All day in the sewing studio . . .

All day in the sewing studio is not always as much fun as it sounds. I decided to clean the craft closet in the cutting/fabric room. It's time to clean out everything - we're having a garage sale in May. It will probably take me until May to get all this cleaning done! 

The closets in this room are dormer closets and they hold a lot but really - this much from one closet????

Finally, an empty closet. 

After sorting things out, Ray helped and we got much more in the closet than I took out! It is so nice to once again be able to walk into the closet and find what I want.

The cutting/fabric room survived

 although more cleaning will eventually take place in here.

Interesting that I found some things I forgot I had - a few leader/ender quilts in progress and more. That WIP pile was kind of empty . . .

Storage under my ironing table

Lots of ideas have floated around my head about the storage underneath my perfect ironing surface. And I didn't even wake up once during the night with ideas - guess it's was not an earth shattering decision!

I finally decided on cube/cubby hole storage. Some are closed in the back and others aren't.

The open ones are perfect for long things like freezer paper and appliqué mats. 

I keep my water for ironing in Dasani bottles. It is tap water - I do NOT buy water for pressing!

Absolutely perfect ironing surface!

Almost a year ago, I had some tables made - one of normal height for my extra sewing machines, a tall 3' by 5' one for cutting and a tall 2' by 5' one that I could butt up against the cutting table so I can pin a 9' quilt the Sharon Schamber way.

The next big change for my sewing area was to be a new ironing surface/counter. I've looked and looked for something that would work and then it hit me during the night a while back - use the 2' by 5' table!

The table is the ideal height. I asked son Brent to make me a board to cover the table. Brent is the woodworker in the family.

Too bad I didn't raise the shades to the same level!

The board is done finished by two grandsons who wrote neat messages and colored on the bottom with markers and it is perfect! Yesterday Ray and I covered the board with batting and ironing board fabric. I laid a piece of flannel on the table top. The board which has 1" by 1/2" sides fits perfectly over the table. I can easily lift the board and remove it if I need the table to pin a quilt.

The ironing surface is in front of the window where I can see our driveway and the street.

I don't have the best storage underneath yet - I'm working on that. Some idea will probably hit me one of these nights at 3AM!

New ironing surface - 24" by 60".

In the meantime, I do have a fantastic ironing surface! 

Beautiful oak tables

My tables arrived. They are beautiful! I love oak and these are solid oak - heavy and very stable! It is wonderful to have a neighbor who is such a craftsman!

This one is in the front dormer - the sewing machine room. Here is a photo before everything was moved in.

In addition to my Bernina, my Viking and my serger are now setup ready to use whenever needed. We decide to keep this table a normal height instead of making it shorter according to my original plan.

I kept the desk since it also provides additional surface and storage space.

The cutting and storage room has two new tables which are fantastic. They are the perfect height for me to stand and cut or whatever of course they were made for my height! This one in the middle of the room is 3' by 5'.

You can see the one along the wall. Here it is before everything was moved back into the room.

And one more picture after the move back in.

I can rotate the middle table and butt it up against the side table so I can pin a 9' quilt the Sharon Schamber way.

The move back into the rooms was work - lots of work! The fabric was already sorted by color and in plastic drawers. I didn't take any photos of the left side of the room with all of the plastic drawers. Nothing else really had a place and there was lots of sorting to do - especially patterns and books. Why do I own so much?! 

It is so nice to have our guest room available again! I need to clean out one of our huge dormer closets that is billed the 'craft closet'. Then I'll move some things in and the sewing rooms will look even better! 

But for right now, I'm done cleaning - it is time to quilt!

I'm ready - and waiting!

My sewing rooms are ready and waiting for the new tables. This project started in January - I showed you some before pictures here.

We had this old buffet in the front dormer room. The previous owner of the house told me that I would have to chop it up if I ever wanted to get rid of it - it was too big to go down the stairs. She said she bought it at a garage sale for 50 cents (35 years ago) and did $600 worth of damage to the house getting it up the stairs! The piece of furniture was well made but of little value.

We took it apart yesterday. First the back came off.

 Then the top.

 From there, we just disassembled it with very little sawing.

 And eventually, we only had pieces.

I really am ready for my new tables.

Now I'm just waiting...but not for long. They are being delivered tomorrow!

I'm getting closer ...

I am still cleaning, rearranging, sorting... 
Parts of the sewing rooms are looking better!

Found on Pinterest

I'm almost ready for my new tables but they aren't done yet. When they are, I'll move back in.

Until then, I will sew! if I can find what I need!

The blue and white quilt needs a little bit of hand-quilting and the binding has to be sewn. It is close to being done! But I cut my finger on a thread - I'm a major klutz. Anyway I can't use a thimble right now so not much hand sewing is happening. Hopefully soon!

My Edyta Sitar blocks are all fused. The first one is appliquéd. A quilt shop out east sold me a heavy tear-away stabilizer when I explained the project. I need to find a better way. I used it on the first block and still don't have it all removed!

Some parts on the design wall

All appliquéd with stabilizer still on.

Lots of stabilizer to still remove including all those tiny pieces.

And I am doing some knitting, too. I'm knitting some wool socks and am doing a swatch test for a sweater. I just made this scarf from Sashay.

Sashay 60" scarf.

I am trying to be patient but I can't wait to be settled back in my sewing space with everything neatly in its place.

Not much quilting going on...

I'm not doing much quilting or sewing but I am spending LOTS of time in my sewing rooms. The rooms will be changed a bit and I have decided to clean EVERYTHING! That means going through every piece of fabric, every notion, every gadget,... Why? Because it needs to be done!

Yes, I have sewing rooms - I took over the 2nd floor of our 1-1/2 story house when the boys moved out. The front dormer became my sewing room the day we moved into the house in 1979. Everything is a mess right now but I'll show you anyway. I have done lots of work since taking the photos. And some rooms look even worse!

At the top of the stairs, when one enters the room, this is the view:

When I sit in my chair and look left:

And when I look right:

I am almost done in this room now and it is quite empty. We still need to move out the old buffet - can you see it in the second picture above? Sadly, it will have to be destroyed since it is too big to get out of the room or to go down the steps. It's a long story as to how it got here but it has been in the dormer since 10 years before we bought the house!

At the top of the stairs, if you turn left, you enter our guest room. But right now it is the overflow room while I am cleaning. We aren't planning on any overnight guests for a while - whew! Yes, that is my beautiful quilt cabinet in the back left corner. And I guess the sun was really shining when I took this photo.

At the top of the stairs, if you turn right, you enter a huge mess:

The bins in the back right corner have been cleaned - yes I pressed and refolded all of the fabric which is sorted by color.

Looking back towards the stairwell wall:

My cutting table is being replaced. Since I snapped this photo, it has been loaded with stuff.

A peek around the table. Oh what a mess!

Did you happen to notice the white doors in some of the pictures? They are doors to our large dormer closets - four of them. I only use one for sewing and craft items. I will clean that too.

I can't wait to be done! I am very anxious to get my new tables, to be organized, and to sit down and quilt!