I''m wondering why you said you shouldn't use cardboard to store fabric. I'd never heard this and use it quite often (thinking it was better than plastic since it could 'breathe').

I love the sewing spaces!! Clara your mosaics are wonderful!! What a area you have to work in!! Not to long ago, my quilt guild had a "Sewing Room Tour" of 6 different houses & there sewing rooms, it was so much fun!! I love seeing what other people are working on & what there spaces look like! Ok, this is my weekend to work, (when I work, I do 13 & 14 hour shifts, so all I do is work), & my sewing room is kinda a pig-stye, I will post some pics on Monday as well as my latest project. Thank you all for sharing, I truly do enjoy!
Anne

I am really enjoying all the different quilting spaces. I have not come across my camera yet to take pictures of mine. I think it is lost here on my desk. My area is in the basement (unfinished, but it is mine!) I have not been able to do much there since I fell in July. I do have my featherweight set up in the dining room so I can sew a little. I will try to find that camera and post soon. My space is so messy it will inspire everyone to get their area clean!

Love the dormer space for your main sewing area. All that light in that space makes for a great work environment. It doesn't have to be fancy to be a happy place. Just your space.

Remember, I had all my stuff crammed into every nook and cranny of my home and my main sewing area was one end of our bedroom. Lots of time on the kitchen table and projects everywhere. Those temporary tables are so handy. I just moved one of mine quickly and easily near where I was pressing and created an assembly line area. Love them.

Clara

Clara, your mosaic artwork is amazing! I would like to get more creative with my sewing space but for now I'm just using what I have. There's definitely a lot of inspirational ideas in the organizing articles.

My Studio is forever a work in progress. It was time for a good cleaning over the weekend so it received another makeover in the process. The purpose of having this large attic space was so my multiple sewing machines could be set up on their own tables instead of having to be constantly moved out of the way and cluttering the floor space. So I brought in 5 folding tables and went to work rearranging. This is as clean as it will ever be!

The first photo is taken from the entry door. The fancy embroidery/sewing machine that I don't have time to use is on the front right. A simpler embroidery only machine is behind it which has been used a few times with my grandchildren. Behind that is more storage, then my 1951 Featherweight that is waiting to be plugged in for the first time. On the left side mostly out of the picture is my Janome 6600 that I use occasionally for quilting. The folding table in front of it can be moved out of the way when not in use. Behind that is the cutting and ironing tables. The 2 sided portable design wall can be rolled into the dormer when it's in the way. Then behind that is my Innova longarm machine which isn't getting used much this year, and on the back wall my fabric stash is somewhat sorted in bins. There is more fabric and works in progress scattered in different locations throughout the room.



My main sewing area is the dormer on the left facing the front yard and lake across the road. I can hear or see guests arriving from there and can walk across the house, down the stairs and back across the house to the side door before they have time to wonder if anyone's home. The storage bins on the left under the cutting table are full of works in progress.



The biggest change I made to the room was removing my old Mac computer from the dormer on the right which faces the backyard and fields. It had only been used a few times in the past several years and the space now holds 3 sewing machines including a serger which doesn't get used often, mostly because it didn't have a permanent home. I still need to get the machines set up. I placed surge protectors on top of the tables so I wouldn't have to crawl underneath to plug things in. There is room underneath the tables for things that were cluttering the floor.



The front right space by the entry door is just stuff. I have lots of stuff that needs sorted, organized, and purged. That won't be happening anytime soon. The shelves on the right hold giveaway stuff so will eventually be empty. Room for more fabric maybe!!! The Gone Quilting sign needs a quilt. You would think I would have one that would work. There is a work in progress that I may cut down or redesign to fit.



On the left of the entry door is storage space for the embroidery supplies I'm going to need someday. The stained cabinet door hides my quilting and embroidery thread which is in a cabinet set into the attic space.



I'm expecting there will be another makeover in a year or two. There's going to be an Ikea opening not far from my city home next year. By then I'll be ready to replace those folding tables with something more permanent, and maybe get more organized and creative. For now I just need to get productive again.

Thank you for the warm welcome. I am loving the new toy as it is openng up whole new avenues to me. I am trying free-motion quilting for the first time, would like to try ruler work, and of course the embroidery options are over the top. I am studying digitizing and working on making my own patterns. I have made two real quilts so far! TQS is amazing as a resource and I am so inspired by all the knowledgable, talented people and their willingness to help.
This was my first go at looking into the forum.
Heather

Welcome Heather to TQS, very friendly quilters here. I thought about the slat boards, but ... They certainly work well in your space. Love the new toy, i.e. sewing machine.

