Creative Mess

I've been busy with lots of sewing.  Here are few pictures of my creative mess.

Studio makeover in progress

Decided to repaint and organize my sewing room. These are my new colors.

Dark French Chocolate, Mint Shake and Buttercup. I have a lot of clean up from December's work and decided to just redo everything.

Trying to organize in a way that is easy to keep things organized. Thought the new colors would make everything nice and fresh. So i guess it is good bye to the kings. This oil painting was done years ago for my son. I love the sunrise, but the guys staring over my shoulder is sometimes creepy.

Still Digging Out!

My studio organization has become an eternal WIP  

With so many projects going on, I am still digging out from Christmas.  I have actually cleaned out from under the studio table  and organized stuff in clear boxes.



Nice and cleared out, right.  But now what do I do with the rest of this stuff that was lurking under the table.

 Okay so you can see as I clean I leave a new path of destruction in my wake.

Not willing to tackle this at the moment, i moved on to dusting, cleaning, sorting and reorganizing the closet.  Here is my reorganization, before I started moving other things around an had to borrow some of the boxes.

 Before and after, with dye materials organized on the bottom shelf, and large fabric pieces wrapped around empty cardboard  that holds fabric bolts in the store. (Free, if you just ask, they usually throw them away)

So I spent the rest of the evening watching Close Encounters with the family. They had the couch while I began to tackle the dreaded box that has begun oozing strings and fabric.    I am sorting scraps into 3 sizes and also by color.  I have taken over a good portion of the living-room. with my piles and haven't made a dent in the box. Just how much fabric could be stuffed into one file box.  It is sort of like the clowns at the circus coming out of the tiny cat, and just as colorful.

Studio Design on a Shoestring

This is a post about when I first set up my studio.  I will post more recent pictures later.

I know a lot of people have been posting pictures of their quilt studios.   My ideas may help those of you who don't have a lot of money to spend.  I have been lucky enough to take over my college son's bedroom.  Just a little bit of muscle changes my cutting table area back into a bed.  I have use the headboard and two saw horses to make my cutting table.  A 4ft by 7ft piece of marker board was glued to the same size piece of plywood.  This makes a great top to draw on or for working with paint.  For Christmas I had a mat-board custom cut to fit over this.  My tools are kept on the wall on scrap pieces of peg board.  I didn't even have to throw out my son's teddy bear collection or gymnastic medals

My storage system has been plastic stack drawers that I try to get when I can find them on sale. (Usually at Big lots) I use them as the base for my pressing table.  The top is again plywood with cotton batting and muslin stretched  over it and stapled on the back. 

I removed the closet doors and added boards for shelves and more storage bins.   An empty dresser and two night stands stacked serve as extra storage.

My biggest challenge was for a sewing table.  I had a folding table just the right height,  but I wanted my machine set down in like a "real" sewing table.  We went to Lowes to find some 1/2 inch thick smooth wood.  We couldn't find anything suitable, but it was suggested that we look in floor tiles because the boxes had smooth boards in the top for shipping that are thrown away.  We found two that were perfect size.  ( and free)  My husband traced my machine and cut a hole in both boards.  Then we glued them with wood glue.  A frame was made using 2' by 1" wood.  Finally a notch was cut in the frame so I could load the bobin without lifting my machine.  It may not be fancy, but it sure works great.

My design wall was made with white flannel over fiber board.

The last wall of my studio is where my daughter's sewing machine is and of course a few more storage boxes.  You can see the corner of my pressing table on the left.

My studio - Digging out from Christmas Avalanche II

Well, I'm embarrassed to share these photos.  I have been working on sorting all the scraps and putting them away.  Okay, I admit I keep getting distracted.  Have set up an area on top of all this mess to photograph my sister's gorgeous jewelry. I have made a dent in the blue scraps.  Okay I admit a small dent and only to make a project for the scrap color challenge I joined.  I will get cleaned up by next Wednesday! My son and fiancee are coming to visit.  Haven't seen him since he graduated last spring and took a job playing jazz on a cruise ship.
When i get cleaned up I will share some tips on studio design on a tight budget.

My studio - Digging out from Christmas Avalanche

So, I thought my studio was a disaster last May, trying to get two college graduation quilts finished...

I got cleaned up from this mess, but then this Christmas disaster struck.