Productivity of a Different Kind

Well friends, I haven't done a ton of sewing since last Thursday, but I have been working on something that will affect my quilting for years to come.  For the last few days, I have been working tirelessly to convert my dining room (which we never use, and always has fabric and a cutting mat in it anyway) into my new sewing studio, with a lot of help from my fantastic husband, of course!

 There are a couple of big things that have been stopping me from doing this sooner.  The first was that I just didn't want to be sequestered upstairs away from my family.  Since we only have one child, I could have easily taken over a spare bedroom, but I knew that would result in either seeing my family less, or sewing less.  Neither of those outcomes was okay with me.

So, once I determined that I would need the dining room, the second issue was the fact that I just couldn't decide what to do with my dining room chairs.  I finally decided to suck it up and just put them in the attic for the time being which feels like a waste, but oh well.  My dining room table works beautifully as an extension and cutting table though, so no need to store that!

We managed to finish this project in a single weekend, with only a couple of hiccups.  The first one is pretty clear in this photo.  One thing that I love about this room is the amount of natural light it gets.  In fact, as far as my wood floor is concerned, it gets TOO much sunlight.  When we took up the rug, it was really shocking to see how much the sun has faded our floor over the course of seven years.  The light coming through the window in the picture makes it look much worse than it is, but even in person, you can clearly see the line where the rug used to be.  I guess we will be adding a that to our list of home improvement projects!

The second issue, which actually caused the most immediate headache, was the paint color.  When I decided on the color for this room, those of you who know me are not shocked one bit to see that I chose a shade of green.  I wanted a crisp, apple green- something energizing, but would also play well with the rest of the colors in my house.  Since the room is in plain view, I knew that I couldn't go with something too shocking.  

Unfortunately, the subdued shade that I thought I chose turned out looking more like electrified Kermit the Frog, rather that a fresh Granny Smith.  And even more unfortunately, I didn't realize this until the room was almost completely finished.  Thankfully, the second shade is exactly what I wanted.

I love that the furniture arrangement in the room gives me lots of floor space for basting, and I can pull the ironing board out when I'm pressing a big quilt as well.  My husband is thrilled that we won't have to move our couch in the living room nearly as often.  I can't quite baste a queen size, but anything up to a twin should be no problem.  This is also helpful with laying out quilts that are too big for my design wall.  You can see my design wall in one of the pictures above.  It is 4 x 6 feet.  The window, doors, and chair railing made a huge design wall just about impossible.  You can see that the only wall I could have easily used has the thermostat right in the middle.  Since I only work on one project at a time though 4 x 6 ft. is really plenty of space for me!

My fabric cabinet has a new home out of the foyer, and now my fabrics, as well as all of my rulers are easy to access, right next to my machine.

 My new space looks right out of the front our house, and although I love the view, I often sew late at night in my pj's.  I made sure to put up curtains with grommets that could easily be opened and closed so I don't have a nightly peepshow.  The bright sunshine made it difficult to get a good photo, but this is the view from my machine.

As much as I love the room as a whole, I have to say that my favorite makeover is this antique cabinet that I found on Craigslist for only $50.  It didn't have a back, so I had to add that.  The toughest part of that was getting the finish on the new wood to match the old.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out though, and the top is the perfect spot for a little TV!

What sewing room would be complete without fabric on display?  Since my main fabric cabinet has a solid door, I wanted to do something pretty with my scraps.  Sorting them into apothecary jars makes such a lovely rainbow of color and is really one of my favorite parts of the room.  I originally wanted 12 jars with four on each shelf, but the center shelf is slightly too short for these jars.  So, I only had room for ten.  My extra bits of white are in the basket, and I just had to forego the black/brown jar, which is really fine since I don't keep many of those colors anyway.  In case you're wondering, that last jar is for my multi-colored scraps.  You know, those fabrics that are a true blend of more than one color.  Oh, and I just couldn't resist putting out my Amy Butler hoard collection to fill up the shelf!

I love, love, LOVE my new space and the convenience it will undoubtedly offer, but the absolute best part is the fact that I can easily do WHAT I love, all while spending time with WHO I love!