Ready? Set… Sew!

So in order to begin quilting Rowan’s Quilt, I have had to step back and clean that studio!  I can deal with chaos for awhile… but then I have to clean, vacuum, put things away so I can start over again.  It helps me feel more at peace if I deal with the junky look first. (There’s more to that story, hey!)

The goal:  Each basket has a color, loosely gradated by value…

All of the fabrics on top in the three baskets, sitting on their sides, are prints, organized by designer or colorway/line of fabric (for the most part!)  The six baskets below are all my batiks, organized by color.  And we bought metal shelving, which Brian put together for me, found at Bed Bath and Beyond a couple years ago.

 On top of all my fabric baskets are a few pieced items… awaiting quilting, or large pieces of specialty fabrics, like cotton velvets, corduroys, wools and some kits. Below, the basket shows just the hand-dyeds, either made by me, or purchased from others.

On the far left, second shelf, are baskets where I keep one for  my stabilizers, one for patterns, one for Christmas fabrics (not yet reorganized), and one for leftover blocks, and fiddly fabric, like my organza collection which is in a large plastic bag, sitting on top of the basket!

My system isn’t foolproof… the baskets of fabric can be somewhat difficult to keep organized, as when I pull one out, it usually messes up the neat stacks. While it’s not what I would like it to be, it’s what I’ve designed with the space and money that we have had available, so I make it work for the time being!  

This picture is taken from the stairs, as you are walking down, looking into the studio. My studio space is in the basement of our home, where we also have two spare bedrooms, a laundry room, bathroom and storage space, and a freezer. That door to the far right leads to the laundry room, spare bedroom and bathroom.

 Above, is the green chair where I sit and paint, make fabric paper, stamp and make a real mess!  The storage for my rubber stamps, paper products, inks, brushes, stencils, paintstiks… are organized into plastic tubs, and stored underneath the tables.

I recycled an old, well-used cutting mat on the painting table, and a plastic garbage bag taped on top for painting, etc.  It can function as a space for another friend to sew if needed, too.

 And as you would walk around that table, there are bookshelves on the right, holding Isacord thread, all the magazines I want to save (the keepers!) and my yarn collection!  Further down the wall, is more of the thread collection with cupboards holding jars for ribbons n’ such important things!  (on the wall on the right, far corner)

I’m going to clean up the clutter on the windows and walls… go through my ‘saved’ tutorials, printouts of free quilt patterns, and put them in their proper binder books… soooooon…

 Vacuuming is done.  Garbages are emptied!  This is about as good as it really gets. You can see I have a stack of ‘awaiting projects’ sitting on the table to the left of my 730 machine, which is my secondary sewing table… ahem… needing to be done!  However, Rowan’s Quilt comes first, and I found these couple of minkee fabrics in my stash, in blues and soft yellows, which will be the backing material for Yellow Brick Road.

 The space is fairly ‘neat’ — ready to mess up again!  Below, I wanted to show you this wonderful lighting (at the top of the picture below), which my sweet husband installed for me, purchased at Home Depot.  This makes being in a basement, absolutely light-filled, and I have all the light I really need to see clearly when I am sewing, and I am not bothered by the darkness of having only three small basement windows.  And I love the “T” or basically, two “L” shaped table accommodations.  Makes for efficient use of space as the pillars were kind of a challenge to work around…

 And my ironing station.  In the back is another metal shelving unit with my teaching notebooks, Bernina resources, and books galore!  And a watercolor quilt in the background that I loved making, (over ten years ago as well!) and want to finish-quilt this summer.  And skirts to iron for work!  (not so fun)   And then an older, recycled table to the right of my ironing board, that holds my supplies, and a tv tray I employed to put underneath for  well… more stuff!

 And… another quilt I loved making, hanging on the door to the spare bedroom… as I contemplate design ideas.

 I have Ott lights working for me at all the key places; the ironing station, my cutting table, and painting table.

 I’m so grateful for this space, and I have plans to make it more functional, as time and money provides.  If not, then I’m happy with what I have.  It works, and I love being down there.  I so appreciate that I can leave the mess, and pick up where I started… and re-start!!

Have a great week!  I’m off to the sewing races!
XO
Leslie