Welcome to my studio. This room (30 x 14) is made for a longarm quilting machine. I can get to it from the hallway in my house but it also has a separate french door entrance. Lots of light from 4 double-stack windows. There are loads of storage cabinets, a wet bar with fridge, and fireplace. Plus it has a wonderful view of the foothills. I love it.
I have been getting my studio set up for a while, filtering things out, giving away and selling items that I no longer use. I hung up my favorite things on the walls. I have a white board for testing designs and a blackboard for notes. I figured that I better get a snapshot of what it looks like before I messed it up again. And as I looked at it, I thought about how I have been blessed to find this place, move past some medical issues and retire to quilt for folks. God is good.
I also have a corner set up with my sewing table for my Juki and Bernina. I still have so many stencils; those are probably going to go away when I need that wall space. Most of my thread is out where I and my clients can see it. Many of the cones are covered with those glassine bags from Superior Threads to keep the dust away, especially above my machine and under the ceiling fan.
I am not too concerned about the sun hitting the thread since it is several feet away from the windows and the blinds are all drawn unless I am actually working in there. I have a bank of overhead lights above the machine. I actually had to raise that light bar about 6 inches in order to accomodate the IQ which sits on top of my Gammill Optimum Plus.
Don't even try to find my cutting or ironing stations in this studio. Nope. I wanted an enormous cutting/ironing surface 4 x 8 feet with side baskets to hold water spray, snips, etc. It is still under construction. This table will have long legs, no bending or backaches. And storage, from both sides of the table. Yup, my ironing/cutting station is in the garage. Climate controlled? Nope. Well, we can't have everything.
I decided to invite some of my friends from church, night quilting class, and just folks that I have quilted for in the past. "Come see my new digs." We brewed up some fresh coffee and served New York cheesecake. There were also some nice "parting gifts" that I snapped up from Brewer Sewing company. Nobody went home empty-handed.
I had my machine set up with a big practice piece so everybody could take a drive on it. We also selected some digitized patterns from my IQ and played with the size, scale, etc and stitched them out on black dimples fabric with some yummy Super King Tut threads (De Nile first and then Berry Patch). I didn't get a snap of all my visitors. Say hello to Rickie, Vicki and daughter Danielle, Marleen and Sharna, Connie and Dottie, Diane and Leane, Vicki and Danielle, Brenda and Debbie.
It was great fun.
I might have to do this every year.