Sharon

Welcome to TQS. You are going to love it here.

Your space reminds me of a quilt shop with the way you have stored your notions. Well done.

Clara

Hi. I retired in November, bought a new sewing machine and began setting up my work space. Sometimes the cutting table is still the dining table or where a big project is worked on. I purchased a 4 x 8 foot slat board, (hubby cut it in half for me) and I painted it the same colour as the walls, then hubby and I mounted the board to the walls. So much easier to locate my tools when I can see them. I can move the hooks around depending on size of items to be hung. The wall directly behind my sewing machine can be reached while sewing and I even used quilting rings hung on the hooks to support a big quilt while machine quilting.
Storage in the closet and bookshelves and in lower cupboards (lots of thread containers in there - might have to revisit a better system for thread)
Ironing board is mounted on the wall behind the door for easy access when needed.
I am so excited that I discovered The Quilt Show! I have learned so much!
Heather

Clara, it does come in handy for huge quilts. You are talented with your mosaics. The horse is stunning.
Sharon

Ok, I know I haven't truly mad a mess yet. I'm being very good because Hubby built this nice space for me and is in here about as much as I am. I have been working on him that it will happen, so he doesn't freak out.

I forgot to put in the the bathroom shower mosaic. We made a shower easy for Mom to get in and out and I had this large bare wall to do something with. It was my largest yet. Of course I had to do a white horse with a light source. I'm my own worse enemy with my challenges. It's huge. What is really cool, is you can see it from the outside and it kinda makes you wonder if there is a horse inside the structure. We have a door on the bathroom in case you were wondering.



Sewenge, I love the long table. I bet that has come in handy with the large quilt projects.

Heather, Love the dresser idea for storage. I too cut up my extra scraps automatically into 1 inch and 2.5 inch strips or 2.5 or 5 inch squares. In fact I use those precut bits all the time.

So here are my pictures. As some of you may know, I make draperies, valances, dust ruffles, duvets, pillows, etc as my at-home business. So when you see the pictures you will see a rather large table for that purpose. It is 4 feet wide and 12 feet long; it has 2 sheets of Celetex and covered with a muslin. I use that because I pin a LOT and iron a LOT, and it is great for working on quilts. Jerry had built a table leaf at the end of the big table to pull up for extra long draperies, well when that leaf was up, I couldn't get my big butt around the table. The big table was directly in front of the stash and when the left was up it was only inches from my stash shelves; thus, the request for a bigger sewing room.

Last spring we moved the wall out 6 feet. We did all the work except texturing and hired the neighbor kid to paint. We also added an escape window, which brings in wonderful light. I really researched organization in sewing studios and did what works for me, so far. Originally under the large table was a 4 drawer cabinet, which was falling apart. So after going through all the stuff in those drawers, I decided on these mesh drawers from Ikea. Jerry built a shelf on each of the mesh drawers, one holds my plastic templates and the other holds all my rulers. I also really wanted a pegboard, painted purple, of course, for a better organization and the small mesh baskets also came from Ikea. I am strongly considering putting my stash in bins, but just haven't done it yet.

I have a rocking chair in front of my design wall, which is new to my room, woohoo and another thread rack. I also use a tall rolling stool for when I am sitting at my big table. My sitdown long arm is at the other end next to my old kitchen cabinets, which I will not open for you guys, use your imagination, hehe. Very rarely is my room messy, i.e. stuff on the floor and big table full because of customer fabric for their jobs. But I am working on a quilt for my granddaughter who turned five (under the longarm). On the design wall is a Quilt of Valor and a new fall wall hanging for us. Like most of you, I enjoy this room very much and LOVE the extra space. Sharon in Colorado

I love seeing all these spaces! Clara, that mosaic is stunning!!!

