Redone - Redone - Redone - Redone Sewing Room

I know most of us have sewing rooms that are works in progress, but this one has been a struggle.  I feel ashamed of myself, as I know many don't have this much room, and I didn't for many years, but in my last home I had a larger area and it was by itself, not the first thing you see as you come in from the front foyer.  We inherited the baby poop colored paint from the last people who owned the home, that should be a priority for myself, to paint a brighter more cheerful color.  My last redo usurped a little more area from the dining room, I wanted my quilting in a corner to help support the quilts, and my sewing machine facing so that I could see the TV.  Oh well, we don't use the dining room all that much.  This is officially a formal living room, but is now my sewing room.

It is also my office, you can see my desk.  The door is the door to the foyer.  The large dark cupboard I bought second hand after we moved in.  I needed the storage, and it is also a small not very effective design wall.  You can see the hooks on the front, and they extend around the sides.  There is a big window, but no overhead light, so the lighting isn't too excellent.  I'm still working on that.

This door goes into the family room, which is now our living room.  The rolling kitchen table behind the dog I also purchased since we moved in.  It is now my cutting table and extra storage.  I also have a small closet on the other side of the door, which is an under the stairs type.  I think even though I have much less fabric, etc., than many, maybe I have too much, as I have taken over that closet and also part of the laundry room for my sewing storage.

Another acquisition, this one was not a charge.  It is a nice dresser that I have turned into an ironing table, and again more storage.  The door is another view of the foyer door.  It is a single family private home, but there are locks as the upstairs can be a separate residence, it has a small kitchen, small living room, bathroom and 4 nice sized bedrooms.  My daughter, 2 of her kids and  2 of her grandchildren live up there.

Here is a view of my poor encroached upon dining room.  

Misc.

My friend Janice, came bearing gifts.  The top is a beautiful Scripture cover, and the green underneath is a casserole carrier.  The other side is pieced, I should have taken the picture that way, and may yet.

I made the medium size Open Wide Zippered Pouch.  It is the black one, and I used batting on that one.

I rearranged a little to make things more attractive, hopefully, and this is the main change.  I added the candy jar, wonder clips in crystal bowls, and flower frogs from ebay.  I also moved my mug rack-scissor rack over here. 

Ironing and Cutting

I've been a bit frustrated using my ironing board as a cutting table also, and forever moving things about.  I didn't think that I had room for a separate one, even though I do have a nice big sewing room it also doubles as a laundry room and a guest room.   I had purchased this nice big cutting board and then my brother found a "Big Board" ironing table top at a garage sale and it's been sitting on it, so it's been easier to use a portable cutting board.  This is my solution, I got bed risers, another folding 2 feet by 4 feet table and put my quilt rack underneath it.  So far so good and I know there will be lots of cutting for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Money mystery, so I'm ready. 
Right now I'm machine embroidering Maddox's quilt back, and that has spilled over to the top of my new cutting table.  

Because of my ironing board doubling as a cutting area, and I suppose a bit of carelessness too, my big board ironing cover has 2 or 3 inch or so cuts in it.  First I was going to buy some duck canvas and make another one and then I thought why not use up some of my scraps from using sheets as backs of quilts.  This is the result.  It is reversible and I put elastic all around, but it was too loose so you can probably see a couple of the pins that I used.  I really don't like the looks of them and if they aren't efficient, I may get some thumb tacks and try that.  I have a staple gun but I want to be able to turn it over when it gets dirty without a lot of fuss.  
It seems that sewing rooms are continually evolving and we are always looking for a better way.  I hope that I've found one, hopefully I'll be more organized and efficient.

Kaylea's Quilt and Sewing Room Redo

My daughter's third quilt.  She doesn't consider herself a quilter, but she doesn't hate it.  (This isn't in my sewing room, it's at her house.)

When I quilted my brother and nephew's quilts I could see why it's recommended to have a wall on your left to support the big quilts.  After church yesterday I came home and did some heavy moving.  This is pretty much the same except the bed is moved closer to my office area, the bookcases are moved and my embroidery machine went to the other side of the bed.

This corner did have the TV in it and my Bernina under the window.  Now my quilting area gets this corner and a wall, and my Bernina has moved under the other window.

The brown cabinet moved down a bit to make room for my embroidery machine and it's cabinet.

My office area is back there.

New home for the TV.  Now it can be watched from the bed, which will be good for company.

My Bernina and cabinet have the side window now and still a good view of the TV from there.

Better view of my embroidery machine beside the kitchen door.

Looking in from the kitchen door.

