A View From the Sewing Machine

I have been spending a lot of time in front of my sewing machine lately - YEH!!!  So I thought I'll show you a view of what I'm staring at most of the day.

Here's a glimpse of some little boy quilts I'm working on. Straight line against the seam quilting.  I love quilting this style - it's modern and very effective. 

My poor cutting table that is currently occupied by my computer and a bunch of bolts that I have some plans for... ;)

And here's a view of my ironing board currently - It is completely full of stacks like these.  Napkin fabric that is all cut and ready to be sewn.

Do you notice a theme here?  It seems like all my flat surfaces in my sewing machine is FULL.  I think I have maybe a corner of the cutting table that I could probably fit something on.  All this makes me fill productive and cluttered at the same time :).

How Do You Cut?

How many cutting tools do you have in your sewing room?  I think at any given point I have about a dozen.  Usually about half of them are missing - brought into another room and not returned, buried underneath a project or mysteriously just missing.  Here are the must-have cutting tools that I could round up today:

(1) Clauss cutting sheers   (2) Plastic handled generic scissors   (3 & 4) Rotary cutters   (5) Threat clippers   (6) Small curved craft scissors   (7) Seam ripper

I have these cutting tools spread around my sewing room at all times - each serves a purpose all of them are use almost daily. 

First I like to introduce you to my heavy duty 8" Hot Forged Clauss Dress Maker sears.  That are pretty heavy and super sharp.  Best of all - it cuts through everything like butter.  I keep it around my cutting table and my #1 use of this is for trimming quilts.  It cuts through the quilt top, batting and quilt cotton like ... butter ;)

To contrast the Clauss scissors, meet my generic plastic handled scissors.  Doesn't cost much and I think I have 3-5 of these around the house.  The primary purpose of having these around is that I don't have to rely on my 'good' scissors to cut through stuff like paper, cardboard or plastic.  Super handy, pretty sharp for a while and inexpensive.

Every quilters best friend.  I have 3 of these - I'm missing my tiny one :).  Love these, they make cutting straight lines (with a straight edge) accurate and quick.  If you are doing more detailed cutting then a smaller rotary cutter would be helpful - if you ever see my small one in the background of a picture or if you visit my sewing room and stumble across it, PLEASE let me know ;).

Thread clippers are awesome to have next the sewing machine.  I remember when I was little my mom would always have a string tied to hers - on the other side of the string?  The sewing machine of course.  After sewing for years now, I can see why she did that.  I use this ALL the time.  I prefer using this over the auto-thread cutter on my sewing machine and awesome to have around to cut any loose threads.

These little craft scissors are my go-to thread trimmers for finished projects.  I usually leave these by my sofa and do detailed thread trimmings while watching television at night.  The narrow tipped ends are perfect for reaching those hard to reach areas.

Last but definitely not least - I have my seam ripper.  Sits next to my sewing machine and comes in handy when you have those OOPS moments :)

What cutting tools do you have around your sewing room?  What are you must-haves?  Do you loose yours as often as I loose mine??? 

Have a great and productive week everyone! :)

My NEW Sewing Room is Complete!

I am super happy and excited to show off my new sewing room. Many thanks to my wonderful husband and all the hard work he put into making my vision come true.

I'll start off with my favorite new piece of furniture - new cutting table:



Isn't it beautiful? Plenty of work surface - big enough for bolt fabric cutting and much more. There's also 3 huge drawers and 2 big shelves. Practical, beautiful and it is all mine to use :).  This is also an IKEA piece - it is from their kitchen department - intended for a kitchen island, but I think it makes a wonderful cutting/craft table.

The sewing room is now HARD WOOD! YES!!!! No more dingy carpeting. This laminate 'hardwood' is also from IKEA. Feels fabulous and very easy to clean. Love it!


Before and after flooring - from old carpeting to beautiful floors.

I also painted one of the walls a gray-blue color - a pop of color - makes me smile just looking at it :)



I couldn't get a picture of the whole sewing table area, but this is a pretty good picture of the organized and clutter free sewing table and shelf:



Having all those drawers and shelves on the new cutting table REALLY help clear up the sewing area. YEH!!!

Here's a glimpse of the fabric closet. I didn't have time to organize and arrange all my fabrics yet - so I'll update on another post when that is done.



Here's to many many hours of quilt making and creativity!

Sewing Room - Day 2

Second day and the room is looking great. Got the flooring in - it's a laminate from IKEA. I needed something that would be affordable but still sturdy enough for the wear and tear of a craft room. And my husband chose a very nice baseboard to finish it off:



Like that wall color - I DO! It's the same color from my son's bedroom. It's called Organic Garden and suppose to be a safer and more environmentally friendly paint than conventional paint. It's sold at most major home improvement stores around here like Home Depot.



