Changes in the Sewing Room

Recently I have been doing some rearranging in my sewing room. I pushed my large cutting table off-center, toward the back wall.

I cleared out the pile of junk that had accumulated in the corner, and brought in a chair from another room.

The front wall, between the dormers, is completely void of furniture...the treadmill has been relocated as has the press.

The table that was under the window, which held the coverstitch machine, has been eliminated...it was just a card table and was always intended to be 'temporary', but at my house, 'temporary' sometimes is a long time! Now the coverstitch machine is sitting right beside my serger.

The whole wall is 'open' now...like a dance floor!

I removed all my fabric from these green cabinets and sorted through it... what I kept was rearranged/grouped and placed inside purchased bins for a neater appearance. The 'isle' between the cabinets and the cutting table is much narrower now, but I can still get the bins in and out, as well as open the doors on the island/cutting table and pull out the bins kept within.

I used to keep my ironing board right in front of the green cabinet, to the left of my sewing machine, so I could just pivot left and press when I was sewing. Now that the isle is narrower, I must find a new place for the ironing board!

The new light over the sewing machine is SO much brighter than the two mismatched lamps I had on my table before! I am no0t a huge fan of fluoroescent, but the light is bright and cool and it could be hung and plugged into an outlet. I REALLY wanted recessed lights, but that is a much bigger deal to provide!

So, "WHY," you ask, "are you doing all this rearranging?"

Because I have made a new purchase for the sewing room and it takes up space!

Yep, I got a long-arm quilting machine! Isn't that exciting? Well, it is to me! I have been dabbling with quilting for the last few years, and enjoy the piecing and designing but doing the actual quilting was always a challenge. Before, I have showed you the HandiQuilter frame that I was using with a Brother 1500 sewing machine...including the PVC handles I made to enable me to quilt from the front side.

But even with that set-up, I always dreaded the 'quilting' time, because I knew I would have trouble...skipped stitches, uneven stitch lengths, etc. It seemed to take forever to sew a tiny area.

Plus, the scale of the designs I could stitch was very small due to the size of the throat space on the machine.

So now, I can stitch larger designs!

I am still practicing, but am having fun!

I am now considering what lighting I will get for over the quilting machine. The fluorescent light made SO much difference over my sewing machine that I am considering getting a couple more to put over the longarm...but I hate the thought of all those cords and chains hanging down! But it is very apparent that I will have to get/make something...perhaps a light rail! :)