The Studio Tour

Standing in front of the door with the curtain and looking back into the studio, this is the view. The design wall is to the immediate left, then the stash and the small bookcases, then my ironing table. Across to the far right is my large cutting table. It is a drafting table and I use it at an angle. It is much easier on my back to cut at an angle, and since I am five feet tall, this is a big deal. Then there is the table with my sewing machine, then the small cutting table, and you can see the comfy chair in the lower right of the photo.

Standing at the other end of the room in the doorway looking back, this is the room. The big windows are on the left.

I  bought a second hand chair only to discover it was a recliner. TOTAL WIN! It is great to have a very comforable chair in the studio. I sit in that chair to study what's on the design wall.  You can see Millie's kitty condo in the corner.

From just behind the big chair, you can see the design wall, my fabric stash, the bookcases with books and tools and the TV and the Traveling Millies, my ironing table and the inspiration wall above it. And you can also see the long shelf at the top of the room on the left. It stores things I need to keep, but don't need handy.

From Millie's kitty condo in the corner this is the long low shelf that runs the length of the room under the windows. There are a couple of kitty quilts for Millie. It's where I keep a box of kleenex near my sewing machine and my little bin of bobbins, both within arm's reach.

I keep the most used rulers at arm's reach, on the shelf near the big cutting table.

To the side of the sewing table, between two windows, are some of my most commonly used rulers. When I am not cutting strips, the 4-1/2" x 12-1/2" ruler is always in use, as is the 2-1/2" x 6" ruler. I have a few of those. They were cheap and to rationalize the shipping costs when I bought (one) I decided to get four or five. It made sense at the time.

Between the last two windows hang my specialty rulers. I don't buy a tool unless I have a plan to use it, so I don't have every cutting ruler under the sun. The curved wooden dressmaker's ruler belonged to my grandmother. ('Nuff said!)

I store my long metal rulers near the ironing table. I use them mostly when I am preparing backings.

A studio is more than a collection of tools and materials. I want to have things I love around me, and here are some of them.

When I stand at my cutting table I can see this wall. It's nice to have the memory of a hug on my son's wedding day. That is also him when he was 14 in that photo to the right. The blue ribbon was given to me by my best pal, Julie.

The wall behind the ironing table is out of my reach to store anything there, so I use it as a wall of encouragement. I have thank you notes from people who received my quilts and loved them. I have photos of loved ones. I have letters from friends, I have drawings from my granddaughter and postcards of my favorite paintings.

One exception is a magnetic knife rack that I use to store scissors and my binding tape tools.

When your kid leaves you a note like the one above the clock, you keep it. I have no idea what I did to earn that compliment, but I love seeing it every day.

I bought this little painting when I was in Colorado three years ago. It was hanging about three feet above my head, so it wasn't until I paid for it and had it in my hand that I realized it had a barn in it. I'm pretty sure I heard Julie laughing all the way in Tennessee when I sent her the picture. The little stuffed owl above it is a pincushion that is far too cute to be stabbed with pins!

So that's pretty much it. My favorite room.

The REAL Studio

This is what my studio looks like when it's clean. Which is hardly ever and only lasts a few hours. I find I am reluctant to enter my studio when it's clean, because I don't want to mess it up. So I tend to NOT clean it until I finish a project or it reaches a state I am sure you all know as "Critical Mess."

My studio is smallish, (about 11' by 12') poorly lit, doesn't have very much wall space and has no closet. It connects to my living room by a pair of French doors. They are a royal PITA because I am always opening and closing them to get at what's behind them. The biggest advantage the studio has is a design wall. The second biggest advantage is that I can see into the living room and the TV. (See yesterday's post.) I usually have it on when I work in the sewing studio. I love to watch tennis on the TV. I don't really WATCH, I just listen. Remember, I live alone, so the TV provides background noise.

This is what my studio looks like most of the time. Stuff thrown all over the place. You can see a pair of jeans I have to shorten, and a quilt I have to bind as well as some bins of quilts-in-progress.

When you walk into the studio and turn to the left, you see the thread racks on the backs of the French doors, and the bulletin board where I hang my most used cutting rulers and the design wall. I'm only five feet tall, so I need the small step stool to reach high up on the design wall. To the right of the design wall is my sewing machine.

 My sewing machine sits on an old student desk. Inside the desk are a couple of bowls with sewing machine tools and a bowl of prewound bobbins. I use grey thread for all my piecing, so when I get down to my last full bobbin or two, I wind about a dozen more. The plastic bin on the floor is for all the pieces to fall into when I'm chain-sewing. 

 This drawer in the taboret next to my sewing machine holds my most commonly used tools, my rotary cutters, seam rippers, rulers, blades, and other stuff. I always put these things away, because it makes it easier to find these when I am ready to work. I also put them away because I use tilted work tables and stuff falls off, and because I have a cat. 

Need I say more?

