Studio Makeover Update

My studio has been a little neglected this past month in all of the hubbub of the daily grind.  However, one special item came in and I just could not wait to show it to you!

Back in at the Cincinnati Quilt Show in April, I ordered my new sewing table!  I had been saving my pennies, and this was a big splurge, but it's so worth it.  It's been custom made for the height I sit at, and the insert is removable and I can add feet to it to take it with me on the road. The insert is by Sew Steady, and it's great. 
It's from Tracey's Tables, who were so fabulous and set it all up on delivery too!  

My messy worktable

This weekend, I really needed to clean my studio.  

I have been making LED kits like crazy for a class I am teaching at the Fiber Art Divas meeting tonight at the Naperville Art League. 

Kits, and ATC backs, everywhere!!!  If you will be at the meeting, see you there! 


Want to see more messy worktables?  Check out Lynn Krawczyk's blog for more folks with messy workspaces!  Messy workers, unite!! Here we all are!!!

Holly McLean

Mary Cottingham

Joy Manoleros

 Judi Hurwitt

Kathy Schmidt

Deb Harowitz

Linda Marcille

Jacqueline Bryant Campbell

Jill Eudaly 

Jenice Jones

Ronni Hunter

Cheryl Sleboda

Carol Swallowcliffs

Ann Brauer

Studio Makeover - Shelves!

I'm so pleased that this little project is done!  

I finally have a place for the knickknacks that cluttered up the top of my fabric organizer systems and gives me more room to put up mini quilts.  

I made these from 1x6 pine with a nice rope trim that I nailed on the edge and then painted with 4 coats of white paint.  It's hung "invisibly" by brackets that go upwards, drilled directly into studs for stability. 

I have so many little tchotchkes  from my childhood in here, my "little girl" room.  I also got to put up a lot of the mail art that I have traded for over the years.

You can see the pink foam for my new design wall.  It's almost done and just needs it's felt covering.  That's coming soon!  After that, the room just needs one more tidying and my (almost year long) makeover will be complete!

Nostalgia and The Avon Good Fairy

My studio is the previous owner's daughter's room.  It was painted purple and green, and since I like those colors I decided to leave it painted that way. When I was little I BEGGED my father to paint my room purple like a friend of mine had.  After a weekend away I came back to my room painted a light lavender.  That is the color in the studio, and I love it.  It brings back those childhood memories, and of something my dad did for me.
I decided to put whimsy things in my studio.  I have lots of fairies in there, all mostly from when I was a kid and could not get enough of fairies, unicorns, and the like.  I was a child of the 80's after all.

I had this Avon perfume decanter as a kid.  I think it was second hand, because I only had the wand, and not the wings.  It was long since tossed out. I think only to top half of her survived, and my brother liked the wand because it glowed in the dark.  The other day I just happened to Google it, and came across some eBay auctions for them, and next thing you know I had one.  I opened the perfume and it smelled just like I remember.  The smell of childhood, and nostalgia, and it made me miss that old house.  It made me call my dad. :)
Do you have anything that brings back memories like that?
More weekly quilts and stuff coming up this week!  Yay!

Partial Studio Closet makeover

 

This is just one peek at the closet makeover.  I tore out (literally) the wire shelves that were put in by the builder in this small walk in closet.  I got two bookcases from WalMart for $25 each that now house my books and (when better organized) small containers of bead, buttons, and other notions. 

On the wall just inside the closet, I hung my "pin quilt", which is just a black piece of cotton that I quilted and bound that I stick all of the pins I collect at comic book or quilt shows into.  I get all these lovely things and never know what to do with them, so here they are.

As you can see, the left side of the bookshelves needs to be organized still. I've got a few plastic tubs and a light fixture to buy before this little closet makeover is done, but it will be much more organized and useful to me once it's done.  Then I can go out into the main room and do some minor changes that will get the rest of the studio in shape! 