Next up - putting back all the furnishings and organizing the room. I also got a new cutting table for the room - can't wait to get that up!

Some Sewing Room Progress

Okay so the progress isn't HUGE. No I haven't finished organizing the whole room yet, but thanks to my husband (Jeff) I have made great progress. Do you remember how the closet looked like pre-Operation ReORG?

Yeah that's a little embarrassing to say the least. It seemed more of a dumping ground for anything that doesn't belong to any where else in the house than a sewing room closet.

So with the help of 3 very handsome men, the closet was gutted and a new closet setup is going in. Too bad I don't have a picture of the completely empty closet - but trust me the feel of the room after the closet was cleaned out was "OH MY GOD". It felt like the room automatically doubled in size!

After some careful measuring, cutting, and nailing the new shelving was beginning to look pretty awesome:

Nice huh? The beginnings of beautiful shelves. Haha now I just have to organize the rest of the room to go with the closet. BTW that frame in the lower right hand corner was a MISTAKE! Haven't used it once and not planning to. Just have to package it up somewhere. Maybe when I get a bigger play area I could take it out again, but for now it takes up way too much of the room.

Here's the 2 little ones hard at work:



Asher making sure the studs were found and Silas marking the spot :). They love to help out don't they :P.

So that's the progress so far with the room. I am still working hard to finish up the fabric organization as well so that when the room is finished my fabrics will be sorted and ready to be put away.

In Search of a Sewing/Quilting Machine...

I have had my Juki TL-98Q for only a few months and I think I'm outgrowing it already. Bear with me as I go through in my head trying to justify getting another machine.

It sits on my sewing table with the extended worktop that it came with. It's my multi-purpose sewing machine: quilting, piecing, craft work, hemming, and fixing up clothes that need a little TLC.Despite the short time that I've had this machine, I realize that I need a machine with more functionality.  I have not decided what kind of machine or how much I want to spend yet.  Like I said bear with me as I go through my thought process :P.

Here's what is bugging me about my current machine and what I would like in a new one:

• A bigger bobbin: I REALLY REALLY do not enjoying changing out the bobbin like 4 times even for a small baby quilt.  The bobbin is SMALL.  With this in mind I'm kind of leaning towards a quilting machine.  Perhaps splurge for that long-arm??? 
• More functionality besides straight line stitching. As pretty as the Juki is with straight line quilting, sometimes it's nice to have another option.  The Juki TL98Q allows me to make very nice straight stitching for piecing and straight line quilting.  It also allows me to drop the dog feed - allowing for free motion quilting. However - I want to do MORE.  My Juki ONLY does straight lines - no zigzag, no fancy stitches - just straight lines.
• Since this is my main machine that I use for everything, I will have to be taking it off and on the quilting frame weekly.  This is a pain and I would like to avoid the situation.

Things I really like about my current machine:

• Knee lift - great for sewing and quilting
• Nice straight lines - it's about the only thing it does but it does it well
• Cheaper than other quilting machines.  It's pricier than regular sewing machines, but it has a nice big arm - well at least bigger than conventional machines.
• Easy to use

Potential scenarios - with the space constraint:

1. Get a nice sewing machine just for piecing and other sewing projects.  Use my Juki just for quilting on the quilting frame and removed from the frame just for quilting purposes too.  This is resolve having to always take the Juki off and on the frame. The new sewing machine will be able to handle all piecing, small project quilting without a frame, and other sewing projects.
• 1 new sewing machine, 1 Juki, 1 old Brother machine
2. Put away the quilting frame for now and continue using the Juki as my multipurpose machine.  When I absolutely must have the fancy stitching I will bring out my very old Brother sewing machine - it's not great but will do some other stitches besides straight line.
• 1 Juki, 1 Brother
3. Get a long arm quilting machine and put it on the quilting frame, continue using my Juki for non-frame quilting and piecing.  Use my old Brother machine for only fancy stitches until I could afford another machine.
• 1 long arm, 1 Juki, 1 old Brother machine (potentially swapping that out in the distant future)

I don't know what to get yet and I don't have a budget in mind yet.  But I am under tight space constraints.  My husband help set up the quilting frame a few days ago - the Handiquilter than came with the Juki.  It's taken up about 1/3 of the small room and my sewing tables takes up another corner of the room.  I'm in the process of designing what to do with my sewing room setup with such a small room - it's about 10 feet  by 10 feet.  Hopefully by the time I finish my fabric organization project I will have a nice organized room to put it in too.  And I will be wishing upon a star for my home remodel so I could make a nice big craft room to house all this :).

