Studio Spotlight Blog Hop

Welcome to my Quilt Studio!

I read somewhere that it is rude to clean your house before your friends come over, because it leaves a false impression- you don’t really live like that! So, welcome, friends, and see how my sewing “hobby” and year-old Triangle Frenzy business has grown to take over half of my house.

This is my sewing room, er, Quilt Studio.

My Baby Lock Quilter’s Dream sewing machine lives in an old Montgomery Ward cabinet, though I never put the machine away anymore. (Our daughter has the old Montgomery Ward sewing machine that she learned to sew on- she still refuses to get a new machine.)
My reference books and idea binders are on the blue shelves, stacked with papers to add to my idea notebooks.

To the right of my machine is my ironing board/horizontal organizing surface. (Yes, I do clear off a space before I turn on the iron.) The iron is plugged into a power strip under the left side of the board. When the power strip is on, a ceramic house on the bookshelf lights up, so from the hallway, my husband can see if I left my iron on, or if I remembered to turn it off!

Above the ironing board, on the wall, is my inspiration board. I post my favorite sayings, pieces of stuff, pictures, and other things to inspire me here.

On the right in the photo, you can see a half of a Triangle Frenzy Hexagon sewn with watermelon fabric. Under THAT is my cutting table, which is a drafting table with a cutting mat atop it. I like this setup because I can usually get to three sides of the table, meaning I don’t have to constantly flip around fabric to cut from another direction. (Too bad you can’t see the pile of stuff that is on the floor in front of the closet you consequently can’t open.)

One wall of my Quilt Studio is covered in floor to ceiling shelves, and my quilting fabric has slowly displaced my craft supplies from my days working at Michael’s Arts and Crafts. Our son has remarked that there’s no way I could possibly use all of this fabric in my lifetime. I’m sure I’m not the only quilter out there with this predicament!

The translucent boxes hold my fat quarters. Unfortunately, Bed Bath & Beyond doesn’t carry those anymore, so I have decided to limit my fat quarter collection to what fits inside the boxes. Well, except for those ribbon bound sets on the higher shelf. Oh, and the sets waiting for that one specific project, and . . .

The books are sort of arranged by title, except for the new ones across the top. Rulers go right back into the ruler rack on the shelf, though I have too many to fit the slots nicely. Yardage is rolled around my 8 ½” ruler, then folded in half to stack on the shelves so I can see it all, except the stuff that’s stacked in front of it, waiting to be folded the same.

Fabrics are, for the most part, sorted by style: batiks, backgrounds, entire fabric lines, etc. The stripes and border prints are all in my Design Studio (read on below for more info on my Design Studio). Bolts of backing fabric bought on clearance sit along the top shelf next to the interfacing.

See those teal and purple Craftstor totes on the very top shelf? They’re all that’s left of my “craft supplies”.

UFOs

I consider myself a beginning quilter... I begin a lot of quilts! I tend to move onto another project when I have learned the techniques of the current one. Each UFO (UnFinished Object) is in a 12 ½” square scrapbook box, and this usually includes all the fabric, directions and a big note inside the top of what rulers I may need. The crate on the right also has 2 ½ gallon zipper bags with individual UFOs. Too bad you can’t see all the other projects filling the space under my ironing board. . .

Our home-based business has been shoehorned into our life and space. Shown here is the office, which used to be a sitting room with one computer for household use. It has now expanded into a full-blown bookkeeping, customer service, order fulfillment, and shipping office. It’s gotten a little cramped, but we’ll be moving it to the larger dining room across the hallway soon!

         Here’s a closer view of our shipping department. Most of the stock for the three Triangle Frenzy patterns live in the photo boxes on these shelves, which share the space with a bunch of reference books. Too bad the shipping desk often ends up as another horizontal collection surface for stuff!

My Quilting Room (formerly our son’s room) is transitioning to my Design Studio. It is currently being used as a storage room for holding shipping boxes and furniture from the dining room-to-office space conversion.

The closet doors had to be removed when the mid-arm quilting frame moved in. This closet is where the aforementioned stripes and border print fabrics for my Triangle Frenzy designs and kits reside. There are also even more UFOs in this closet that have the tops done, just waiting to be quilted.

FYI, These were supposed to be the BEFORE photos in a future before and after series, but Dear Daughter convinced me that these are more realistic than if I cleared off and cleaned up. Seems like the first few commenters agree. Maybe those that think this is an embarrassing mess have politely kept quiet. What do you think?

          You know how I mentioned that our daughter still has my old Montgomery Ward sewing machine? Well, here it is, in her Richmond, Virginia office! I recently hired Amanda as a virtual assistant to help me with customer service, pattern design, troubleshooting, and simply just to help keep me focused and organized in my day-to-day activities. Here, you can see me Skype chatting with her on her laptop screen! The project on her workspace is a 2 ½” strip set version of my newest Triangle Frenzy pattern that she’s currently helping me design.

Thank you for joining me on the Studio Spotlight tour today. This may not be the most organized studio you’ve seen this week, but it’s usually functional for me! Feel free to leave a comment below- I’d love to hear your thoughts on my workspace and ideas from your own.

I will be selecting one random commenter to win all 3 Triangle Frenzy patterns and a Creative Grids 60 degree ruler.

For a second entry to win, you can also sign up for our newsletter at the top right of our page here.
EDIT 1/27/15: Congrats to Anna G. for winning our contest!

Don’t forget to check out all the other designers’ studios at the Studio Spotlight Blog Hop here!

Thanks for reading, and have a Frenzy day!