Sewing Room Face Lift

It all started with a phone call from someone I had only met a few times. She is a fellow quilting professional and just happened to think of me. I love this industry. We all do what we can to take care of each other. She says, "We're getting ready to move and I have a cutting table and some storage cubbies I'm not taking with me. Would you like to take a look at them?"

Duane (my handy husband) and I went to her home to have a look. I was overwhelmed. I wish I had taken pictures of her basement studio. It was, for the most part, packed up, but it was a fabulous space. And she didn't mean just a few cubbies. She meant over 70 cubbies. I was in organization heaven. The cutting table was 4 feet by 8 feet, which is huge! And she was giving me all of this free. It's probably as close to winning the lottery as I'll ever get. It was much more than I expected so we headed back home to get our trailer, some tools, and a teenager to help. After deconstruction and reconstruction, we have finished the first phase of this project.

Here's my sewing room before the new additions. The chair on the right is pulled up to my cutting table.


Pay no attention to the ugly sofa. It's the dog sofa and the only piece of furniture the dog can lay on.


Here's the room after.


Much neater and more organized. Here's a closer look at the table. It was too big for the room so Duane cut it down to 4 feet x 6 feet. It is fabulous.

That is an 18"x24" cutting mat, to help you get the perspective of how big this table really is. The first thing I did was put a skirt on it. The two sides that can be seen as you enter the room are covered in a dark blue fabric. Here's why:

Look at all that storage! My son told me it looked like a whole basement was under there. All of my overstuffed plastic bins fit under there perfectly and all of the supplies I like to keep close by are right beside me in the white cubes.

Remember, there were over 70 cubbies. Duane reconstructed, reinforced, and painted nine of them. He will be building two more identical units to go with this one.

I love being able to see everything in the open cubes. The glass jars on top hold all of the scraps I have been cutting. Each jar holds a different size square or rectangle. It's been fun watching them fill. There is definitely a scrap quilt in my future.

This was a totally unplanned and unexpected project. I have always appreciated having a dedicated sewing space, and these latest improvements just enhance the joy that sewing and quilting bring me.