Think right now I'll have to stick with choice #2 - the frugal and more practical one. 

Modded (Brown) Update: Assembling the Back

I'm taking a forced break from finishing the Modded quilt top - I was short 2 inches from the left and right side of the inner border.  I didn't notice until I got it all pinned - got to the end and notice that I was about 2 inches short.  I'll get those cut this weekend.  I don't like cutting during the weekdays - not enough time and it gets pretty messy with all the equipment and scraps.

So I'm going to move onto the top - until Sunday (plans with the extended family on Saturday - don't you wish you could just skip out to quilt all day instead sometimes???).  For the back of the quilt I decided to do a single patched strip using the colors I used for the inside of the blocks on the front of the quilt.

Here's a refresher of how the front looks like:

Notice the olive fabric and the red fabric on the inside of the blocks - those are the 2 I'm going to use for the back also.

The rest of the quilt back will be the same Moda mocha color as the quilt top. The basic design will look like this:

The two strips labeled 'D' is the same fabric both the 'C' panels. 'A' and 'B' represents the olive and red fabrics alternating.

 On with the work.  Here's The Stash' after the fabric was cut.  I'm always amazed by the tiny stack of fabric - it always seen so...tiny.

Getting it all ready to be pieced together.  This was cut when the quilt top was cut.  I try to do all my cutting at the same time :).

After the piecing, a quick pass on the iron.

Single strip of blocks - pressing it was easy-peasy.


Now I just need to attach those 2 big panels on either side of the block strip and I'm done with the quilt back - well after more pressing of course.  Here's the beauties lined up ready to be sewn together.

All ready for the final stage.

Wow got a lot accomplish in a short time.  What's left on the quilt?  A LOT.  Next, I need to finish the back, cut those mixing 2 pieces for the front, and start putting together the quilting sandwich.  Yes the quilting sandwich.  Ever since I got a huge roll of the Warm and Natural instead of the pre-cut pieces I've been avoiding the batting.


Here's a pretty outdated picture of the roll:

Pretty outdated picture of the Warm and Natural Batting roll.  Don't mind the mess around here - it was during the pre-cleanup stage of the sewing room. 

Pretty intimidating taking that roll out each time.  But I like it.  It give me the freedom of making the quilts in whatever size the design is.  So far I'm like the off right color of the natural batting.  I try to stay away from bleached material.  I guess if I'm working with a very light colored fabric that I don't want the color to be compromised I will consider getting a pure white batting roll.  But for now, this will work just fine - without the extra bleaching.

My Sewing Room Setup

When I became more serious about sewing a while back, I decided to convert our current "everything goes" room to a sewing room.  Out came the boxes, extra clothes, old toys, and tons of other random items.  In went my desk-converted-to-sewing table, my 2 sewing machines (Brother XL-3200 and Juki TL-98Q), a ton of sewing notions, and my on-going collection of fabrics.  The room is still a work in progress but it is growing to be quite a busy little sewing room.

Here's my before and after pictures of the now-sewing room.

The before was a very random room.  It was used an occasional exercise room (re: sit on a exercise bike while playing video games :)), a room for boxes that had no other place in the house, clothes that needs ironing, and even a pinata that didn't get used for a party.  The whole room was pretty much like this.

The after picture.  Well at least part of it...
 
This is the opposite wall of the room.  The side from the original picture still has the exercise bike but not much else.  The wall shown in this picture is my sewing wall.  My husband put on those two shelves to store quilts in progress, notebooks and miscellaneous items. Below the shelves is my desk-converted-to-sewing-table.  It's a nice size table from IKEA that is sturdy enough for my sewing machine and very roomy.  Notice my printer, sewing machine, stationary setup, and quilts could all fit on the table. When I am working on a big project I do clear the table for more room.  On the front of the picture is a filing cabinet (also IKEA) that I use to store quilts that needs to be ironed.  I still need to find a good way to run wiring in this room - as you can see the floor is still quite messy.


I am still trying to figure out a good setup for all the fabric that I have.  Currently I stack it up by either color or design type in the sewing room closet - but it's also home to random clothes and gift wrappers and that sort of thing.  I'm thinking more shelving on that wall that the bike was against and reorganizing the closet.

Here's a picture of the sewing room closet setup...WARNING - it's a work in progress :P

Most of my fabrics are stacked in this closet - some are organized in boxes or in my living room waiting to be cut into quilts.  This part of the sewing room will need to be REorganized.

As you can see I have quite a lot of work to do on my sewing room.  But it's already turning to be quite a lovely little room with (a little) more room to grow :).