What great feedback! Thank you all for such wonderful ideas. I'm going to print this "thread" and save it.

My new dilemma is that we have decided to begin to start preping the house to put it on the market in late winter/early spring. Now what to do? Still debating on moving things downstairs but not attaching anything to the walls, which will also clean-up the look upstairs, or just leave it as is and tidy up. Decisions decisions... what does the bible say, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways..." I'm in trouble.

My sewing space is approximately 20 feet by 20 feet. Our carpenter built giant cubby holes of different sizes for storage, including one tall space for quilting frame poles and the like.
When the sliding doors are closed, it reduces the visual clutter. All the furniture (table, quilting frame, machine quilting table, sewing cabinet, and ironing center) are on wheels. I change layouts as project needs change. The design wall is approximately 10 feet by 10 feet. When necessary, I use a step ladder to reach the top when laying out a large queen-size quilt. My design wall is layered with cotton batting stapled to the wall--I find this the best material for holding the weight of multiple blocks sewn together. The sewing station is the top of a kitchen-type stainless steel cart; the gridded open surface allows me to use towels as the ironing surface--it's also great to pin into when I need the third or fourth hand when ironing over starched seam allowances.

Check out my profile for photos.

Renee

My studio is still under construction, but I have pictures posted on my blog
@ http://galynn-bhmc.blogspot.com/p/where-bloggers-create.html. Pop on over for a visit, I have made some small changes since this post.

Scoopie wrote:
That's why I chose to make over the downstairs bedroom instead of one upstairs. My studio is centrally located so that DH walks by the door when going anywhere downstairs. He can stop to talk through the screen door whenever he wants. I knew that would be a major problem if I was upstairs all the time.

Cats: I have a parade, too, no matter where I go in the house.

I used to have a nice large, 16' x 16' quilt room that had a fully enclosed Murphy bed in the wall where the closet was supposed to be. And, storage on both sides of the bed behind cabinet doors. It was in a finished basement, and there were days when I only saw my husband when I came up to fix him a meal. We have since moved into a smaller place that is all on one floor, and I now have a 12' x 12' room that I love! I have 4 pieces of Koala furniture along the walls and a large Koala cutting table in the middle of the room. DH put baker shelf type racks into the sliding doors closet, and we added a tall 2 and 1/2' wide book shelf unit. On my blank wall (next to bookcase) I put two, side by side, 4' x 8', 1 and 1/2" thick foam boards covered with fleece, for my design wall. They are hardy, and tend to stand on their own and hug the wall! I use one Koala unit as my computor station. Everything is within reach, and I can even add the ironing board when necessary. I can easily get around the cutting table, even when the sewing table is completely open to large quilt mode. My husband can call to me from the livingroom or his office. I can hear when he goes to the pantry for a snack, and therefor know it must be time to fix a meal, and sometimes he stops into my "studio" on his way to the bathroom. This whole set-up works well for me, and my husband and I are no longer disconnected!

When I'm not working on a full quilt they usually sleep on a cushion to the left of the machine under my OTT light. But as soon as I leave to check laundry or whatever, they follow. It's really funny when i am cleaning the house going room to room.

I'm the one with the screen door on my quilting studio. I have 10 cats that would just love to inspect everything in there and leave behind tons of fur. Two have behavioral problems so they would be leaving behind more than fur! None are Ragdolls but they all would like to be in that room with me. Most of them don't show much interest if I'm not in there. They take turns laying in different spots outside the door to keep an eye on me so they know that I'm still here.

As far as storage goes, I have two wooden wardrobes for fabric, thread, scraps and some batting. This was a 10x12 bedroom with shelves on the walls which I have now filled with books and boxes. There are two 5-shelf bookcases and two DVD stands. My table is huge. DH built it for a dining room table. There are only two of us at home now. We don't need a table that seats 10 so I bought a smaller table for the dining room and took the big one into the sewing room. On the table is my regular machine, serger, large cutting mat, small TV and DVD player plus boxes of misc. items. There is enough room to keep my ironing board up all the time. All my old machines are stored along one wall. I just can't part with them. There's plenty of room under the table to store boxes. The only thing quilt-related that's not stored in there is my roll of batting. That's stored in the guest room.

This room was the only bedroom on the first floor. It eventually became a storage room. I chose it so I could be close to everything and so I won't have to run up and down stairs all the time. It did take a lot of work and rearranging to change it from a storage room to a quilting studio but I'm happy to have everything in one place and have a room all to myself.

I hear ya, Cheryl. Kitties do think of ways of getting back when they're not happy I just have to be extra cautious to clear out or cover everything that a cat could swallow or hurt herself with when I'm out of the room. But it's so worth it to have the companionship of a Quilt Inspector

Hi Brita, Right now I have a curtain across the doorway. I'ld love to put in something more solid, but would have to custom build it. It is an odd measurement. My other problem is the cats would probably retaliate. They are Ragdolls and LOVE to be in the same room. It's part of their trait.

Iused to have a bedroom, which I vacated periodically to house an exchange student. My two daughters shared the other bedroom. Then my oldest daughter asked "How come the exchange students get their own bedroom and we don't?" and I knew I wasn't getting the sewing room back! But in the meantime we had remodeled, the living room was much bigger, and I tookover a corner (6 or 7 foot square) of the living room, with fabric storage elsewhere. I really like being in the middle of things! Except now I have to actually finish a quilt or two, especially when there is an avalanche among the project bags!

I am going to take over the family room someday.

I have a back corner bedroom too & I love it! I am fast outgrowing, but don't really want it to change. My hubby would love to redo it, but he tends to tear up & start things, but not finish the job & I have no intention of packing all my room away, then it sits there forever, till, if & when, he ever decides to complete the job! I have my machines in there, a tv/dvd player, a nano, & most anything else I want. i could almost live in there, but DH wouldn't like that too much, lol. In the other extra bdrm, we are empty nesters, I have a Grace Mini Pinn Frame set up in crib size, & I love it!....

My sewing room is 12 X 21 In there I have an iPod and a TV to keep me company. Nice and quiet if need be when trying to work out a problem. I am at the far end of the house where 4 under foot dachshunds can't bug me and no constant interruptions from retired husband.
In this room I have jammed in...... 10 foot table holding my Gammill premier, two cutting tables, a sewing table, 3 wire basket towers, one chair with footstool and a SewEZY table for my Featherweight named, Brat! Under my Gammill table are several designer type cardboard boxes from Ikea holding supplies. Extra fabric and batting are stored in a closet in another room. I have windows on three sides and canned lights in ceiling but favor Daylight magnifier light sitting on cutting table.

Barbara

P.S. One wall behind the door is covered with foam and flannel to serve as my design wall.

due to the fact that i am from the netherlands, i cant tell you how big my quilt corner by foot, but by inches - 50"x120" ! small as a niddle hole. i store my fabric at my cats room (the way that Alex does, i found it great way) and when i need to basting, batting etc. i empty my living room and my eating corner. as you can imagine i live in a little tiny place but loving it. my cats enjoy it very much as i do

Cheryl, isn't it amazing how much we can stuff into a small room, and still have it be functional!?!? About your cats coming and going, I read somewhere about someone putting a screen door to their sewing room. The critters (cats, dogs, kids) can see in, but stay out!