Our Favorite Things Blog Hop: Tour My Studio

Today is my turn for the Blog Hop, so welcome to my studio!

Since there are just two of us living in our house, I actually have a whole wing for my studio: my Studio, the Annex, the Hallway, and a Bathroom!

And the whole first floor is my gallery display space, since I have quilts hanging in just about every room.

The first stop on our tour is my Studio:

Left to right: "My Soul in a Blackberry Pie," "Inside of a Dog," and "Lavender Diamonds."

My Studio is an unused bedroom, so it's not very large. This is the view of my Studio from the door. I have a Koala sewing table and a Juki TL-98-QE. The back half of the table folds down to save space but I usually leave it up because I like having all that surface area to work with.

There's a spot in the table for the sewing machine to sit in, which makes the bed level with the table. I took a large piece of foam core and cut it to the size of the hole then cut out the silhouette of my machine to keep everything covered. The machine was actually not quite tall enough so it sits on some magazines to keep it level. The foam core is also a good place to put pins temporarily while sewing.

To the right of the machine is a small bookcase where I keep binders of the quilts I've made and other business info that I use regularly. There are also four plastic "projects in process" bins that hold the parts of the current projects.

Left to right: "Four Patch Bridge at Sunset" and "Persian Shield."

This is the view of my Studio from the window, showing the back of my machine and the door to the hallway where the washing machine is.

There is a piece of moulding (painted a darker yellow color) that is the right shape for the Walker Display Rods from which I hang my quilts. I also have these in a few other rooms in the house which makes it easy to move the quilts around.

To the left of the door is the dresser that my husband used as a child. One drawer has all my thread, another drawer has the beads, and and the bottom drawer has yarn and ribbons.

To the right is the closet where I store my fabric, organized by type (commercial, batik, and hand-dyed) and then by color, with separate bins for scraps, floral, and Christmas fabric. Finished quilts that don't hang, such as Baby Quilts, are also stored here.

The next stop is the Annex:

On wall, left to right: "Virginia Reel" and "Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm"; on table: "Boxer Shorts and Bandanas."

Like my Studio, the Annex is an unused bedroom. Usually there's just a hide-a-bed couch in there, but if I need to work on a larger project, I can set up three 6-foot tables in there, giving me a raised work area of 6 feet by 7.5 feet. I use this when piecing and basting bed-sized quilts, large art quilts, and t-shirt quilts. It's a tight squeeze, but better than basting on the floor!

The final stop is the Cutting Area in the Hallway:

On wall: "Cosmic Connectivity"

In case you've been wondering what my favorite part is, it's my Cutting Area. When we first bought the house I wasn't thrilled that the laundry area was a part of the hallway instead of it it's own room but it's very handy having the washer and dryer so close to my sewing room. When we remodeled this space I insisted we get a front-loading washer not so much because it's more economical and better for the clothes, but mainly because I could use the top of it to work on.

In progress: the start of "Summer Storm"

My husband built a table top that spans the washer and dryer and has room for my large 2 foot by 3 foot cutting mat, which makes it just the right height to cut at. No more leaning over to cut fabric on my sewing table!

We added the cabinets above the washer and dryer by attaching two shelves to the wall then boxing them in and making the doors so they'd go all the way to the ceiling, which is higher in this area than the rest of the house. We can store really large items up there, and I have Ikea clip lights clipped under the cabinets that I can move around to get the light exactly where I need it. 

I also have a small ironing board there that stays out all the time, and there is a utility sink at the far end. I don't do a lot of fabric dying myself, but when I do that area is handy.

As always, you can click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Here's the full Blog Hop schedule:

July 13     OneQuiltingCircle.com
July 14     BejeweledQuilts.blogspot.com
July 15     TeachPany.blogspot.com
July 16     MadeInScraps.blogspot.com
July 17     MariaMichaelsDesigns.com/blog
July 18     Tamarinis.typepad.com
July 19     MooseStashQuilting.blogspot.com
July 20     KissedQuilts.blogspot.com
July 21     PurrfectSpots.blogspot.com
July 22     AdeleMogavero.com
July 23     Me!
July 24     BeaQuilter.com
July 25     ConnieKresin.com
July 26     PamelaQuilts.blogspot.com
July 27     KauffmanDesigns.blogspot.com
July 28     LemonTreeSnippets.wordpress.com
July 29     FunThreads.blogspot.com