sam labeled every piece of the cabinet and completely took the thing apart.  I sanded and stained the wood to match the Ikea table I had already done.  The shelves have a melamine (or formica like) finish.  There is a black metal label holder across the front ledge of each shelf.  I would guess the original purpose was for the store's price tags. That'll come in handy for labeling which groovy board or pantograph is on each shelf.  My iron, pink tool boxes, and portable Janome sewing machine are on the bottom shelf.  Sam got lucky!  This one was already on casters.  :-)