Helen, I love the view out your window!

Jackie, what a great space! I don't think DH would let me take over the garage...I already took over one bedroom and the dining room. :)

Rebecca, maybe I'll take over the kitchen next, since I really hate to cook. LOL

Donna

I wasn't sure I'd have time to do the photobucket thing and post to this but since I posted to the FW question, I got busy and took a shot of my sewing room as well. It doesn't show my fabric bins in the closet but it will be mine when my husband cleans his clothes out eventually.

I'm lucky to have a whole room. For a long time I sewed in my bedroom, laying fabric all over the bed as I worked. Extra stuff was in tubs in the basement. We built a room in the basement that had room for my tubs but I still sewed on whatever flat space I could find. Then the uncle we took care of all these years died and that vacated a couple of rooms. I claimed our old bedroom and cleaned it out a bit and consolidated my stuff. I sew on the old dining room table I stored when we moved in with him.

I'm thrilled to have a design wall and separate machines for piecing and FMQ as I always fouled up the tension as I switched between jobs.

You can't see the thread which are in small tubs sorted by use and the shelves are under the table. As you can see, I switch between lots of projects and even the ones I've lost interest in stay up for "decoration" and inspiration.

Toolgranny I love the quilts you have started that are on your design wall! What do you use as your design wall cause there looks like there is the wall, something mounted to the wall and then on top are your quilt pieces tacked on? I don't have a design wall right now and am not sure how to make one, what materials you should use. So temporarily I have just been hanging quilt tops on hangers with clips on them and then hang the hangers on my wall of cabinets. Usually if I lay out quilt blocks and strips I have to do it on my bed when hubby is gone to work. I love how you have so much work surface space. I had not thought of using a small dining room table as a desk, but I see now how that can give you much needed work surface space. And I really like how you have a separate sewing space and a separate cutting space, in my "someday" quilt room I hope to have 2 separate spaces as well. The structure that you have your quilt pieces laying on next to the window - is that a quilt rack, a quilting frame or a quilting machine? And your sewing pin cushion looks neat. Thank you for sharing a pic of your sewing room with us! :-)

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

That's one thing I would like to have is a design wall. Any quick and easy suggestions on how to do it would be welcome.

Sandra and Rita - design wall, assuming you have a blank wall to mount it to - is just an insulation panel covered in batting. It's very cheap. It's styrofoam from the Home Depot type store and comes in various thicknesses as insulation panels and they are 4' x 8' just like plywood. I bought 1" thick. It's very light and will break easily if you have trouble getting it home on a windy day. You can also trim it down to fit any other size.

You cover the panel with batting using spray adhesive and screw it to the wall. You have to use a large fender washer (ask at the store if you don't have them) so the screw doesn't pull through. I screwed to a stud but it's light enough you could just use mollies into drywall.

Thank you toolgranny for sharing how to make a design wall. I don't have the wall space for one now, but in our next house I will in my "someday" sewing room.

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

I've used a flannel backed tablecloth tacked to a wall for a design wall and also large pieces of felt.Felt is 72" wide,so 2 yds would give you a 72x72' piece.
Kathi

My design wall is a cheap flannel-backed tablecloth hung up on a rod with those office binder clips.

I've used the flannel backed tablecloth for years till this room. They work very well and can be taken down when space is a premium. You can roll up your blocks inside them, too.

My design wall is a $1.39 flannel backed vinyl tablecloth from Goodwill, tacked up over the closet doors. When I want to get into the closet, which is mostly long-term storage, I just pull the tablecloth out of the way.

Toolgranny, I love the quilts you have on the wall.... finished or not, those are beautiful!

Here's my design wall (bed) LOL The cat would have been there, but I've shooed him off 3 times already tonight so I think he's got the idea for now.... we'll see how long it lasts.

Thank you all for sharing what you use for your design wall. So if you use a flannel backed vinyl tablecloth for a design wall how do get the quilt blocks to stay on it when it hangs vertically? Do you just pin them with safety pins or straight pins? I know this is my stupid question of the day.

