Progress in the New Sewing Studio

Holy renovations friends! When I made my last post about our new house, I thought our remodel of the upstairs would be finished in July, and I imagined I'd be all moved into my new sewing studio by September. Well, you know, we had to wait for the flooring guys, then we had to wait for the painters, then we had to wait to have some new appliances installed...and...wait for furniture delivery...and...weeks turned into months. So here it is in October, and I'm still working on unpacking and getting settled in!

But I'm dying to share how things are shaping up, so I'm sneaking you in for a little peek. Come on in, let me show you around!

Best part of the new studio is finally finding room for some of my favorite stuff I've been carrying around for a long, long time. Like the blue Rickert-Ziebold poster from receiving the award on graduating with my Fiber Arts BFA oh, like 20 years ago. Yeah, I've had this poster rolled up in a tube for twenty years! Framed and now living on the North wall.

I hung a bit of clothesline over the ironing board on the West wall as a way to temporarily display blocks. These pretty leaves are vintage blocks I picked up second-hand several years ago. I forgot I even had them, but found these while sorting fabric scraps! Someday I will sew you all into a quilt my lovelies.

The WALL OF IRONS! I think I collected my first funky old iron in the early 1990's, about the same time I picked up my first vintage sewing machine. It looks like this built-in shelf was custom made to display these irons, right? When I first set them up I was ONE iron short of making this a perfect dozen. Luckily, I found the last iron at the local antique mall to complete the wall of irons!

Tom helped me to build my design wall, and it's hung opposite my sewing machine on the South wall. I can look at whatever I'm working on while I'm stitching. I think this will also be a good spot to photograph finished quilts with some better lighting in the room, too.

Those are some favorite show posters from my time in Springfield when the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival festival was in full swing - lots of good music! I totally forgot I had these posters, they've been rolled up since I move to Chicago like 12 years ago, good to see them framed. I love the bright colors.

This vintage wire dress form has snaps front and back, and you actually put it on and form it to your body! This lady holds all my old name tags and show badges from past events. One of my all-time favorites is the badge when I judged the Elvis tribute artist competition at the 9th Annual Midwest Tribute to the King. I was also a panel judge for a Central Illinois local municipal water supply conference where I "judged" glasses of water from different towns (not nearly as exciting as the Elvis gig). Oh, and I was a St. Patrick's Day Parade float judge in the capitol city, where I don't remember much because we had to be at the judges platform early and the beer was free. Good times.

And last but not least, my new home office lives on the East wall. I really worked hard on making these pieces fit in this space and still have room to work. I could have used more bookshelf space, but hey, I am a book nerd and will never have enough space for books!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm going to invite you back again when things are finalized. What you don't see in this visit is the pile of crap that I still need to find spaces for, I shoveled it into the closet. I would much rather have open spaces in this studio that clutter, bins, boxes, and Rubbermaid containers everywhere - so I am being very selective with trying to just keep what I need, or what has real value to me. Not as easy as it sounds, and I've parted with several things already.

Until next time - happy stitching!