A new lamp & my quilting room

I actually could have added this to my previous post today, but I thought I would leave that one alone. Went to SA and one of my purchases was a new lamp for my sewing room to clamp on the shelf over my ironing board.  The other one just got in the way.  I saw this pink one and knew it was the one I needed.

When we got home this afternoon I had to take the box out to the shop that I had filled from the reorganization of my stash shelves.  Pieces that were either very big or that were not 100% cotton did not need to be crowding my shelves.  We have been out of business for a couple of years now, but we still had lots of vinyl that we used for making signs and creating heat applied graphics.  We took all the vinyl and put it in bins.  Then I took the fabric that was in bins in the closet and put it on the shelves where the vinyl was.


I also have lots of books that needed to find a new bookshelf.  Most are older craft books that I agreed to move out to the shop, but now there is space in the house that has been freed up.  I will not agree to move my quilting books out there... at least not yet.

The embroidery area is around the corner from the quilting machine... across from the shelves with the fabric. When we closed the business I had lots of space in the shop to expand my quilting.  I now have taken over more with the move of the fabric and books in the place of the vinyl.

Last item today is a shot of my quilt wing out in the shop area of our garage.  Someone asked about this room recently.  The room is long and narrow and on the far end there is a doorway into a storage closet.  Nothing fancy, but it works very well for my quilting space.

Organizing my space

 

I made the decision earlier this week that I wanted to do something about my stash storage that sits above the steel bookshelves in my sewing room.  As sewing rooms go, I have a very small one, but it is pretty efficient.  I don't have to move very far to be able to access almost everything I need when I am sewing.  The problem with the bins the way they were is the fabric stacks were too high, so every time I wanted something, of course it was on the bottom of the stack and if I decided it wasn't the right piece, I could not easily get it back where I pulled it from.  So on Tuesday I emptied one bin and got a heavy piece of cardboard and cut slots on the side for the wire and snapped it in place and neatly put my fabric back in and was pretty pleased with myself, but as I backed up and looked at it, the cardboard was sagging in the middle.  I taped a few pieces together to make a support post and kind of fixed the front sag.  My husband wanders in and says that it was not going to work... before long my fabric would fall out.  We went to Lowes and bought some panel boards.  He got them home and cut up the board to fit the bins, complete with slots to fit the wire on the sides.  I have to tell you that it was a much, much stronger shelf, and it didn't need any support post on the front side.  I had also indicated that it would be nice to have a couple slide outs, so we bought a wire shelf that had a big lip on one edge and he cut that to size and put them in lip edge facing up on the back side of the bin.  Now I have some really neat storage bins for my stash.

I want to see about getting a different lamp today... maybe a clamp on so I can have a couple more slide out shelves.  The lamp illuminates my ironing board, so it is necessary where it is at this time.

While I was emptying and restacking my shelves, I only put back what was fat quarter size or larger.  The really large pieces and anything that wasn't 100% cotton I put in a box to take out to my shop closet.  I have clear bins on the shelves out there.

I'm really liking how the shelves look now. It always helps to make an improvement that makes you feel good about your space.

On a roll

I got my camera out this afternoon to take some pictures of the last quilt that I didn't have totally finished yesterday.  I had the quilting done, but ran out of steam to stand there at my cutting table and trim the edges last night.  The backing on this quilt really showed off the quilting very nicely, but the picture made it look washed out, so I didn't include it.  Inside lighting sometimes does not do justice to colors.  You can actually see the quilting pretty good on the front.











This will be used as a table topper.  I used a few different techniques on this one and I like how it turned out. 

I was reading about sewing rooms and how some people are envious of the space other people have.  Of course that is the ideal situation to be in... to have a sewing room that is so large that you have plenty of room and all the nicest accessories, and some even have a wonderful view.  Well, I have a sewing room that is very small, and I have a quilting room that is probably equally as small, just configured differently.  I utilize the space I have to the best of my ability... and I am happy with what I have.  There is no way to make any more room in my sewing room, and the quilting room works just fine the way it is.  I actually have a storage closet off my quilting room that I use for my stash overflow... it is used for stash that I might not use tomorrow, but I know it is there if I can't find what I'm looking for in the house.




Everything is convenient, I turn around from my cutting table and the ironing board is right there... two steps to the left and I can sit at my F600, or if I'm getting ready to load a quilt onto the leaders to take out to the quilting room to put on the frame... I step just to the left of the F600 and sit down at my TL98 that zooms through the straight stitching at top speed.  If I want to finish off a seam, I move my little accessory box and slide my serger forward.  Now how much better can you get.  Did I mention that I can view the back yard no matter which machine I happen to be working on... so I have a room with a view.

Now turn around at the cutting table and look out into the hall and there is the design wall.  To the left of the door is the metal cabinet that I covered with fabric because it was starting to rust on the outside.  The wire shelves on top allow me to hang my selvedge strips.  The hanging baskets hold my batting scraps.

Now here is where most of my stash resides.  I did not go in and straighten out all the stacks because that would be way too time consuming... besides give it a few days of pulling pieces out and it is right back to looking disorganized again.  I keep the two sets of zipper leaders for my quilts on a hanger that hangs in front of my book shelf.

My ironing board is a real oldie.  It has a lever underneath on the front that pushes wings out to make the front of the board square.  Hard to envision I am sure... but it is a really cool ironing board that you will not find one like it easily... it belonged to my husband's grandmother.  It is in pristine shape for its age.  Oh yes, I changed the chair I use at my F600 because the back of the other one was hitting the ironing board.  This older chair has a lower back that clears the ironing board. All I had to do was recover the seat and it works great.


It is not always totally neat, but most everything has a place and I'm quite comfortable in my little sewing room.  Being content with what you have is a good thing.