Show me your quilting space

[Marti O.]

I'm slowly but surely getting my quilting space set up. Working on fine tweaking now. I'll be posting photos soon of the different areas.

Have you been inspired by all the organizing articles from TQS? What ideas have you come up with to solve needs and problems.

Storage for fabric. (You know we all have lots.)
Pressing station. (Not my favorite part of quilting, but necessary)
Sewing area. (Handy tidbits to keep you sewing)
Thread, gadgets and dilly boppers. (What to do with them all)
Is your space multifunctional or a dedicated space?
What is your favorite thing about your space?

Show them here... Please.
You know you want to see everyone's space too. I do.

[Marti O.]

Here's the first image to get us going.

This is some of my fabric. Actually it is my favorite fabric. I love hand-dyed and batiks. There are my weakness. I finally brought in all the fabric from my house that had been stashed all over the place. Sorted it by color and type and the favorites got their very own bin. My novelty fabrics are in plastic containers on the shelf, sorted by subjects and themes. Yes, I have a box filled with horsey fabrics. Guilty, but ok with that.

About the photo.
I got these cute little chalkboards that I hung on the hand grips of the bins for labeling. I love these, because I can change them if I need to and it's easy to know where to find what I need. Labels were tricky on these bins because of the fine mesh. I tried a few things. Large stickers, but they did not stick very well. Plastic cards with little velcro tabs and glued them to the sides. Same problem. I knew at that point I needed to feed something threw the holes. The chalkboards were the perfect solution. They even have tiny ones about the size of business cards that will be added to the skinny drawers and my thread bins too. This area makes me smile when I look at it. All the fabric waiting to see what they become.

[Carol G.]

This is an old picture. But it shows the angled walls/ceiling I have to deal with. My pressing station is a credenza, the sewing machine table is in the center of the room. Fabric is stored in the cabinet next to the sliding door. More fabric in the plastic totes under table as well as cutting table. Unseen in the corner is another cabinet with my tv on it. On the left is a closet and my design wall.


This used to be our bedroom until we added one on downstairs. Our next house is going to have straight walls. LOL

[Geneva C.]

Here are 4 pictures of the room that I use to sew in. When we built this home in 2014 I got my very own room! It is my happy place.

There is the sewing table with the view of Rattlesnake Mountain.



The cutting table with the transom window



The design wall



and the wall 'o fabrics! Plus other stuff. The bins are in color order. One set of bins for cottons and one set of bins for batiks.




I love your little chalkboard signs!

geneva

[Geneva C.]

This is an old picture. But it shows the angled walls/ceiling I have to deal with. My pressing station is a credenza, the sewing machine table is in the center of the room. Fabric is stored in the cabinet next to the sliding door. More fabric in the plastic totes under table as well as cutting table. Unseen in the corner is another cabinet with my tv on it. On the left is a closet and my design wall.


This used to be our bedroom until we added one on downstairs. Our next house is going to have straight walls. LOL

The walls look pretty straight to me, ok so they are vertically challenged, :P but straight

[Catherine S.]

Love the pics! I will try to get brave and post some pics. Right now it is a mess and I am not able to do much about it.

[Catherine S.]

I thought I go ahead and take pictures of my studio while it was messy and in it’s true nature. Hee Hee

First I have to give you the story of my studio.

My quilting space in my house was in our bedroom. I had stuff stashed all over the house. The bathrooms were safe, but I did have a roll of pdf fabric under one of my boys beds. The decision for the studio construction started with my husband’s parents. When they were starting to get to the point in their life where regular care was going to be needed, my husband and I had many many conversations about building a guest house/studio to serve this purpose. His folks decided to stay in Georgia, so that thought dissolved until my Mom started showing signs of mobility issues. Then I started to draw out plans. The guest room, bathroom and all doors have easy access to account for any issues that we might encounter. We also wanted it to be bright and flexible for multiple uses. The studio has a wide open space to help with this and a lot of light from windows and fixtures. My quilting table already had wheels on it, so does the long arm frame. We also brought in 3 plastic office tables that adjust to 3 different heights. These were a surprise to how handy they are. They are very lightweight, so they can moved to where the need it. I can put them together and create a large area for painting and dye work. Right now you see them scattered, one near the long arm, one near the quilting table with a project ready to go, and the other covered with tiles from the mosaic project.

Hubby is also considered in here. He has a recliner and yes a big tv. In fact he was using it last night watching Forest Gump and had the stereo booming. He loves coming into the studio in the morning with his coffee and laptop and sharing my quilting table. Yes, we have had a conversation about when there is a project on the table. It is all good.

The kids love the space, because they got a bonus loft over the guest room and like to hang out there. It has brought a lot of joy and happiness to the family.

The guest room has a corner with quilts from my quilting buddies for inspiration. There are two more coming. This helps me with my creative mojo. Kinda like a friendly node to “you got this” everyday.

Enjoy my mess, because here it comes. Oh and one more thing. This is only a little mess. I can do a lot better than this. The closet is not included in the mess thing. That part is actually pretty good right now.

[Catherine S.]

A few more.

Above the pressing station is a cork board and I filled it with quotes and inspirations and letters that make me smile. There is also a sneak peek for a project that I have cooking on there.

Yes, Zoey the lab is my shadow. Just about literally.

[Catherine S.]

Thanks for the tour, your space looks great!

Barb

[Catherine S.]

A room is only really messy if you cannot see the floor :whistle: Just been uncovering mine today...

