Studio Spaces & Sew Places Blog Party

Where do you sew??  Where do you create??

  I wonder where quilters and artists create. . . Don't you??  With that in mind, I thought I would host a year long blog link up of where you all sew and create.

  Still it wouldn't be quite fair if I didn't share my workspace.  As you might know, I've been sewing in my Sewing hole for over 10 years.  The reason, I called it my hole was because it's such a dysfunctional space.   There never seemed to be enough room, my design board was never big enough, there was never enough light and it was entirely too open to my family.  So I started planning my first grown up studio.  I mean, I've only been quilting 20 years  - I guess it was time.  I made of list of "must haves" and started a pinterest board of ideas.  The result is this Victorian front parlor turned into a sew space.

   So my new studio sports a 12' by 8' design board made with 3- 8 ft insulation boards covered with felt - attached to a wooden frame.  It has a ton of track lighting with its own remote switch so I can flip them on as I walk into the room.(OMG totally worth the $18 for the remote switch!)  It has a nice large work table that has a iron board on one end.  It has a sewing machine table that actually fits my 5 ft self.  In short - it has all the priorities on my list.

  When I was planning my studio, one thing I knew was that I didn't create well with too much "stuff" around me.  So I didn't want too much storage space in there, since the more storage space, the more I store.  So I made room for only the things I actually use.  The pegboard holds my favorite tools within a quick reach.  After seeing many ways to organize the board, I decided on using sticky Velcro pieces to place colorful, cheap cups on the board.  The one thing I hated about my old peg board was it was too small with things ending up buried on it.  That won't happen with this one which is big enough for everything to have its own space.
 

Still, the pegboard wouldn't hold all that I use.  A glass wood cabinet is my old new notions cupboard.  I bought this 20 years ago and never did get around to refinishing it.  Now I got the perfect use for it.  All my thread is stored either on the thread board or on shelves in big thread boxes on my sewing table.  My bags of scraps are stashed in the fireplace - of course!  I brought my wooden table from my sewing hole but now it doesn't have anything on it except the cutting mats.  The end has a moveable large ironing board.

Now that I'm settled in, I love the flow of the room (which I did put much thought into).  It has a classic triangle flow as you can see by the diagram.  After working in there all weekend, I can tell you it makes all the difference.  Now I can piece and with a swing of a chair - iron - and hop up to the design board without going around any furniture.  Wow!  Much nicer!!

Anyways, the renovations cost less than $300 which included the sewing table, thread board, new big iron board, lighting, pegboard, and paint.  Of course, a handy husband (who is cute) is priceless.  As you can see it's nothing fancy - I'm not the fancy type. So I guess you won't be hearing me gripe about my sewing hole anymore - I'll be in my new big-girl studio!



So Where do you create? 

 Remember you're more than welcome to link up a new blog post highlighting where you sew and create.  You can show it all cleaned up or like I did - mid-creative chaos.  You can share your organizational ideas, things you hate about the space, things you love, things you would change etc.    You can just share pictures.  You can recycle an old post if you want - but please post it new.  You can link from your website or from a photo web-based site (like fickr or Photobucket)  One rule though - you need to be actively working in the space - it can't be one of those fuddy-duddy spaces that takes so much time to create that you don't have time to do any actual creating in it.  Of course,  please link back to this post.

The link-up will be open Indefinitely.  You can grab a button if you like - spread the word to any sewer, quilter, artist, or whatever.  Indulge in the voyeuristic curiosities we all have on where others create.   Share and Enjoy!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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