:: journey of a studio ::

For those of you who follow Whimsicals Quilts on Facebook, you may have seen some of these pictures already, but it's been so long since I've posted anything here, I thought I would share the journey of my studio from one end of the house to the other.

You see, for 10 years I have called an almost 11' x 13' bedroom my "room", my "space", or most of the time, my "cave".  It was cozy. It was familiar.  It was all mine, with as much "stuff" as I could stuff into it.  I was comfortable there.... most of the time.  As long as the outside temperature was between 55 degrees and 70 degrees.  And let me remind you that we live in Indiana, where it has not been above 45 degrees in almost 6 months.  Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  But believe me, that room is cold.  And did I say that it is small?

To see proof that it is small, see my blog posts from a few years ago here and here.

Meanwhile, this large room that was a living room when we bought the house, but became the dining room when we remodeled our kitchen, which then basically become the shipping room (did you follow all of that?) was not really being used in a good way.

So, for years I've been thinking about moving my things into that large room to create an actual "studio", but there were several things that always stopped me.  First of all and probably the biggest issue was knowing that whenever someone came in our front door, they would basically be walking into my studio.  Literally.  The only thing that is between the room and the front door are two partial walls that are 3 feet long and 3 feet high.  The second thing that held me back was the lack of wall space.  With two large doorways and a huge window, where was I going to put everything?

But after purchasing a Koala cabinet for my sewing machine last year that didn't really fit into the room as I had hoped (forcing me to use my machine on a shakey portable table all the time), I finally took the leap.   After years of waffling about it, I repainted the dining room, and moved my things and created my own studio.

So here we go.... a pictorial tour of the old and the new.

The dining room before the move.  You can see that the table was already being used for cutting instead of eating!  And I found the Ikea desk at GoodWill and stuck it there because I had nowhere else to put it.

The dining room from the other end, standing in the large open doorway into the kitchen.  What a mess!

I didn't make it into this room until my husband had already moved my computer, chair, etc., but this is what I used as a desk in my old room.  I took two legs off of a table and screwed it into the built-in desk to give myself a little side desk which I needed to save my shoulder and arm while working on the computer.

Another view of my old room after things had been moved.  Because I couldn't use the extenders on my Koala cabinet, I took the rollers off and used them to support my ironing board, which is simply a piece of wood covered in batting and duck cloth.  

And this is what it looks like now.... I still would like to add a window treatment, but I love the sunlight coming in from the window and so does the pup!

And a view from the opposite end. Yes, that is the front door to our house, right there.

And there it is!  In the next few days, I will add some detail pictures of a few of my favorite parts of the room.  But for now, I need to get back to work.  Enjoy!

Terri

Comments

[Debbie St Germain]

I love how you opened up the room and gave yourself more space to move around.

Debbie

[Leeanne]

Thank you for the tour, I love to see people's 'playstation's'. The quilt you have hanging in the dinning room, is one I made & it would be my fav!

[Sue]

That is wonderful! I do remember seeing your post of your bedroom sewing space. I too, sew in an 11 x 13 bedroom and am dying to have something larger as I have the same Koala cabinet as you do along with the matching treasure chest and they're both stuffed into that bedroom! I've had my eye on my dining room for a while so this inspires me to get to thinking a little harder about that one!

Congratulations on your new and much larger space! Wonderful.

[Susan]

Looks creative. Enjoy!

[Sew Create It - Jane]

It looks like an amazing space! Thanks for sharing the pictures!

[Chrys]

Hi Terri
there is a long time, I want to say I am admiring of your job
I think that you are the best artist of patchwork
I collect cloths Red Rooster but only they drawn by you
I love all that you make
sorry for my langage
hug for france !!
Sincerely
chrys