Housekeeping

...Of the blog variety... I made some changes to the color, layout, and even a spiffy new banner at the top made for me by my dear husband!  I love it! If you read my blog in a reader, I hope you will pop over to the blog site and let me know what you think. 
     In addition to that, I had a nice long time on my plane ride back from the San Diego Comic Con to think about a lot of stuff about my art, so I also plan to take more photos and have them accompany my various posts.  I love blogs with at least one picture on the post.  I will admit my photography skills are less than stellar, but I think it will let me blog more often.  I would often like to blog but think that without a picture to go along with my post I lose interest in doing it.
     My website is not far behind as my dear hubby Joe is making me some new buttons along the side that go with my new theme.  I'll give you a hint as to what is to come, as some of my new buttons will read "gallery", "lectures", "workshops" and "shop".  Not everything is fleshed out yet, but I'm getting closer.
     In addition to the blog revamp, I'm planning a slight studio redo.  I have a very very limited budget, so this has to be done on the very cheap. I have some ideas in mind, so I'm anxious to get them worked through.  I'll be sure to let you see the process pics and other details soon.
(And the flowers are coming along nicely, 3 more weeks until the wedding.)

Getting back to normal

I know I have been away for a bit. I know I said I would run a giveaway last week, but life intervened. I've been dealing with a family crisis for a couple of weeks now, both in a "hands-on, getting things taken care of" way, and a "why can't I think about anything else" kind of way.
I did take some time to go to Judy Coates Perez's wonderful Fiesta Ornaments class this past weekend, and it was great fun. You can read about it on both Judy's blog, and my friend Catherine's blog too. I really like taking classes with my friends, and Judy is a great teacher.

I plan to run the giveaway next week, just in time for the holiday spirit, of which I could use some. The tree is up, but not decorated other than lights, and I don't have much energy to get it done.

Tonight I spent hours winding a box full of tangled embroidery threads onto floss card bobbins... Just could not do much else that required thinking. I also spent an hour cleaning my studio, which has not really recovered from the weekend class supply "grab" and coming back from Baltimore. I did finally remove the suitcase out of the room... Shows how behind I am on everything.

For something quilty, the above is a custom Spencerian script that was made of my name and turned into a rubber stamp. It was made by Victorian Trading Co., whom I love and have been using to slowly decorate my front "parlor". I plan to use the stamp on the labels of my quilts using permanent stamp pad ink.

My next few posts will show all the STUFF I have made lately, I think you'll like it.

My Studio

One of the amazing things about moving from Baltimore to Chicago again was the vast difference in land and home prices. Baltimore is an expensive city to live in/near, because of the proximity to Washington DC and other East Coast lovely cities. Maryland is a small state with limited land available to develop.
Chicago's metro area, on the other hand, is constantly expanding further south and west, where we have landed on a former farm-turned-housing-development. Our 2 bedroom, 1000 sq. ft townhouse was sold to get us a 4 bedroom, 2600 sq. ft single family home. Quite a difference.
One thing I was able to get out of the deal was a room of my own to sew in. DH and I shared the second bedroom for all of our hobbies, and it was quite cramped. Now, we each have our own space. My "studio" was the former owner's daughter's room. It's purple and green, and that suits me just fine. I am still working on lighting options, but here's a peek at the room:
This is the fabric stash. The colorful pile on the floor is recently used fabric that needs to be refolded and put in it's color bin. The top plastic rows hold tools, beads, fibers and other goodies. The door leads to the walk in closet.

Opposite that wall is my sewing table, made from an old computer desk. I can cut on the one side and the keyboard drop has been modified to match the bed of my sewing machine. The Iron and ironing board is in front of the window.

This is my now too small design wall. I plan to get a larger piece of batting to tack up to put the designs on. Note my funny looking radio. I have to say it's the best sound from a boom box you can get.

Another Ikea find is this curtain system turned art show. The wires hold removable clips that allows me to change out my inspiration at any time.

On the wall behind where I sew are some framed ATCs from some of my favorite artists and a pair of painted cherubs that date from my childhood bedroom.

Lest you think I was the model of cleanliness in such a space, this is the walk in closet. I fought to get this room for this closet, whose baby changing table/shelf makes the perfect cutting surface. However it's always covered like this, and hopefully one day this will get cleaned out!

So there you have my sewing space! I hope you enjoyed the tour!