This is my small work table. It is a drafting table, and set at an angle. The sewing machine is behind me, and I set up a small portable ironing board so I never have to get up. It makes for a very efficient work triangle. I use a small decorative box as a tabletop wastebasket for threads and tiny scraps. My pins are in the large tin, and I keep a lint roller handy for when I need to rip out a seam.

 This is my big cutting/work table. Before the arthritis in my back flared up, I did all my work here (and I did it standing up). Now I use it for cutting large pieces and straightening up my long free pieced word blocks.

This is my large (24" x 48") ironing table. You can see it also stores plastic bins full of fabrics that are larger than scraps, but too small to be folded and stored in my stash. Above the ironing table is the magnetic rack for my scissors. Above the scissors are some of my favorite photos and photos of my quilts.

To the right of the ironing table is what I call my "inspiration" wall,  but really it's letters and emails from friends for whom I've made quilts. Whenever I'm feeling lost, I look up at the wall and read the letters of joy, and it gives me the courage to keep going. The house quilt was made by my Aussie friend, Helen. The blue ribbon was given to me by my friend Julie for encouraging her to get way way out of the box when she was making her See Rock City quilt. She's since won a Best in Show award for it.

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Across from the large work table I have some of my favorite things on display. The large quilt of color names is my Nine x Nine surrounded by one of my paintings and some other quilts by friends and photos of things I like.

 

On that far wall you can see bindings waiting for their quilts, and a shelf bracket that holds several rolls of blue painter's tape (dead useful for all kinds of things). There's a bureau back there full of stuff I never use, with all the notes of the book I am writing, a small desk (can you see the Digital Pinwheel blocks on the chair?) and the sock kitty Millies that travel with me...

See? I told you she was famous!

Then there's a small desk and a bookcase with a collection of quilt books, some books on Art, Color and Creativity, coffee mugs filled with pencils, pens, markers, notebook and other tools.

 Then there's the bookcase with my fabric stash. And since this is the REAL studio tour, you can see the pile of leftover backing from the Spools quilt I sent to my son and his fiancee for Christmas. Yeah, I know I should pick it up, and separate the fabric from the batting and fold it and put it away...

On top of the bookcase are plastic bins filled with leftover bits and oddballs. All my fabric is stored where I can see it, and all the bins are clear because I'm the kind of person where if I can't see it, it doesn't exist. So everything is out in the open. In a way it's all inspiration.

Now we are back where we started, by the French doors. The plastic cutting rulers on the board are specialty ones I don't use often.

Way at the far end of the studio, beyond the big work table is a special spot for my cat, Millie, She can lie there undisturbed, and she has a perfect view out the window. Millie does all the Quality Assurance work on my quilts. She checks them for softness, kindness, love and warmth.

Every quilting studio needs a cat.

Update: Because everybody wanted to know how I fit it all in... Here is the plan I made when I first decided to put the sewing studio in this room three years ago. I've moved a few things around, but you get the idea.

The solution: graph paper. One square = one foot. I measured everything I wanted to put in the room, measured the doors, and windows, and located the electrical outlets.

Getting Ready for the Studio Tour

I'm getting ready for the Full Real Studio Tour tomorrow. This is the view into the living room from my sewing machine. You'll understand more tomorrow. In this photo you can see a painting by my mother, Jeanne Lachance, a quilt by the amazing Wanda Hanson, my Red Sticks quilt, Millie's kitty condo, and just above the door to the studio, the clock I embellished several years ago.

Amongst the items is a 5th Anniversary pin from Quilt Market in Houston Texas.

See the entire studio tomorrow!

The Real Studio Tour, Week 2

 

Today's topic for the Real Studio Tour is my favorite storage method. That would be the clear plastic bins in which I store my small fabric scraps.

I have about twenty of these little bins, and my little scraps are sorted by color. Each bin is labelled.

 When I need to clean up, I line up the boxes and put the scrap bits where they belong. This way the scraps are stored relatively wrinkle-free. Since I use a lot of little pieces when I make my free-pieced letters, this keeps them organized, neat, clean, and easily accessible.

The little bins are labelled so it's easy to find what I need. They are Accessory Boxes from The Container Store.



What's really nice about them is they are stackable with other plastic storage bins from the Container Store.  Two accessory bins nest perfectly on one of the Container Store's Mens' Shoeboxes, and four of them fit perfectly on one of their "Sweater boxes." The boxes are inexpensive and always available.

Another really nice thing about them is whenever I need to order more, I know they will be the same size as the ones I already have.

The Real Studio Tour, Week 1

As part of the Real Studio Tour this week, the topic is our favorite non-traditional tool that isn't found at a quilt or art shop.  That eliminates my drafting tables and the hemostat I use when I rip out seams.

For me, it's the tool I stole from the kitchen. It's the magnetic knife rack I use to store my scissors and my binding tool.

The magnetic rack is mounted on my big bulletin board that hangs behind my ironing table. The scissors are easily accessible, and protected from being jostled in a drawer.  As you can see, I keep my hemostat (bent needle-nosed pliers) and my small clipping scissors stored there too.   


Update: The scissors aren't engraved with my name. It's an old DYMO label.