A Visit on a Snowy Day

I don't have a studio.  I'm not an artist, and it's not false modesty that makes me say so.  I'm not making anything even slightly original.  I just like to sew.  I make quilts, mostly from scraps, using traditional patterns.  I also sew clothes and pillowcases and do mending.  This is my sewing room.

Let's move around the room from right to left.  This is my piecing station, which currently houses my Singer RAF 15.  She's a faithful workhorse that came to me as an electric from a junk shop.  Sometimes I switch her out for a Singer #9W (based on the old Wheeler and Wilson design), or for a #66 Red Eye.  The cabinet started out housing a #27 from 1904, which I may put back again sometime.  The heads that fit this cabinet are on a shelf in the basement.

This quilt hangs above the piecing station.  It's hard to see, but the light blocks all have transfers of antique sewing machines.  Until I fixed up the sewing room last summer, the quilt just lived in storage.  I'll probably change out the quilts from time to time.  No direct sunlight finds its way here, even on bright days.

Here's my bookcase, but the books are all in the downstairs bookcases.  Here's where I keep my wind up clock, my radio, sewing machine oil, various tools, and a few scraps needing to be sorted.  On the bottom two shelves are four bins with projects in progress.

Next to the bookcase is my pressing station, with the ironing board cover I wrote about previously.  As I stitch the rows of the string quilt together, I'm stacking them here. 

This is my cutting station, on top of my dresser.  It doesn't look like it from this angle, but I can open the drawers without coming near the ironing board.  The basket holds scraps waiting to be trimmed to the sizes I save for scrap quilts.

Above the dresser is a bulletin board, which is great for cutting instructions, etc.  I definitely need more light in this area, though.

My new electric Pfaff sits here atop an old desk.  My poor husband moved this heavy oak desk up two flights of stairs for me.  I call this my quilting station.  The basket in the back holds my safety pins for pin basting.  At the far right of the photo you can see my window shades, that still need to be put up.

I have a real closet!  On one side, I have tops waiting to be quilted, plus the backing for them.

On the other side of the closet are my sorted scraps, in bins and drawers.  I save strips and squares in sizes from 1.5 in. to 4.5 in. wide, with a few larger pieces.  I separate the bright colors from the rest, and use them mostly for quilts for kids.

Here's the first picture again, showing my "design floor".  I am so happy to have this space.  An hour or two spent here makes me purr all day.
Next time I'll show you where I keep my stash.

Just a question--does anybody else do this?

Above is a scrap bag I bought at Mill House Quilts.  Yes, I actually BOUGHT scraps.

I bought this one, too!  Sight unseen!  They were the same price, around $8.50.

This is what the first one had in it--great stuff!

The second one was even better!  I especially like using triangles when I'm making string quilts, because they work so well on the corners.

This weekend my husband and I went antiquing, and I found this:

It's like opening a present when I get these packages home.

This one had a short pieced section, and lots of strips and rectangles.
More scraps, more variety, more quilts!

I wish you the joy of sewing this week.