Vacuumfreak you have a very colorful quilt started, which reminds me I need to measure my Grandma's quilt top and design a border for it. Have been busy the last few days working on my son's crocheted ripple afgan.

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

For me with my flannel back tc i just place the blocks on the flannel side and run my hand across them.This just makes them stick to the flannel,no pins needed.Hand pressing is what i call it!!! LOL
Kathi

Sandra, not a stupid question! :)

My design "wall" is flannel with curtain clips across the top, hung on a curtain rod mounted above my sewing closet. When I need it I just pull it across the closet, then I can push it out of the way. I think with a solid surface (such as the actual wall or the styrofoam board) you can just stick the fabric to it, but I have to pin mine to get them to stay. Depending on how big the blocks are I use 1 or 2 straight pins.

Donna

Thank you bunches Kathi and Donna. Since I don't have empty wall space to mount a foam/batting board, I think I can get a skinny, long curtain rod and mount it above my my cabinet doors and use a flannel/vinyl table cloth that my M-I-L gave me. So now I just need to shop for the curtain rod. Thank you for answering my questions about pinning the fabric to the design wall. Now I just need to go measure for that curtain rod. :-)

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

It's fun to peek into everyone's sewing space. Mine is quite humble but happy and peaceful. It's in the 'girls' bedroom, I have taken over since both girls have grown up and have homes of their own. On the second floor of this old farmhouse, by the machine I can overlook trees and the little pond where the spring overflows. From the other window, I can look up at the little woods on the hill. I come here of a morning with my hot cup of tea or coffee and just stitch awhile before I start my day.

My 'design wall' is a set of matresses I have yet to move over to another bedroom. My supplies are hidden all over in no particular place. The wallpaper, I must have picked out in a moment of weakness and it's coming down after my gardens are in and being painted a soft butter yellow. Ditto the horrible blue carpet. I'll be pulling that off to expose the wooden plank floors.

Calliope, your first picture makes me think of "Little House on the Prairie." So cozy!

Ok, I'm slow on the draw with this, but I finally got some pics of my sewing room. It's small, 10' x 10', but I'm happy to have a dedicated spot. We might build a new home in a year, and then I will be having a craft room built. Here is the view from the doorway (sorry the pics are dark and not so good):

Here is where I do my cutting, and I also sit here to make gum paste flowers for cakes sometimes too:

Ironing and storage station. There is a speaker for my satellite radio in the corner on the sewing machine case, and the printer is for photo images for cakes. I have two of those storage cabinets in the room, they both hold fabric. I also have several plastic bins which I keep under the cutting table, one under the sewing table and one in the corner to the left of where I sew:

TV on storage cabinet (fabric arranged by colour inside cabinet). I really only use the TV for background noise... I can't really watch TV and concentrate on sewing. DH sometimes plays video games on it when the room is available. Sorry for the glare:

There is more storage in the closet, I have shelves with fabric, shelves with paper crafts and quite a bit of room is dedicated to cake decorating tools.

Calliope: I love your wallpaper! I thought it might be an original William Morris design. It's perfect for a farmhouse!

Sandra: I find that fabric sticks right on the flannel as well. Pinning isn't needed unless I forget and open the window!

Sorry am so late getting online today, busy day running errands in town with M-I-L and then routine housework, and used part of my afternoon to work on my son's ripple afgan. Calliope and Susan_on that's awesome that you have dedicated rooms for your sewing and quilting, rooms that look cozy and enjoyable. :-) Calliope your room with beautiful views sounds peaceful and relaxing to quilt in. :-)

Kate while I was in town today I got the rest of the supplies I need to make a quilt design wall and am excited about it. Since the only wall space I have available for a design wall is a wall full of cabinets I have with my M-I-L's and ya'lls' help have decided to use metal cup hooks and from that I will hang small metal shower rod hoops and from that I will suspend some large office clips and that will hold my extra large vinyl table cloth with flannel/cotton backing. Since I have a very active little boy I will be pinning my quilt blocks to the design wall with safety pins. I am short so installing the metal cup hooks near ceiling height will require the help of either DH or F-I-L, so hopefully it will get installed in the near future. I'm excited about it anyway. Hope every one has a good night.

