I've gotten so many nice comments about my overhauled spare bedroom sewing space (aka The Clubhouse) that I thought ya'll might like to see it set up for some serious (if still completely amateur) free motion quilting.
Taadaa! Since the sewing cabinet and the drawers are on wheels, I just pull them out into the middle of the room, and slide the Ikea Galant table behind it for some extra quilt-supporting real estate. Here's what it looks like with a quilt on it.
I really like this set up for quilting and for attaching binding. Both are times when I really don't want a bunch of floppy quilt weight putting unnecessary strain on the needle or making it harder for me to move the quilt where I want it to go.
I'm also in super love with my 11.5"x17" Queen Size Supreme Slider which I picked up from my friend Cristy Fincher's shop, Purple Daisies. Between the Supreme Slider and two Quilt Halos, I felt like I was having a much easier time FMQing than I really should have had, given my limited experience ;-)
Cristy's offering 20% off through March 24th in honor of National Quilting day. You don't even need a coupon code, so go ahead and get a Supreme Slider, stock up on a couple of Quilt Halos, some rubber thimbles, glue tips, and hand appliqué needles while you're at it.
Like I mentioned yesterday, Mr. Pins wandered into The Clubhouse (aka, my sewing room) on Saturday and promptly got frustrated that I couldn't work efficiently in the room the way it was set up. I had to tell him "Don't get mad about it," 'cause he was mad. About a room.
I was confused by his reaction, but looking at the photo now, maybe mad was appropriate. It was bad, but I was ignoring it and trying to get work done anyway. I'm very grateful to have a whole room for my sewing adventures, because I'm sure it won't always be the case. However, there's a lot going on in here, and I just did not see a way to improve the situation with our given furniture.
After talking with Mr. Pins, we decided I needed:
- a scrap system that could grow with me
- flat storage for WIPs so they didn't have to be piled up on a table
- a large surface area for quilting
- access to my design wall
- a good place to work at the computer where I could still see it from the sewing machine
- some electrical help so I can plug my iron in without it tripping the breaker (currently I have an extension cord running to another room)
- better lighting would be awesome, too
We grabbed the measuring tape and set out to pilfer furniture from the office. We had to get the toolbox and remove the rounded extension from my Ikea Galant desk in the office, but we were able to put it in the corner of the room in The Clubhouse. After that, we slid the sewing cabinet and drawers next to it in front of the window and put another Galant table (previously scored from Craigslist) on the other end by the design wall. I still have some clearance to get to the design wall, and I just moved the table on Wednesday when I wanted to get a full design wall photo.
I didn't think that I would want to have my sewing machine in front of the window, but it's working out really well. If I do need to do some free motion quilting, I can just roll the sewing cabinet and drawers back in to the middle of the room and pull the Galant table behind it to give me lots of table to support the quilt.
Previously, I had scraps EVERYWHERE. I didn't even realize how much of a problem it was until I went to locate and sort them all. On Saturday night, Mr. Pins and I went to get some storage containers. These Sterilite 3 Drawer Carts are perfect for storing fat quarters and now scraps :-) There are seven of these in my sewing room.
The coolest idea I heard at Quilt Festival was to use a counter height rolling baker's rack for storing projects. Ultimately, we gambled on something that we saw at the store. This cart with the colorful drawers is meant to store 12" square paper, but it works well for all of the projects with 12.5" unfinished blocks that have been floating around The Clubhouse. I've had my rulers hanging on the side of the cutting table for awhile, and it's worked out really well.
Since the curved part of the Galant desk is in the corner. It makes it very easy to sit in front of the computer like a traditional desk or move my chair back in front of my sewing machine for sewing. The ironing board was hanging inside the closet. It's cheery to look at, though, so I flipped it out into the room.
I originally made my thread holder to fit perfectly on the side of my sewing cabinet, since it can't go there anymore, I cut a piece of wainscoating to fit with the jigsaw and nailed it to the back. Now it just rests on the side of the desk. I have a tutorial for this thread holder if you want to make one.
Now my Ikea Expedit in the corner can hold stash and larger projects. The bins are from Target. The black plastic ones are from the Y-weave line and the polka dots are from the Itso line.
The Clubhouse has been through a lot of changes over the months, but I feel really good about our most recent efforts. We've got an electrician who can help us with the plugs and lights. I feel so good about the situation now, maybe I should shoot a Harlem Shake video in here.
The idea is to use clear vinyl tubing from the hardware store and to cut it into slotted rings to wrap around your bobbins. No more bobbin tails unwinding and making a mess.
My neighborhood big box home improvement store (Home Depot) sells smaller diameter vinyl tubing in 10ft lengths. This tubing is measured by outside diameter (OD) and inside diameter (ID). The Threads magazine website described using 7/8" tubing, but their photo showed 5/8"OD x 1/2"ID tubing. Tricky. I eyeballed my Bernina 1630 bobbins and bought some 7/8"OD x 5/8"ID tubing.
When I got home, I peeled off some tape and removed the adhesive residue with goo gone. I eagerly pulled out my intense Cutco shears to slice it into rings, but I quickly found that cutting even, skinny rings was nearly impossible. I cut a vertical slit parallel to the tube and cut off a rectangle of plastic. I thought cutting the rectangle into strips would be easier. Not really.
On another trip to the hardware store (I've been there a lot recently), I tried to figure out what tool they were using to cut the large gauge vinyl tubing for sale by the foot. At that point I turned around and saw the wall of ratcheting PVC cutters. I recognized them from a landscaping project repairing the irrigation system after shattering a pipe with a shovel.
Back home again, I brought our PVC cutters up to my sewing table and successfully cut a perfect ring off of the end of my tubing. Yay! I played around with the size until I found my preferred width. It's still tricky to get perfect 1/16" precision every time, but it's a huge improvement.
The rings fit on the bobbins differently depending on how full they are. On a bobbin that's not so full, you can overlap the ends or cut some length off the ring if you prefer.
I only own about 20 bobbins, and there's plenty of tubing left on my cutting table. If you're interested in some of these without all of the trips to the hardware store, let me know, and I'll put some in my Etsy shop when I get that organized later this month.
If you live to DIY, here's my budget:
• 10ft length of 7/8"OD x 5/8"ID clear vinyl tubing: $7
• Ratcheting PVC pipe cutters: about $12 (I already owned some)
You could easily spend less than $20 for you and all of your quilty friends to have tidy bobbins!
Yowsa! I've enjoyed squeezing in a few non-quilting projects in the last week or so. My sewing room (aka The Clubhouse) is thinking about leaving its ugly duckling stage and becoming more of a swan.
