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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Studio







These pictures were taken way back in 2006.  It's a lot messier now.  The secret to having a nice tidy studio is to invite your quilting buddies over to visit, because then you have to clean it up.  The last 3 years have largely been spent dealing with family health issues, so the mess has increased exponentially.  I guess I need to set a date for an open house early next year, to encourage myself to reduce the chaos.

The top picture was taken standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  You can see a bit of the design wall on the left, 3 of the fabric cabinets (the other 12 are behind, in two rows of 3, with two rows of  3 further to the right  and not visible in this pic.  The three you can see are, left to right, brown/tan/rust fabric, black/gray fabric, and white/light/neutral and oriental fabric.  It's difficult to see, but on the side of the right cabinet, there's a pegboard with all the rulers, tools, and gadgets for quilting hanging on it.  The two treadles closest in the pic are industrial models.  The one on the left was made in 1913, and the one on the right was made in 1892.  The treadles behind them are all made for domestic use.

The next pic down is also taken from the kitchen doorway, and shows the middle of the room.  There are 6 fabric cabinets behind the shelves on the right.  The batting on top of them is apparently trying to make a break for it. Those shelves hold some sewing stuff, and quite a lot of sewing machine stuff--attachments, etc.  In front of the shelves you can see my cutting table---an old wooden table that a friend gave me.  Bill raised it to a good height for me to cut--his solution isn't pretty, but it works, LOL.  I have a cutting mat that covers the entire top of the table.  Underneath are two steel cabinets with quilting books, patterns, etc. stored in them.  In the foreground is another treadle, and a high stool with fabric, etc.  piled on it.  In between the storage cabinets on the left and the shelves with cabinets behind them on the right, you can see a wooden drying rack.  Those are really handy when cutting and sorting strips.

The third pic is again taken from the kitchen door, to the right side of the room.  Another treadle is seen in front of the shelves with my hand crank sewing machines.

Picture four is taken standing between the fabric cabinets and shelves, and shows the right side from that viewpoint.  The door out to the screened porch is visible, and the ironing board.  Right across from them is the washer and dryer.  To the right of the door is the design wall, made of two 4' X 8' slabs of blue foam insulation board covered with flannel.  Quilt pieces and blocks will stick to flannel quite nicely when working on a quilt, and when I start sewing stuff together and it gets too heavy to stick well, it's easy to pin into the foam to hold the piece in place.

Picture 5 is from the same vantage point, and looks straight back to the kitchen door.  You can see several more treadles.  The round things hanging on the wall to the right of the door are Boye sewing machine needle display cases.  They would have been found in dry goods stores, and held needles and shuttles for old sewing machines.  The needles and shuttles are in cute little wooden tubes, with wooden tops.  To the left of the door is my workbench with my tools for working on old sewing machines.  In the foreground is the cutting table.

Picture 6 shows the left side of the room.  You can see the whole cutting table, and one of the cabinets underneath.  The door to the front porch is visible.  You can see another of the round needle display cases sitting on the cutting table.

You can't see the light fixtures in the pics, but when we moved in, I had an electrician put in 6 fixtures, each one holding 4 fluorescent lights.  I had him order full-spectrum light tubes.  I can turn on one side at a time, or both sides.  When all 24 lights are on, it's like high noon in there even in the middle of the night, LOL.  The best part is that the colors look true, under those lights, just as they will in ordinary daylight.

In pictures 1 and 3 you can just barely see a bit of the huge triangular window at the top of that wall that reaches all across that end of the room.

What is your studio like?

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