Here are some shots of my room. I have one half of the open "game room" at the end of the top of our stairs; the couch you can see belongs to the other half, and is only about 2 feet or so out from my table....enough room for me to walk between, or someone to sit in a chair at that side of my table, but not much more. I shove it out of the way as needed



The whole room



from the window, looking at the drawers

The drawers hold all my fabric. Bottom left drawer is the "scraps" drawer, where I shove everything at the end of a project. Roughly twice a year or so I pull everything out of there, cut big pieces down to the sizes I keep, and reorganize it. I keep 1.5", 2", and 2.5" strips (sometimes wider), and 2.5" squares, 5" squares, and 10" squares. When I cut fabric to save (anything smaller than a fat quarter gets cut up), I cut into the largest pieces I can. So first 10" squares; once I've cut all that I can that size, then 5" squares. Once I've cut all those I can, I cut the leftover into whichever makes sense (a strip or squares).

Bottom right drawer is the little bit of "yardage" i have; leftover backings, or something I bought for backing that I haven't used yet, etc. I mostly buy only as needed for a project so I don't have a lot of BIG pieces of stash.

The middle drawers are the "around a yard or so" pieces; one drawer has apparel/not quilting fabrics (I was given a TON of vintage fabrics, but most of them aren't quilt quality), the other has quilting cottons. Those are both FULL.

The top drawers, L to R, have my AccuQuilt Go dies & mats; my 10" and 5" squares; and 2 drawers of fat quarters. I fold everything a certain way and it's all standing on edge so I can see it, not piled in where I have to dig through. (well, the squares are piled).

On top is my cutting mat, rulers, thread stand with spools, AccuQuilt Go Cutter, and currently a quilt I had to move out of the way, waiting on a label. The bulletin board is just inexpensive fabric wrapped around foam board from a craft store, and then covered with fun stuff. Inspiration, notes, calendar type reminders, etc. The bins to the right (in the corner) are more of the vintage fabric (some LARGE pieces of off-the-bolt denim and chambray). I would like to get that area cleaned up some, but then again, I've no where else really to store huge amounts of fabric, so that works. It just has a lot piled on top right now that I've not put away.

The table has one leaf in and has another I can use if needed to make it longer. The design boards back there are "in progress" -- I need to cover the back one with matching felt and then get them stood up again.



looking towards the cabinet/window side

The cabinet is fabulous and keeps everything else organized. The bottom shelves (not shown) have boxes with "in progress" projects, or where I've gathered the materials for a project haven't started yet. Right now, there's a Christmas quilt that I've been "in progress" on for 2+ years now (I'm stumped; it's improv, and I keep setting it aside), a t-shirt quilt with shirts from my late uncle, fabric pulls for throw quilts for each of my nieces & nephews (one is on the table being quilted), and a project using some little African needlework I bought at IQF Houston 2 yrs ago and then decided last year what to do with it and will start after the niece's quilt is done. And two empty boxes

To organize those, I have post-it notes and write on the post-it what the project is, and stick that on the side of the box facing out on the shelf. This way I can reuse the boxes (they are just leftover boxes that my Fiestaware place settings came in; I know I shouldn't use cardboard, but for short-term it works and they were free, fit the shelves, and fit the projects, and have wonderful "lift the flap" design). Also this way I don't have to open each one to find what I need.



inside the cabinet

The middle shelf (in the secretary part) has my other sewing machine (I could plug it in from there and have it for piecing while the other is for quilting; I don't have it plugged in right now though, it's just stored there), as well as note cards, envelopes, tracing paper, pens, etc. The upper cabinet has quilt books, magazines, patterns (in binders, sorted by size of the project) (including my own EQ7 print-outs), a bin with templates/specialty rulers, a bin with fabric panels/purchased specialty items, a small sewing tote where I keep my extra rotary blades, safety pins, rarely used sewing machine feet, and other small notions like that, two canisters, one with fabric adhesives (glue sticks, etc) and one with fabric marking pens (including the ones I use to write labels), and cones of thread & spools of ribbons and decorative trim, and then miscellaneous other sewing things (I think the top shelf has that insulated batting/stuff for making pot holders or lunch bags, for ex). Also starch, for when I press.

Up on top, the black & white bin is for things waiting on binding, and the boxes are batting scraps. I don't have storage for large batting, so only buy it when needed (beside the cabinet you see the next batting, with under it the quilt it goes into, and the scraps from the current one that I haven't put away yet).

Not shown, but over on the keyboard in front of the window I have my iPod docking station so I can listen to music.

It's a fun, cozy space, and I like that it's out in the open with my family all around me, although I'd love a room with a door to keep out the dog & cat fur Other than that, it's perfect.

That mosaic is stunning. My space isn't nearly that pretty, but I did take pictures last night and will post in the next day or so.
Sharon in CO