Best to you,
Sandra

Sandra, if you do not want to put holes in your wall, buy the small command strips with hooks to use instead of the cup hooks. These are very strong, and easy to use.

I like seeing everyone's sewing spaces. Mine is in my office - no picture - but it is sufficiently messy!

Magothyrivergirl I had wondered if the small command strips would be strong enough to support the weight. If I can't get DH or F-I-L to install the cup hooks I may return the cup hooks and buy the command strips. Thanks for suggesting that as I had been wondering about that. Fixing to clean off my desk; after a week's worth of accumulation it looks messy. Hope everyone has a great afternoon. I spent some time in the garden this morning and my pink Tiffany fragrant rose is blooming thanks to all the rain we have been getting here in Louisiana and my daylilies are setting buds for blooms. :-)

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

I have the medium size Command strip hooks and an old skinny cafe curtain rod holding up a mid-sized quilt. It seems to be holding up just fine.

Helene

I am so envious of all of you have studios. I sew on the DR table. I just got a wardrobe off of Freecycle to hold my machines and supplies. It is 6 ft. tall, 4 ft wide and 2 ft deep. DH bought some plywood and made shelves for it so I can clean up and put my "stuff" away but have it accessible. Up until now it has been put into totes and put into a closet or upstairs in a storage area and when I want to get it out it is a major procedure. It will be so nice to have it in the same room but behind closed doors. I will also be able to display my toy and miniature sewing machines on top of the wardrobe.

Mary

Congratulations, Mary! You must be so excited about your project. Its a great idea; I wish I had done that when I was using the family table as my sewing room!

Kate

Mary, I can feel your excitement about having your fabric close-by. I think you'll be sewing more now, too. When we make our hobbies more convenient (and we should), we play more. And that's a good thing!!!!

SharonG/FL

Helene I am glad to hear the command hooks hold up really well. I tried to get the cup hooks installed myself, but that part of the cabinet is solid wood and not budging so I am going to go buy some Command hooks next trip to Walmart.

Mary having your sewing storage handy makes all the difference in the world when you are working on projects. In my last house I had my sewing supplies including sewing machine stored in a bedroom closet and it was such an ordeal to drag everything out and put it back at night and at that point I sewed on the kitchen DR table too, so I can relate. Am glad to hear you now have handy storage convenient for your sewing projects. It's nice when our hobbies are hassle free.

Best to you,
Sandra

Yes, Kate, Sharon and Sandra...I am so excited. We bought better shelf brackets today and all the shelves are in. I planned out how far apart I wanted the shelves determined by the size of storage boxes that I have. My machines fit in the bottom along with a case that holds fat quarters. I bought some storage drawers in 2 sizes at an auction a while ago. I have 3 large ones and 6 small ones and 2 of the small ones fit on top of one large one. My rulers and small cutting mats stand up at one end with a storage box beside them to hold them up. I have emptied 2 totes that had fabric, batting and notions in them and I still have loads of room. The unit has sliding doors on it and there is a strip of trim above them so I think I will put a strip of adhesive back velcro along the trim and make myself a design wall. I think this is the next best thing to having a studio!
Mary

That sounds awesome Mary! Hope you get tons of enjoyment out of it!. We would love to see a photo of your new cabinet. Well I am off to work on my GW RR Seeds-N-Stitches May Swap - Mug Rug. I need to finish hand-stitching the applique on it. Hope you have a great weekend, the weather here has been really nice. :-)

Best to you,
Sandra

Calliope, can I come to your room to meditate?? I think all my ills could be cured by a day's session there. BTW, I love that quilt in the floor hoop.

