Order Restored

 I chose my smallest bedroom for my sewing room. It's the one with the only south-facing window on the main floor. It actually faces the end wall of my neighbour's house. Nice view... Since I really hadn't done any sewing for the first three years of living here, it sort of became a catch-all room and accumulated all kinds of odds and sods, much of it unrelated to sewing, quilting or crocheting. I finally decided I'd had enough of trying to work in such cluttered and messy quarters and gave my sewing room an overhaul...

Facing south. I really want to get different curtains on these windows. These ones go down to the floor and prevent me from pushing furniture tighter to the wall, so less floor space. On the left, the brown cabinet is for my Janome Memory Craft 6000, which I inherited from my mother. It's currently in the shop. After not being used regularly for several years, I figured it could use a tune-up. In the foreground is my butterfly cutting table. Against the wall where it sits used to be a bookcase housing all of my cookbooks and crafting books. The cutting table then had to sit in the middle of the room, which is not a very big room as you can see, and so it was a pretty tight squeeze. And I'm just not that skinny... That's my little cutting mat. I used to have a bigger one, but lost it when I split with a boyfriend and he kept some of the stuff I had stored at his place. Actually, a lot of stuff, but we won't go there. That was while I was living in a motel. On my wish list is a full-sized cutting mat that will cover the whole cutting table when it's fully open.

 

This is actually an older typing table, probably could qualify as an antique, that I use for my serger, which I also inherited from my mother. Replacing this with a decent cabinet is another item on my wishlist. I have both of my irons currently in my sewing room (one usually resides in my laundry room) because I need a dry iron for a paper piecing quilt and a steam iron for another quilt I'm working on.

The east wall. This is my first design wall made from a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth with the flannel side facing out. These are blocks from the Craftsy 2013 BOM. On the wall on the right is the pegboard I hung for my quilting rulers, rotary cutters, etc. Spray-painted one of my favourite colours. The paint didn't go on very evenly, so it looks sort of like a tonal fabric. If you've been following my blog for long, you've seen my pegboard before. 

On the desk is my Janome Memory Craft 8000, given to me by a friend, who had a Pfaff and decided she didn't need the Janome as well. I tried to deny her generous gift, but she insisted. And how hard was I going to fight to keep her from giving me a Janome? It sits on a tiny writing desk, which is very impractical for sewing and especially for quilting. Now you know why a new cabinet is on my wishlist. I intend to sell the desk in a yard sale.

This is one of my treasures: an antique notion cabinet. I believe it came from my grandmother's house. I plan on getting it refinished and repaired (it fell over during my last move and broke a hinge loose on the lid) in the not too distant future. I used to use it as a night table when I was in my teens and had painted my furniture green and white, including an antique dresser along with this cabinet.

The north wall, with the door shut, displaying my over the door ironing board.

When I left my marriage, I took these shelves with me. They make great storage in the sewing room. Unfortunately, when I hung them, I don't think I mounted them into studs, so have to be careful how much weight I put on them. When I was organizing the room, I had put a bunch of bins of fabric on the shelves. Fabric can be pretty heavy and the bottom shelf was making some protesting noises, so I opted to store batting, which is much lighter, on the shelves instead. There are also sewing notions and patterns in the various containers. 

Fabric storage. Right now the dresser on the right is empty as I intend for it to be sold in the yard sale as well. The basket came from my mom. She used to have it in her sewing room. It holds the fabrics for a couple of the quilts I'm currently working on.

This is the west wall and my second design wall. That's a queen-sized flannel sheet that I found on clearance at WalMart for $5. These are the blocks for the Craftsy 2012 BOM plus extras. Out of this picture to the left is the closet door. That's where I keep the bins of fabric that were making the shelves protest. My serger's also in there along with some other supplies. I don't see any sense in bringing the serger out to collect dust until I'm ready to use it. Right now I'm focusing on quilting not dressmaking, so don't need it at the moment. I also want to get it serviced before I use it as it's been sitting idle for several years as well. 
I would like to get a computer in here. My laptop is set up as a desktop and the battery on it is dead, so it wouldn't be practical to unhook it to bring it in here every time I want to view some online tutorials or other quilting info. And it is rather tedious running back and forth between rooms to access the computer while sewing. 
But hey, I'm not complaining. Even if I never get any of the items on my wish list, I still love my little sewing room and will be able to work even more efficiently in here not that it's more organized.