Tuesday, February 5, 2008

My Sewing Room


Here it is, my sewing room on a semi-cloudy day. Click on any picture to enlarge. Although...I'm not sure why you'd want to enlarge, because there really isn't much to see! Obviously, I'm a minimalist. I hate clutter. My sewing room is practical, not pretty. I have a lot of room to move around in, and I can move these portable tables around any way I chose. My sewing group meets here because we have ample room and lots of counter space--and plenty of tables to baste quilts on.

Sometimes I think I ought to pretty it up a bit--paint it peach or yellow and hang stuff up on the walls. But I'm afraid that the color of the walls will affect my color choices. I'm afraid I'll start choosing fabrics for quilts that "go" with the paint on my walls. (Don't laugh--sometimes I color-coordinate stuff in my shopping cart without meaning to!) I want the space to be a very neutral backdrop for creating. That way, any colors I choose to work with are the only colors for my eyes and brain to deal with. If I am making a blue quilt, blue is the only color in the whole room. I really love that.

I am NOT responsible for the drab grey morgue curtains that I inherited from the previous house owner. Some day, I plan to take them down, but the cat enjoys leaping from curtain top to curtain top and sometimes sleeps up there. He's just so darn cute I hate to wreck his fun by putting up new curtains. So they've stayed...for eight years. But SOMEDAY, I'll get new curtains for all five giant windows. It should only cost about a million dollars. Gah...

My trusty Bernina has gone a little batty in her stitch length regulator. She can't help it, she's old. My sewing cabinet is a vanity table I got when I was in high school. My husband built me this sewing table around it:


My sewing table is about six feet long and five feet wide. It's great for quilting large quilts that I don't do on my homemade "Gammill".


There are two overhead fans and lots of windows for ventilation. Lots of light all year long, too. Looking the other way down the room. This room is HUGE. My homemade "Gammill" back there in the far left corner (wood and sprinkler pipe, courtesy of my WH) is over 12 feet long. My design wall, which is huge, is over the PVC quilting frame on the far right back. Can you see it way back there? Yes, this room is HUGE, which makes it difficult to photograph! And it has white carpet (also courtesy of the former homeowner) which takes a long time to vacuum.
My "working" stash and current projects are in the white cupboard. (To give you some idea of scale, that white cupboard is taller than me. The top of my head is as tall as the first shelf, so I think the white cupboard is six feet tall. The amoire is probably about eight feet tall. ) The rest of my stash is in those blue plastic stackable containers to the left of the amoire. I really don't have a big stash. I get overwhelmed by too much of anything, so I keep my stash a reasonable size. Besides, it's very hard to just "keep" a fabric collection here! In our damp climate, crowded fabric mildews rapidly. Our perpetual sun works to fade it quickly, also. So we have to "use it or lose it" as they say. My quilt books, thread, supplies, patterns, trims, etc. are in this giant amoire. It holds a lot of stuff! But not too much...did I mention that I don't keep a lot of stuff? I'm constantly getting rid of stuff. I used to have lots of furniture, knick knacks and collections, but life is too short to have to dust all the time! So now I collect air flow. Nice, cool, giant currents of fresh air. Ahhh....


So there you have it. It may be too stark for some people, but I love its clean practicality.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great sewing room!
Ah, someone else like me.
I can't stand clutter either, too much chaos for the eye.
Love your blog!
Donna

Natalie Rush said...

Wow...what a great room!! I'd love that much space for my knitting/sewing room. I'd put a lovely chair in the corner by the window and sit and knit in peace. :)

Thank you for sharing so I can hope that some day I'll have room to spread out. :)

Sally said...

I have a hug studio, too...but while I have the heart of a minimalist, I don't have the willpower of one. Stuff is stacked against the walls, in boxes and tubs, along counters, etc. Perhaps you can be an example to me....will work on it! Love your workspace...envy is oozing out all my pores!

Mary Anne said...

WOW !!! That is IMPRESSIVE !!! You even have room to do cartwheels in there (I'm always tempted to do cartwheels when there's a big open space ....)anyway .... WOW !! again WOW !!! so many clean surfaces !!!! that would be so much more efficient than my general procedure of moving one pile of stuff to another location so that I can use that surface until I need the other surface that I moved the pile of stuff to ... at which time I spend more time in moving the pile back to it's original location ..... it's exhausting.

P.S. --- LOVE the toilet seat cover from your previous post --- sounds like something His Royal Highness (aka my DH) would say ... anything to dress up his throne. (seriously, though, nice workmanship!)

Opal said...

What an awesome room! I swear that room is the size of my house! I love how minimalist it is. It seems like you'd have a lot of space for clarity of mind.

Anonymous said...

Such a huge room! Wow! I can only dream of something like that. I love those large windows. White is a very good choice for walls. Isn´t a wooden floor easier to clean? A scandinavian way to think...
My pincushions still unfinished. One of my daughters asked me to make one for her too.
I must say you´ve a great sewing room!

susan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
susan said...

gee lisa, it seems we have traded spaces. now i am in the upstairs bedroom and you have the big airy space...i do miss my studio on kauai with all that natural light. it just doesnt get that bright here and in the winter gets dark so early and in the summer wonder if it will ever get dark....
oh...i figured how to get photos on my blog so check them out

cinnamongirl93 said...

Very nice and bright room!! Looks like you have plenty of room for lots of friends to drop by and quilt too! How Fun, Yup, I can almost feel that warm breeze! One of these days I'll have to show you my room.....If I can make it through all of the snow!!!

Acornbud said...

Awesome! I yearn to be clutter free. What a great space.

CONNIE W said...

After seeing your room, I now have "room envy" for all that space. I have taken over two rooms in our house, one smaller spare bedroom for a sewing room, plus computer & home office squeeze in there; the dining room has been usurped for my longarm. It would be nice to have them in the same room & I'm working on that idea but the thought of moving tons of furniture, doing some drywall work, etc, are unappealing at this time so I'm stalling... I found your blog because you left a comment on mine. Thanks for the visit and the comment. I'll be back here for sure. Best wishes.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your details. I like your sewing table and would like to know more about your "homemade Gammill".