My Studio -- The Real Studio Tour Part 3

It's time!  I've given you glimpses of my studio since the photos of the guys knocking out the attic ceiling to the outside air.  Today, I'll give you an area by area tour of my studio.  But first this word of thanks.  Pat has always been supportive of my sewing, quilting, knitting, cross stitch, crocheting, basket making -- whatever my craft du jour has been. Very early on I had my own space in which to create.  However, I must say that this space takes the cake! It is light and roomy and I have space to grow my talent and/or interests.  So first, a big shout out to Pat: 

THANKS, Honey! 

And, now a comment on nomenclature.  You know, what you call your space.  Years ago I started calling it my studio. It has always been more than a sewing room to me.  And, now more than ever, it is a wonderful room to retreat to and enjoy being in a special space with all sorts of material close at hand. 

Probably one of the things that Pat and I both really like is the couch. I sit on it when I need a 5 minute break.  Or, when I want to look through books or magazines.  Or, even to do handwork as I have several good lights near.  Pat lounges on it when he keeps me company.  Sometimes he brings me lunch upstairs and we eat on it.  You get the picture -- a great place to relax and enjoy each other and my space. 

Let's start after you walk down the hallway into the studio.  Fair warning!  This is a picture intensive post. Here are my three sewing stations.  My Bernina, a really old serger and my little Featherweight are always set up and ready to sew. 

Long view of the left side.

Let's look at these set ups. I am a messy sewer although this is much neater than previous sewing areas. Bubbles, the Bernina is under the white cover. (Yes, I know I need to do something about that dust cover but ... later!) 

And, these drawers have given me a much more usable storage area next to this space. I love that the bottom two shelves are drawers. Bottom drawer holds my collections of half triangle squares, squares and big strips in shoe boxes. The middle drawer holds various other machine items.  The rolly cart with drawers hold the 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2" and 1" strips. 

Next up is the two other sewing stations. The first one holds the old serger. The second one has the Featherweight. We've just moved that lamp up and it desperately needs the correct shade.  There is a great view out of my windows of our backyard,neighbors' houses and then on into a row of trees.  My huge design wall is next.  You can really see just how big this section of it is as those are 6" blocks.  I can't wait to have the time to go back up and just sew away!

Let's get a look from this side off to the right side of the room. Remember my ironing station from last week? Yes, there is a little design wall behind the ironing station. The door goes into what is left of the attic. 

Here's my desk, printer and bookshelves.  They need to be better organized but I'd much prefer to sew and quilt! And, I love my big letters.  I probably should have had Pat put them just a tad lower on the wall.  I used Mod Podge and scrapbook paper to cover them. 

Next up is the long arm, Ruthie.  On the far wall are more bookcases holding some things for the long arm and other "stuff." Once we started moving things into the studio I really had wanted to start sewing and quilting again so this side  got short changed.  I still have boxes and bags that need to be dealt with.  (SHARON -- help!  Maybe you can get me motivated to take care of a little of this stuff!!) 

You can see the couch against the far wall.  Next to it is an air controlled closet for storage.  My main concern was having space to store all of my quilts.  The summer heat in the attic is awful and of course winter isn't great either.  So here's a peak inside the closet. And, yes, I do store out of season clothes in there too. There are shelves to the left also. Quilt tops get hung in here also. 

Next up is my cutting table. This is the only part of the room I cleaned up a bit.  (Mostly because we are going to wrap presents up here and I needed the space to do that!) I have two cutting areas, this side and the other side which you can hardly tell what it is.

Here's what is stored under the cutting table.  On the right side I've got batting stored.  The left side is for project storage.  (Well, a lot more but those are easily identified.)

We're are coming to the end of the tour of my studio. When you enter my studio space you walk down a long hallway.  I have made it a small quilt gallery on one side. (Click on the colored words to go to the post about the gallery.)  On the other side is more storage, specifically my fabric storage and quilting books. 

I truly love my studio now and I am trying very hard to keep it neat.  Keeping it clean is easier as a couple of times a week I vacuum or dust mop the space since it does get pretty dusty.  It is so much easier to put things away now that I really do have lots of places to store things!  

I hope you have enjoyed my studio tour.  One of the nicest things about having all this space is being able to invite friends to come sew with me. So far, I've had several different groups of friends come over to sew or craft with me.  I'm looking forward to Sharon coming again along with some other Maryland friends for an "in house" retreat. 

Don't forget to visit Field Trips in Fiber to be able to visit more studios. It's live now so take a peek at other studios across the internet.  

Happy Quilting All!