Gosh, thank you. I'm beginning to take a shine to the quilt finally. It's a mixed bag. I started it when Vickie mentioned a 'star' challange two years ago. It just sort of fizzled out and everyone was too busy, and I had all these paper pieced stars, so a quilt was born, and it's nearly finished. I keep the sewing room simple by choice, though I do admire all the lovely equipment so many of you ladies are blessed with. It is where I mentally prepare for the day and yes, you can join me anytime. ;-)

Okay, so I finally uploaded pictures to share with everyone. (And if baby stays asleep I can get them here quickly)

I have a sub-basement bedroom about 8' x 10' with one high window at ground level. It's sort of dark because that window is under the deck. When we moved in 6 years ago, and before the quilt frame came in, I started painting the panelling a buttercup yellow. Only half the room is painted at this point! lol

From the door, straight to the back wall:

My closet storage... larger fabrics on the shelves, smaller pieces in the slide out drawers below. Books, etc to the right

This is the wall to the right when standing in the doorway. It holds my wall of fame (kids pictures!) and my quilt frame. Under my frame there is lots of storage and new projects/project boxes.

These drawers sit on the wall end of my sewing table as you walk in the door. They hold some ongoing projects and misc. stuff...also serves as a shelf for display up top. Table against the wall has my embroidery machine, tools & emb. thread boxes. Above are crafty shelves with rulers and threads. (the closet is to the right in this photo)

I don't have any large, bare walls for a design space, but I did make a collapsable one that I can set up if needed for a large quilt. I find that I simply don't have enough surface space. I am a visual person, who constantly needs to layout in one layer the things I'm working on, or need to work on. If it's stacked I don't see it. A nice larger conference center would probably be perfect for me!! But until then, this is it and I'm happy I have it and can leave things out!

jennifer_in_va I like your sewing room, that's awesome that you have room for a quilting frame. I can relate to needing more surface space to work on. I am like you when things start getting stacked I can't get anything done. LOL So off to finish cleaning off my desk. Thanks for sharing pics of your sewing room with us!

Best to you,
Sandra

Wow! Im loving all your pics!! Im getting good ideas for my someday space lol

I love all of your rooms!! I have a dedicated space, but not a whole room. I will try and take some pictures this evening and let you guys see :-)

Robbi

Has anyone seen this site? Woo-ee. Talk about organized.

http://withinaquarterinch.wordpress.com/

Wow, she must have won the lottery!!I can see why she would be pleased with it. Lots of pennies organized there. lol

OK, I managed to get a few photos last night. My area is a mezzanine at the top of the stairs. There are 2 sky lights in the ceiling, so I get a lot of natural light when I can work during the day. The hardest part is I have to walk by it to get to our bedroom. It is really hard to walk by and not do anything!

This is at the top of the stairs. My project "wall" usually sits in front of the table and covers up the scrap area.

Working to the right:

A view standing where the computer is:

One that has my project "wall":

Robbi

I used to have horses and just smiled when I saw the saddle where it's parked.

Hi Christy good to hear from you. I know what you mean, I too am getting great ideas from everyone's posts for my someday quilt room, but also am appreciating my current workspace a little more.

Nannykins I checked out the site you posted about. She is really organized and must have a small fortune invested in fabric. Getting those bookshelves for $25 each was a great find!

Robbi you have a nice space to work in, it looks cozy and efficient. Love your cutting table and how you can work with it being small or you can lift up the left size and expand your cutting space. One of these days I hope to have a space with enough room to have a separate table just for cutting. And I noticed you have your thread organized in drawers. :-) The saddle is a nice touch. I grew up on a small farm working cattle preparing them for livestock shows and did a lot of fishing at an early age, good childhood memories. :-)

Well off to work on my Lotto blocks and my son's ripple afgan - hoping to have it finished by Christmas.

