My Space

I have been spending some time on Pinterest looking at all kinds of things, but I enjoy looking at other peoples organizing and sewing/craft room pins. While I am jealous of a lot of them for there large amounts of space dedicated to just a sewing/craft room and all the cute, wonderfully organized spaces I am happy to be able to quilt, sew and craft in spaces created in my own home. They are not fancy or all in the same room, but they work for me.

I do need to get better organized and get rid of lots of unused items,
but I am slowly working on that.

We have a finished room that used to be the attic. I originally set up my sewing area up there. I thought it was wonderful to have all that space and that no one could see the mess. The 2 problems I have with this room is that it became the room where things are put when we can't figure out how to make them fit anywhere else in the house, or that we don't want to get rid of but don't really need at the time. Also, that room is only comfortable a few weeks out of the year. There is only on air duct to that room. The duct has been disconnected in the basement so the air can blow in there to keep it less humid. The attic is a freezer in the winter and a sauna in the summer. So I share my sewing space with my family. Our house was built by my husband's great uncle and his wife in the 60s. When you walk in the front door of my house you will see the quilting machine ahead on the right. This room was originally a dining room and possibly a formal living/sitting room. There is a single overhead light but it is not centered in the room. The dining table was placed there.  There is a large picture window on the same wall as the door. When I stand at the front of my quilting machine (the space you see in the picture to the right) I look out that window. I like that view and set up the frame so I could look out the window. I can see when the mail is delivered or if we have visitors.

We have our dining room table set up in front of that window. 

My husband uses it as his farm office. 

My son has insisted that he get to use half of the shelf under the quilt frame. There are board games stored there. He also places his keys and hat there at the end of the day. I use the rest of that space to store batting, UFOs, and fabric. 

In front of the frame is my ironing board. I have it set up for usemost of the time. You can see it in the lower right corner of this picture. It has a blue cover. It is pulled away from the frame so I could take a picture. The baskets contain quilt kits. My husband is keeping me supplied with kits! 

I have a hard time keeping my frame top and ironing board cleared of stuff. All three of us tend to place things there. I have to clear them off to use them.

Sewing corner before

Sewing corner after

Turn right at the quilt frame to go into the family room. This room was added at a later date, but I'm not sure when. 

It has a fireplace centered on a wall in that room. You can see it on the right side of the pictures. Since the fireplace protrudes into the room it creates a space on each 

side of it. 

I use the space on the left for my sewing supplies. I have rearranged my sewing corner. I have been spending this week trying to re-organize and get rid of things I no longer use. I put together the quilt rack my husband bought a few years ago. It is behind the chair. The cabinet, also behind the chair, holds UFOs, fabric and, yes, more kits.

The space on the right is where the TV is. The TV has to go there since that is where the antenna wires are located. It would be a big pain to re-route them I have been told. 

We have never used the fireplace and the chimney was removed when we had the house re-roofed. I wish they would have removed the whole thing which would have made this room a little larger, but that would involved redoing the walls, ceiling and floor. Something we didn't want to do at the time. 

Cutting table before

Looking straight into this room from the dining room you can see the bay window. I love this window. It looks out to the barns, tool shed and pens. There are no animals in the pens now. There used to be horses and mules. There is a bull that lives there most of the time, but he is down the road at my in-laws visiting the cows. He will come back in a few months.

Cutting table after

I enjoy the light that comes in that window. It faces south. I hate the curtains and am working on something else to go there. 

We set up a big table there for me to 

use for cutting. 

I moved the fabric cubby under the cutting table. The satchels in the cube contain projects waiting to be finished. So many of those! The basket contains yarn - more projects waiting to be finished or started.

The TV nook is on the left in this picture. My son has his laptop set up on the left end of this table.

I use a Hoosier cabinet for my machine, more supplies, UFOs, and, yes, more kits!
The bottom drawer contains embroidery floss and counted cross-stitch supplies. The middle drawer is thread, top drawer is miscellaneous quilting supplies like specialty rulers, marking pens, etc. The bottom shelf houses interfacing, elastic and trims. The top shelf - you guessed it - more kits.

The top of the Hoosier cabinet cabinet contains kits, fabric for clothing and miscellaneous supplies. I have used this cabinet in the kitchen, but like it best for quilting.

We use a small end table between our chairs. I use the drawers for my knitting. It is mostly full of cotton yarn for dish clothes. I like those for take along projects when sitting through basketball practice or between games at tournaments. They are small enough to carry easily and easy enough that I can talk with other people when working on them. I also like to have sock projects for the same reason. you can see I had 2 sock projects going when this photo was taken. One pair is finished. One got unknitted. The didn't fit quite right so I will be redoing those.

So, that is my space. I am happy to have it and use it every day. 

And, I get to be with my family while doing whatever I am working on at the time.