Took a little hunting, but glad to see your hat again

[Catherine S.]

I just finished the mosaic in the wet area. Now, time for grout. Hubby is happy that is done.

I have been reading all the organization articles on the TQS newsletters and they've been a great resource. Share your clever ideas. Share your spaces.

Pretty PLEASE!

[Catherine S.]

Wow looks fabulous!

[wendy w.]

Fabulous space Clara and your mosaic is wonderful did you create it yourself?

Your messy pre studio is really controlled and tidy. Rosemary needs to post hers before her upgrade (no offence meant Rosemary)

[Sharon E.]

That mosaic is stunning. My space isn't nearly that pretty, but I did take pictures last night and will post in the next day or so.
Sharon in CO

[Sharon E.]

I love seeing all these spaces! Clara, that mosaic is stunning!!!

Here are some shots of my room. I have one half of the open "game room" at the end of the top of our stairs; the couch you can see belongs to the other half, and is only about 2 feet or so out from my table....enough room for me to walk between, or someone to sit in a chair at that side of my table, but not much more. I shove it out of the way as needed



The whole room



from the window, looking at the drawers

The drawers hold all my fabric. Bottom left drawer is the "scraps" drawer, where I shove everything at the end of a project. Roughly twice a year or so I pull everything out of there, cut big pieces down to the sizes I keep, and reorganize it. I keep 1.5", 2", and 2.5" strips (sometimes wider), and 2.5" squares, 5" squares, and 10" squares. When I cut fabric to save (anything smaller than a fat quarter gets cut up), I cut into the largest pieces I can. So first 10" squares; once I've cut all that I can that size, then 5" squares. Once I've cut all those I can, I cut the leftover into whichever makes sense (a strip or squares).

Bottom right drawer is the little bit of "yardage" i have; leftover backings, or something I bought for backing that I haven't used yet, etc. I mostly buy only as needed for a project so I don't have a lot of BIG pieces of stash.

The middle drawers are the "around a yard or so" pieces; one drawer has apparel/not quilting fabrics (I was given a TON of vintage fabrics, but most of them aren't quilt quality), the other has quilting cottons. Those are both FULL.

The top drawers, L to R, have my AccuQuilt Go dies & mats; my 10" and 5" squares; and 2 drawers of fat quarters. I fold everything a certain way and it's all standing on edge so I can see it, not piled in where I have to dig through. (well, the squares are piled).

On top is my cutting mat, rulers, thread stand with spools, AccuQuilt Go Cutter, and currently a quilt I had to move out of the way, waiting on a label. The bulletin board is just inexpensive fabric wrapped around foam board from a craft store, and then covered with fun stuff. Inspiration, notes, calendar type reminders, etc. The bins to the right (in the corner) are more of the vintage fabric (some LARGE pieces of off-the-bolt denim and chambray). I would like to get that area cleaned up some, but then again, I've no where else really to store huge amounts of fabric, so that works. It just has a lot piled on top right now that I've not put away.

The table has one leaf in and has another I can use if needed to make it longer. The design boards back there are "in progress" -- I need to cover the back one with matching felt and then get them stood up again.



looking towards the cabinet/window side

The cabinet is fabulous and keeps everything else organized. The bottom shelves (not shown) have boxes with "in progress" projects, or where I've gathered the materials for a project haven't started yet. Right now, there's a Christmas quilt that I've been "in progress" on for 2+ years now (I'm stumped; it's improv, and I keep setting it aside), a t-shirt quilt with shirts from my late uncle, fabric pulls for throw quilts for each of my nieces & nephews (one is on the table being quilted), and a project using some little African needlework I bought at IQF Houston 2 yrs ago and then decided last year what to do with it and will start after the niece's quilt is done. And two empty boxes

To organize those, I have post-it notes and write on the post-it what the project is, and stick that on the side of the box facing out on the shelf. This way I can reuse the boxes (they are just leftover boxes that my Fiestaware place settings came in; I know I shouldn't use cardboard, but for short-term it works and they were free, fit the shelves, and fit the projects, and have wonderful "lift the flap" design). Also this way I don't have to open each one to find what I need.



inside the cabinet

The middle shelf (in the secretary part) has my other sewing machine (I could plug it in from there and have it for piecing while the other is for quilting; I don't have it plugged in right now though, it's just stored there), as well as note cards, envelopes, tracing paper, pens, etc. The upper cabinet has quilt books, magazines, patterns (in binders, sorted by size of the project) (including my own EQ7 print-outs), a bin with templates/specialty rulers, a bin with fabric panels/purchased specialty items, a small sewing tote where I keep my extra rotary blades, safety pins, rarely used sewing machine feet, and other small notions like that, two canisters, one with fabric adhesives (glue sticks, etc) and one with fabric marking pens (including the ones I use to write labels), and cones of thread & spools of ribbons and decorative trim, and then miscellaneous other sewing things (I think the top shelf has that insulated batting/stuff for making pot holders or lunch bags, for ex). Also starch, for when I press.

Up on top, the black & white bin is for things waiting on binding, and the boxes are batting scraps. I don't have storage for large batting, so only buy it when needed (beside the cabinet you see the next batting, with under it the quilt it goes into, and the scraps from the current one that I haven't put away yet).

Not shown, but over on the keyboard in front of the window I have my iPod docking station so I can listen to music.

It's a fun, cozy space, and I like that it's out in the open with my family all around me, although I'd love a room with a door to keep out the dog & cat fur Other than that, it's perfect.