Welcome to Week 1 of the creative spaces blog hop! Scroll to the end for links to everyone who has posted about their spaces this week – I’m sure you’ll love it, be inspired, and hopefully, feel good about your own creative space!
This week, we are blogging about our sewing spaces, and sharing before and after pics.
I like to keep a tidy room, but whenever I travel, things can become a hot mess. I’m usually trying to finish up some deadline at the same time and my sewing space can often look like this:
I have a big space in our upstairs loft area. There’s a big table in the middle where I do most of my computer work, cutting and organizing of projects. It tends to attract all the mess when I’m in a hurry to leave on a big trip.
When my studio is tidy and clean and I’m able to efficiently use every space, it looks more like the image below (taken a couple of years ago for a feature on someone else’s blog):
I’ve got a quilt under the machine on the back wall with another quilt top on two tables in the middle of the room. My design wall on the right is big enough to hang a large quilt top. It now doubles as my basting area and my photography studio.
I can fit a full size ironing board with a big board on top, and there’s a desk where my daughter can also sew if she’s interested. You can barely see the couch peeking behind the railing where I like to drape a couple of quilts in progress.
Jason does all of the flat photography for me since that’s definitely not my skill set.
Here he’s photographing Sparkling Stars, my newest quilt pattern featuring Fandangle.
Probably my favorite thing in my sewing room is the design wall because I use it all the time. Whenever I’m working on a new quilt, or even a new fabric line I’ll hang up whatever I’m looking at and step away, to see what it looks like at different angles.
It also servers as my photography studio to take flat shots for pattern covers. We (meaning Jason) build the design wall back in 2013 the last time I did a major studio renovation. You can read about our process here.
I’m lucky to have a large space with enough room to put everything away when I clean up.
My least favorite thing in my sewing space is the hand-me-down wooden entertainment center. It doesn’t match anything in the room, but it was free and fits the space well. It also holds a ton of stuff, including our big ugly office printers (one for black and white printing & labels – the other for color printing.)
One of my goals during this six week blog hop is to replace that ugly brown monstrosity with something nicer from Ikea. We recently got one in our town, and it’s sad that I haven’t even been there yet! But I’m hoping I can assemble a series of smaller units and bookcases (in white) that will make the space look a whole lot nicer! I’d also like to replace my plastic work table with a taller table on wheels that I can use for cutting.
I’m definitely in my happy place when I can quilt in a clean, organized room. My sewing machine is against a wall with a window so that I have lots of natural light steaming through while I quilt during the day. My favorite thing to do is listen to a podcast or audio book while I quilt. It relaxes me and I can get into a good flow while I work.
Other Stops on the Hop
Be sure and visit these other stops on the Creative Spaces Blog hop and see how my quilty friends deal with taming their creative spaces:
Mondays
Tuesdays
Wednesdays
- Kate Colleran of Seams Like a Dream
- Kris Poor of Poor House Quilt Designs
- Jessica Caldwell of Desert Bloom Quilting
Thursdays
Fridays
Saturdays
Sundays
Christa Quilts 
When you’re ready- check out IKEAhacks for your storage replacement. I follow the blog and they post some pretty amazing projects that I often think will work well for my studio some day! Good luck.
Gorgeous space! I’m going to add my vote for painting the entertainment unit — or paying someone to do it for you! I love ikea but you won’t find anything as sturdy as the piece you have.
I’m sure that sewing and quilting by the window with all the natural light is wonderful!
I absolutely love your studio space. I would paint the entertainment center white, then it will match.
Nice big space!
I started sewing/quilting 3 years ago and I just love it. My husband told me I needed a hobby but he didn’t realized that this hobby was a little expensive. Now I have my own sewing room and I also have a long arm I hope I can share this with you they’re beautiful pictures I tried to keep it nice and tidy well sometimes that doesn’t happen. I was working on a quilt from Hoop Sisters which took me 10 months. Now its Christmas in July.
I like your space a lot & enjoy your website. You probably know that places like Staples, Office Depot, etc., have tables that are on wheels and with adjustable height. Wide enough? (No reply necessary.)
One of the best things I bought years ago, was a cutting table on wheels, when the predecessor of Joanne was selling them for 1/2 price. It’s nothing special, but it’s on wheels & folds down to take up a small footprint of space when necessary.
A very nice room – great job. I admire people who can listen to audio books or talking while doing other tasks. When I was traveling on weekends from Dallas to the Tulsa area (home) and back for work, my boss loaned me some books on CD. It was useless. My mind wandered so much while I was driving that I could not concentrate on the book. When I read, I hear the words in my own imagined voice in my head and to hear a voice different from what I expect is a great distraction to me. I like to listen to music so that might be a good choice for me to use when trying to learn to quilt. Thanks for the look into your life and many good hints.
I’m so jealous! I really need to re-do my sewing area…
Love your sewing space-mine’s less than 1/2 the size of yours so I’m drooling. Why not paint those brown shelves white and save yourself some money? Wish I had the room for them.
Thank you for sharing your space with us. It is nice that you get natural light during the day for quilting, much better on the eyes. Your design way is wonderful. I, too, like you wall unit because it has lots of drawers and cabinets. I’m sure you will come up with a plan that works for you.
What a great studio! I would probably just paint the entertainment center if the size of the spaces, drawers / arrangement works well for what I store in it.
A fantastic space! It is amazing all the creative works that come out of all the “at-home” work rooms. It makes me realize that my own space is do-able!
Love the blog hop
Love your photography setup – that is nice!!! I love the IKEA Billy bookcases – I have 8 of them in my studio (ome iwth doors to hide things!!!) but they have stood up very well to lots of heavy fabric!!!
I love your studio! So bright and with lots of space!
Thanks for sharing your space. I look forward to seeing what you get from IKEA Once I move, I’ll be looking for a great cutting area, preferably on wheels
This may sound strange but I love the entertainment center. With a couple of add-ons it would be a terrific storage area. The room looks great after cleanup. What a difference just cleaning up does for a room.
You have a wonderful large space which looks like it has good lighting. I am currently trying to work my way out of one hot mess in my sewing room and I have had some ideas for replacing my fabric storage space . It’s always a work in progress.
A great room! I think you will find some good things at Ikea – the building of them is quite the process but well worth it. Good luck finding what you want.
Thanks! I’m looking forward to it and will definitely post an update!
Christa Watson Instagram @christaquilts website/blog: ChristaQuilts.com Click here to join my facebook group: Quilt with Christa
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 9:06 AM, Christa Quilts wrote:
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Love your sewing area, Christa! Have you thought about just painting the entertainment center white? Love all of he drawers it has and I’m sure it’s solid wood. Change out the hardware on the drawers and presto, a new look. I kind of like recycling/refurbishing, though.
I thought about it, but it’s really not in great shape and I’m not the “handy” type, LOL!! Thanks for the suggestion though 🙂
That was going to be my suggestion!
just purchased a table from Ikea for my sewing room. They had a display with two counter tops placed together and used adjustable legs. It created a surface that is 74″x 51″.
I love you craft room. \