Misc. The Good the Bad, but Cute not Ugly

Oh, Happy Day!  My table finally arrived the first of the week and now it is together.  My DH has been having a bad time the last 3 weeks and then last week-end he had a bad reaction to a new muscle relaxer.  I mean, really bad.  He could hardly walk, had to have help, above and beyond the walker that he has had for the past 3 weeks, and his thinking was all jumbled up.  He thought that he needed to go to work and he has been retired for about ten years.  He was very very depressed to the point of crying, which is not like him at all, in spite of his health problems he usually keeps fairly upbeat.  Luckily, the worst hit Sunday and my daughter was able to help me and then Sunday evening when I finally didn't give him a choice and insisted on the emergency room, she came and then when they sent him home after some tests (said he was better off home since he is prone to getting an infection and home was safer) she and 3 of her grown children were there to help me get him home and settled.  It was a bad night, but Monday morning my son came (in spite of pain from dental work) and he helped me all day.  He and his father played a 6 hour game of chess, which goes to show that DH brain still wasn't over the effects, it usually takes them about 20 or 30 minutes, but DH was taking 40 minutes sometimes to decide and then he'd try something illegal.  He has always been a very good chess player, so totally not himself. 

Monday evening, I could see that he was getting better but thought that I could still use some help, so I called my brother from Jacksonville and he came Tuesday evening and stayed until Thursday morning.  By then the effects seemed to be passed thank goodness.  Meanwhile, my brother put together my new quilting table, put a light bulb in my shower where we are too short to reach, put in an electric plug for me so that I don't have to do contortions to plug in my vacuum and clean my sewing room, gassed both cars and put air in their tires, and also put new wipers on my car.  He also put in a digital antenna so that we can get local channels.  We have been using a Roku, which is great, but didn't have the news due to no local channels.

I also added this to my sewing room, it's on my quilting table set up, but will have to be moved when I quilt.  I have seen them around the web, and this one was on Craigslist, I picked it up this morning.  Aunt Polly from the link above has an awesome sewing room, see here.  Maybe, one of these days mine will be as full of goodies as hers (my carousel, not my room).   Also, while I was picking it up I noticed that we were next door to a Harbor Freight store, which I read about on different quilting forums from time to time.  It seems that they have carpet cutting wheels, which according to many fit just fine in a rotary cutter and work just as well as the much more expensive blades.  I hope that they are right, as I bought 10 packs of 2 each.  It is about a 30 minute ride and so if they work well I wanted to have enough to last.  I will be so happy to be able to change my blade more often since it will be only $1.00 for each new blade. 

Here is another of my favorite things that my brother did for me while he was here.  When I moved from the bedroom where my sewing room was, to the family room, where it is now, I really missed my ruler rack which DH has been too ill to move for me.  Ta Da, here it is and I'm loving having it in the room with me and down a little lower than it was, so that it is very very handy.  Brother's can be a wonderful thing.  My brother from Brunswick didn't come this time, he is battling health problems and with a very good attitude.  I have the best brothers ever.  By the way, the one who didn't come made my ruler rack.

I've also been working on organization.  I was trying to cut up boxes to make little mini bolts, but that is a hard job.  I read how people were buying comic book boards and so I thought I'd give it a go.  They work just as well (although I used 2 each as I am using rubber bands to hold things together and it gives more body).  Mine doesn't look so perfect as some that I have seen but after all the work I did on the cardboard, they're staying, lol.  The bottom shelf right is holiday fabrics, mostly Christmas.  I have a much smaller stash than many, but I like it that way.  I just go to the store or order on the internet when I have gaps.  The fleece on the top shelf, and the first 5 fabrics on the left on the middle shelf are for a quilt for one of my great-granddaughters.

The containers on the top hold pieces about fat and long quarter size.  The shelves have pieces about 1/3 to 5/8 of a yard.  The larger pieces go on the little bolts.

I also picked up these bins from Target to try to organize my scraps into colors, and I got an accuquilt go which I am hoping that I'll love and get lots of use from.  I got the die that came with it, the 2 1/2" strip die, and saw a really good sale and ordered the small tumbler die.  Everything was on sale, but I think that I have still shot my wad for the year.  

These are my 3 great grandbabies.  I think they are adorable.

New Sewing Room, Office, Guest Room Combo

There are a lot of pictures in this post, but I love to see pictures of sewing rooms, so I hope that they won't be too many.  My old sewing room was about 11 1/2 by 13, and this one is about 16 by 23 feet, so you'd think lots more would fit, only it doesn't seem that way.  I pretty much got everything in, plus a couple of chairs, but I don't see where I can fit a design wall in this one, so I guess I'm back to a design bed.  My new job requires me to be hardwired to the internet, so it was necessary that I move into what was formerly the family room and DH's office, and he move into my sewing room.   We even had to give my daughter a recliner that wouldn't fit, go figure.  This view is from the door that goes into the kitchen, the closet and laundry area are to the right.

This is the wall on the front of the house, the opposite end from the closet and laundry.  I did have a computer in my sewing room and in the family room, now I have two in the same room about 10 feet from each other.   My laptop is on the little laptop desk that my brother made for me.

