Since the kids have been back in school, I have been trying madly to get things organized so that I could work on setting up my quilt studio, and I have finally done it. These three photos show the room from enough angles that you can see how I did it. I love it! It has a lot of stuff in it, but there is still plenty of space to move around and I can do all of the steps that quilt-making requires in its proper space.
I really had to do some planning when it came to buying a sewing table- with limited space to work with, it needed to be small but effective. I debated about buying a sewing machine table and cutting table combination, but not only are they really expensive, but their size means you have limited options when it comes to arranging the room.
I settled on a small table where my machine could sit recessed, and a cutting table that is 36" x 60" when folded out to it's full size, and a mere 36" x 16" or so when the sides are folded down. It is also on wheels which is great when I am pinning, and the wheels lock when I don't want it to move. Rich had a number of cupboards that I could put to use to store fabrics, quilt books and patterns, and my scrapbooking stuff, as there is no closet in the room- just a door to the hallway and a door to the main floor bathroom.
Besides the two doors, the room also has two windows, an east facing and a north facing one. This means I get the lovely morning sun. It also means that three walls are virtually useless as far as a design wall is concerned.
When we first put things in there, everything fit, but it was congested and confining to be in there. So I got a book out of the library on how to set up a quilt studio and read it. As suggested, I cut out all of my furniture to scale from paper and drew the room measurements on graph paper.
The book suggested having your sewing machine, your cutting table, and your ironing board in a triangle so that was my first challenge. My second challenge was finding a way to fit all of the furniture around that triangle. The third challenge was to see if I could free up some of the only solid wall in the room for a design wall.
So I kept moving things around on the paper and I figured out a way to meet all three challenges! YAY!! I have a small light on my sewing table and another small lamp that shines down on my cutting table when I need it, and there is a light on the ceiling- no matter the time of day, I can see what I am doing.
The end result is a happy quilter and a happy room to quilt in!