Best to you,
Sandra

Oh and Robbi I love your design wall, such brightly colored blocks, makes me smile and is very cheerful! I just bought stuff to make a design wall, hoping to get around to setting it up later this month. :-) Thanks for sharing your space with us Robbi! :-)

Best to you,
Sandra

Thanks everyone :-) We have 6 horses and there is some sort of horse picture or horse "thing" in every room of our house! The railing makes a great place to store the saddles, so we have about 4 of them hanging there total. That particular one is from Mexico. We don't use it much, but it is pretty to look at :-)

My project wall has all of my Dear Jane blocks on it. I've assembled the first 2 rows. I have the third row done, just not assembled.

Robbi

Robbi, I am impressed with all you have accomplished with your Dear Jane. I know the challenge, I may abandon doing it by hand and attempt it via the machine. That's down the road but almost finished with SBQ so ---maybe.
Your sewing space is very nice.

My son helped me create a quilting design wall tonight using a cotton-backed tablecloth, command hooks, and large binder clips. When in use I will be pinning quilt blocks to the white cotton side of the tablecloth, but took this photo showing the plastic side of the tablecloth cause I thought it would show up better in the photo. And I can easily take it down when we have to get in cabinets that are alotted for storing things other than my quilting stuff. I like this Mother's Day present that my son helped me create.

{{gwi:1264369}}

Hope everyone has a Happy Mother's Day!!! :-)

Best to you,
Sandra

Sandra, I love a gift that is so useful!! What an awesome Mother's Day gift!! And I like that you can take it down when you need to.

Jayne, I'm lucky to have kept up with my DJ so far. I am behind right now (still working on last months blocks and this months will arrive this week). I actually like that the quilt is a nice mix of machine and hand work. It is really hard to get bored with the quilt with such a nice variety of blocks.

Robbi

Thank you Robbi, I am hoping to put the design wall to use real soon. :-)

Best to you and many thanks,
Sandra

Wow, these are amazing rooms! Mine is so small! I do have a few things I'm proud of, my Janome Memorycraft 6500, Roberts Sewing Table and my QuiltMate Pro so that I can use my iPad while I sew, watching tutorials and for quilt alongs....which I'm addicted to!

Hi, all

I have used Garden Web for years for remodeling, never thought to use it for quilting/sewing. I am widowed now, and have 2 bedrooms, one slightly larger than 11x15,

serves as a sewing room/guest room. Currently, I have a duplex bed w/frame taking up lots of wall space. My family are all out-of-state and can't visit very often. Perhaps once a year single or couple friends visit. Bed is used only occasionally. I have inflatable queen and twin size mattresses (a couple of years ago, had the family down for Christmas). I'm trying to decide whether to a) lose the bed and rely on inflatables; b) trade the bed for a double or queen-size bed which would gain some wall space, or c) deal with what I have. The room will be repainted soon; there's a very pleasant view outside the window, so the sewing machine stays there. Opposite the window wall is a closet, and a small wicker vanity on a short wall. A wicker dresser (partly seen in pic) and the entry door is opposite the bed wall. I'm left handed, so it's cut, stitch, press; from left to right. I'm looking for a better table/cabinet solution for the area, but this works for now. I'd love room for a 36" cutting table.

Hi grandmere and welcome to the forum. I understand your problem, truly I do. I hate to be without some kind of bed for when visitors come......as rarely as that is. One thing you might consider is to just use a twin bed frame without headboard and then put your table over it. I did that for a few years, then rearranged a few things as I wanted that space for fabric storage. .......sigh. My couch opens up to a queen size, so that helps. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.......

Thank you for your help.

I'm off to Ikea in a couple of days, we'll see what I find.
A good friend years ago had a duplex bed without sides, just the basic frame, and it was slightly narrower than twin, and I think it hooked together for couples? She advised me against sides. Wish I had listened. You never see those now! I would love a Murphy bed! Keep hoping they'll become more affordable.