The Studio refresh

Yay! It’s finally done. Mostly.

I have no doubts that if you’re one of my regular readers, you know that I’m easily pleased by little (and some big) things that happen around here. The Hubs overthinks construction on the level that I overthink everything else, and I have to admit that sometimes he has better ideas than me. Yes, I can own that. So while I had what I thought were “there’s no way it won’t be anything but this” moments, serendipitous epiphanies happen while you’re arranging and rearranging, and they make me happy. 

The sewing and cutting rooms have been switched. While I didn’t gain a lot of space by moving the sewing room area, it's enough extra space that will be much more comfortable which translates to more productivity. 

From start to finish, this project took almost three months. The idea exchange and discussions with the Hubs started in earnest while returning home from our Nashville trip in early July. The key issue was my sewing cabinet. Too much was going on with it; it held The Beast and Ani, my Bernina 790 Plus and Brother Luminaire, my ScanNCut, and my serger. It also was the repository for paperwork, odds and ends, and other chaos. I loved the size of the table, but it limited my ability to walk around the room to get to things, including the design wall. It became too cramped to do edge-to-edge quilting on my Luminaire. 

The table before cutting down; doesn't look so bad, but none of the machines are on top of it.

I knew I wanted to move my sewing functions to the larger room. I also wanted a setup where I could put my feet flat on the floor (I’ve been sewing at an elevated surface for 6 years). I think about ergonomics a lot and realized it’s better for my feet to be flat on the floor in order to free-motion quilt. I don’t necessarily believe I will do a lot of FMQ, but I want to do it successfully. 

And physics; specifically, weight distribution. Whatever I’m quilting needs to be supported in order to achieve even quilting stitches. And while most of the quilting I’ll do will be on my Luminaire using the embroidery module, I have to ensure that the quilt can freely move back and forth and side to side in order to achieve that goal. 

I have seen lots of cabinets in my 60 years of sewing. What I couldn’t get over was the pricing. I had my eye on a particular brand carried by a local sewing machine dealer and when I received an email from the manufacturer about a special sale on the perfect cabinet, I winced at the sale price. And I wanted two of those cabinets—one for each machine. 

Hubs looked at the sale ad, reviewed the cabinets at the manufacturer’s website and said, “Hold my beer.” After measuring and remeasuring each machine and noting their differences, the Hubs created one table for both of them. 

When the table was ready to move into the new sewing room, we moved all of the fabrics and notions on their rolling shelves (5) into the former sewing space which is in the front of the house. The shelves fit perfectly in the front room. The table where I used to sew needed to be repurposed into its original state as a cutting table. We took off the overhead lighting and suspension system, and took the table top off to be cut down. Hubs trimmed off the side of the top that had the recessed area for my Bernina, then put the trimmed top back on the table. While he was trimming the table top, I moved the Accuquilt die cutter station to the front window of its new location and next to the cutting table. Hubs re-installed the lighting above the new cutting table. I now have a cutting table at a height where there will be no more backaches when doing a lot of cutting. 

The Hubs removing the top for cutting

Lots of other assorted notions and supplies have been reorganized, placed in labeled bins, and now I can locate them. 

Trimmed table top back in place

Back in the sewing room, the rolling carts have been weeded and need more weeding, but have been placed in their resting sites, ready to be pulled into use as a side table while sewing at one of the machines.

I’ve been working on this process for long enough to know that I’m ready to sew and may delay the organization just a little bit longer. 

Before the suspension system was installed over the new table, I had to sit at it and sew for quality control purposes! Hubs made a foot control station for me that keeps the pedal stationary—the one I used at the other table allowed the pedal to be kicked off if I didn’t hold my mouth right. I need to raise my seat slightly and move the pedal up a little for it to be perfect for me. 

A peek underneath the table to see the storage.

Along the north wall are the Bernina rolling cart, two pegboards, the ironing board, my
computer workstation and TV.

The view from the northeast corner of the room.

The view from the southwest corner of the room; you can see The Hubs' computer workstation in the back.

The Brother rolling cart, bookcases, and the Luminaire end of the table.

My old mat is still in great condition, and it works well between the two machines.

This is the workstation Hubs created in the closet to move it out of the former sewing room;
he set it up so we could work side by side. I quickly saw that this would not work for both of
us to be side by side. He's taking it well and now I have my own computer workstation.

The table is 4' x 7'. It is on wheels (as is most everything in here and the other room are) and can be moved in any direction. It's skewed in the room just because we had to move around some things but I kind of like it as it is. No, wait; I love it. 

I’m so happy I could just bust. And, I can breathe and move in my new spaces. Here’s hoping I really am more productive! You’ll know soon enough.

Thanks for following along on my journey. Here’s to more making!