A Peach in Stitches

Last Thursday I alluded to my new sewing room layout as a result of my letter to Mark Lipinski in the January/February edition of Quilter’s Home.

So - the question was basically: How to create a design wall that is inexpensive, yet attractive.

Here is my sewing area from when you walk into the front door and immediately turn right:

Here is the view of the long table against the wall to the left.  There is a corkboard to hang up reminders,etc.  Currently on there is my nametags for quilt guild.  I try to make a new one each month with the theme.  I missed January’s because my machine was in the shop.  To the right of the corkboard are two small 20″ square “design walls” - they can be easily removed.  They are primarily for piecing intricate blocks.  I can lay the block out and leave it up there for a while (the one up there now has been there a while) and then take the board down to piece it without loosing my space.  You can see my “SewEzi” table and my new Janome 760 machine in the picture.  The small green and blue basket is there to catch scraps as I cut them.  I then go through them later to see if any are big enough to save or toss them in the trash.  Yes, I cut sitting down and that is my small ironing surface there to the left of my machine.

  This is how I am storing my thread.  I did have a nice wooden rack that spun around and was cool that I got in Houston one year.  Cleo (my cat) constantly pulled the thread off the spools and it was all over the room.  I had to figure a way to close it up.  It is not a perfect solution, as the threads lay down, but I can get to them and the cat can’t.  I have colored thread on the top and neutrals on the bottom.  You can see my Jelly Roll collection there also (it has gotten bigger since then by at least two Jelly Rolls) and photos of me and my husband.

  This is a view of my machine and my “big” wall.  It is only 40″ x 30″ - but anything bigger, I would not be able to use it.  To the left of the design wall is a small metal sheet.  I got it years ago and was for putting in a cross-stitch book with a marker that had a magnet to keep your place.  I use it now for holding up patterns that I am working on.

  This is my shelf - my main storage area.  The top of the shelf is quilts that are sandwiched or partially sandwiched.  I have a huge roll of batting and I only want to drag it out once in a while so I cut batting for completed tops that are waiting on backings also.  The next shelf down is my “free-for-all” fabric -basically my stash - fabric that is not planned for any purpose.  Pitiful isn’t it?  The next shelf down is my fabric that has projects already started from them, but it is too much to keep with the projects.  The bottom shelf in the picture is my project storage.  Before leaving Washington, I found these great containers that I absolutely adored on clearance at Joanns.  I had to have them.

This is more of my shelving in my room.  The shelf that is cut off contains a three drawer unit that will be explained in a bit, my bought patterns that are in packaging, and some letter stacks that has various things in it.  The first full shelf showing is more project storage - the white containers are current (well ones I want to work on immediately) projects.  The blue/green container on the left is just scraps of fabric that are smaller than 3/4 yard.  The container on the right is all of my flimsies that are completed but not yet sandwiched.  The bottom shelf is obviously books and magazines.

This is of my three-drawer unit that I said I would explain earlier.  My cats, yes Cleo again (and even Flicka sometimes) would love to get my strait pins off my magnetic pin cushion and knock them off my tables/desk.  They would also do this for my seam rippers.  My husband constantly complained that there was too much of those things on the floor and that I needed to figure a way to do something with them so the cats could not do that any longer.  I decided to put the pin cushions in the top drawer of the unit.  The next drawer of binder clips is for when I go to sandwich a quilt.  I sandwich on my dining room table because it is easier for me.  The bottom drawer is my safety pins.  I lucked out on a gross (that’s 1441 ) of number 1 safety pins for only $15 including shipping a couple of years ago - it makes it easier to have several quilts sandwiched at one time.

I hope that the photos inspire you a bit.  So what does your sewing area look like?

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