A Quilting Space

I’ve had quite a few sewing spaces over the years…all of them very different. I started out setting up a small rectangular table in the family room while my two oldest were young. It was great for that stage in my life because I could watch the two of them play and be close to them and sneak in a few minutes of sewing or quilting in the afternoons. It was also a bit hard because I was also constantly having to put things away and watch out for scissors and pins….but I was just excited to have a dedicated table to sewing. I then moved to an area of a bedroom that was meant as a sitting room (which you can see pictures of that sewing space HERE) which again was a great space for what I was working with at the time. In that space I figured out some good fabric storage that worked well for me and it was a great space for what I needed at the time.

This week I am sharing my sewing space(s) with you–today I am showing you the quilting room and then on Wednesday I will show you the sewing room which is next door. In our current house I do feel very lucky to have dedicated spaces for each (allbeit small spaces) and while I have dreams of a studio with exposed white brick and wood floors and natural lighting for days on end, I do love that I have something that is simple and functional for me.

So, let’s start with the quilting room. The room itself is a basement room that is long and narrow…..here is the view from the doorway.

On one side I have all of my fabric storage and the other side has the long-arm quilting machine that liZ and I have through Simple Simon.

Here is another view of the fabric side, I love these IKEA Kallax Shelves for storage. They are absolute favorite because they hold so much and yet you can see everything. The bottom bins are all filled with vintage patterns and trims and the rest hold fabric and supplies.

The very top rows hold a lot of my vintage sewing books and simple little treasures that I love to look at.

This little iron belonged to my grandma and those are some of her buttons from her button box. You may in fact recognize that spool of thread and one of the buttons from our logo….

The middle shelves hold fabric. When I knew we were moving a year and a half or so ago, I started to use down my fabric stash so I now I tend to just buy fabric for the project I am currently working on which is a great thing for me right now….to be able to use what I have.

And here is the quilting machine side…..with the frame and long-arm quilter. Since the room was originally a basement bedroom space, there is a big closet just to the right of this picture which is nice for storage as well.

The quilting machine that we have is a baby lock Crown Jewel II and liz and I are planning a whole post about her soon—we have had it not quite a year and I still feel like we are scratching the surface at what it can do!  It is amazing….for real.

One of my favorite parts is the pro-stitcher that it has that holds all the computer designs that you can plug in and the machine will quilt for you.  I am still practicing my free-hand so I LOVE the feature of the pro-stitcher with the endless designs.

On the wall behind the quilter I framed some of my favorite vintage patterns in simple black frames. Most of them are patterns that I have made and love to remember.

And just so you don’t think the room is always organized and neat….I am embarassingly showing you a peek in the closet

See you back on Wednesday with the sewing side!

~Elizabeth