This is my new office area, and it backs up to my sewing cabinet and Bernina 1130.  The cabinet also hides lots of black spaghetti wires.

The closet is on the left, and the laundry on the right. 

Looking into my office area to the right.  My embroidery machine is on the grey cabinet beside the bed.  Can you tell that I like to know what time it is?  There are at least four clocks in here.   I also have a thing for garbage cans, I think I have 6, but what the heck they're cheap.  It makes for more efficient working.

Looking into the desk that I will work from.  I didn't realize it was so smeary until I took this picture.  I have since wiped it down a bit.  This desk is actually a small oak farm table, but I bought it about 28 years ago to be my desk.  How long before it can be an antique, lol.

Another view from the dining room door.  I got to keep the 50 inch TV.  My laptop desk is on one side of it, and my cutting/ironing table is on the right.  On the wall to the right of the TV is my Small Strip Twist that I made out of leftovers from a grandson's quilt to cover the fuse box.  It is from Bonnie Hunter's pattern.  My Daughter and three of her son's came to help and the boys said that "grandma" has baskets under everything.  What can I say, I like to quilt and they are a necessity.   They came this past Sunday and put in about 4 hours.  It's Thursday and we're still working on it.  Too much "stuff".

The funny shaped conglomerate of tables, two wooden oak typing tables of the same vintage as my desk, and the two folding plastic tables are where my Juki lives, and where I quilt.  Leah Day recommends this configuration, but that it be against a wall.  I don't have a wall, but hope that it will still work out ok.  My Janome Platinum is between the Juki and the cutting/ironing table.  It used to be in the family room, and hasn't moved.  I have four machines in here, the Juki for quilting, Bernina for piecing, embroidery machine, and my Platinum, I think that I'm pretty well set up as far as machines go.  I also have a featherweight on top of the bookcase.  It works, but I don't use it as of yet. 

Another view from the dining room door.  I do have more floor space in here.

Looking into my new work area.  It also holds much of my stash.  It was a quick move, and I'm not well organized as far as areas.  My desk area is mixed with my stash area, my embroidery area isn't very close to my threads, etc.

View toward the dining room door.   The cabinet by the door was already there and I kept it and my DH's bookcase.  He got my bookcase, cabinet and TV.  The quilt rack is new and holds my Roll Roll Cotton Boll, and my Christmas Unstrip Road

I made this double hourglass block this morning, the only sewing that I've done in a week or so.  It's from 'A quilt block a day'  from facebook.  This particular version is from Cluck Cluck Sew.

I didn't use the home made template that she recommended though.  I used this as recommended by Amy and Bonnie.  I made this sample block with 2 1/2 inch strips and the block ended up 8 inches finished 8 1/2 inches now. 

As an after thought I remembered the inside of my closet. 

The batting, quilt top, king sized flannel sheet, and the container they are sitting on are going to be my Iowa (Carolina) Christmas.  Hopefully, I will get to it soon I think it's time that it was on my bed and not "closet clutter".   I made the top when it was a mystery, but now it's in Bonnie's "Scraps and Shirttails II".   Here is a picture of it without the borders, which are in the container above.  It's huge.

Looking to the right of the closet.  The closet is about 3 by 7 feet.

Looking to the left of the closet.  That's the tour.  If you are still with me, I hope that your eyes haven't glazed over. 

Organizing

My sewing room won't win any awards, but it sure does look better.  This bookcase has three shelves and I donated two shelves worth of books to the library to make room for fabric.   It was painful as they were mostly quilting and cook books.   I have more fabric than I thought, some that I didn't remember at all.   There really isn't any special organization, just about a yard and over pieces here.   This is folded over a 6.5 by 24 ruler. 

These shelves are pieces bigger than a fat quarter but around a half yard or so.  These were folded over a ruler 4.5 inches wide.  Also, there are two boxes about 8 x 13 size, one filled with fat quarters, and the other with long quarters.

This is scraps that I had organized previously by colors there are quite a few.

And even more scraps.   There are going to be quite a few more when I get back to my RRCB and all those string blocks.   I'm thinking that for Valentine's and my birthday maybe I'll get an accuquilt go and make some scrappy quilts.   I know some people love to have scraps, but these have multiplied and are stressing me out, lol.   I also have a box of scraps about 11 x 10 x 17, the kind for reams of paper, and it is almost full.   I am still not completely organized, but it is so much better.   I think that I figured out my problem.   About a year ago I got a new canister vacuum cleaner and the only place I could think of to keep it was in my sewing room closet.  I could no longer get to things and it became more and more out of control.   I cleaned my bedroom closet and made room for the vac and I hope that it won't get in that state again.   I have confidence, lol.   Also, when cleaning my bedroom closet I found a purse that looks quite nice and I don't even remember buying it.   Cleaning, it's a good thing.