I actually started working in the new studio mid-November when I made our niece's quilt for her wedding, but it was a mess!! There were items from the old sewing room and the old studio piled under and on top of the longarm and under the sewing tables and any place else there was room. I finally have it picked up and everything is in its place now.
I need to make the cover that goes on the cushion in the thread nook. It was a chore to dye and the color is not exactly what I wanted, but it will work. There will be some bright pillows in there eventually.
Just about all the drawers are full of thread, which didn't surprise me. It takes a lot of thread to quilt. The nook is one of my favorite places in the room and the bench is perfect to sit down and put ones feet up.
This is another favorite place to sit. It is the table that my husband made for me to pound on or at least that was the original request. But it is too beautiful to pound on. It is made of reclaimed wood. The legs of the table are from wooden legs from an old windmill and the top is made from boards off the corral. The light hangs from a pulley I picked up on ebay.
This area is where most of the storage is located. I store books, notions and fabric in the storage area. This is some of the hand dyed fabric I have. And you got it, my husband built those little cubies.
This is the center of the studio where the HQ Sweet 16 and my regular sewing machine are located, along with the design wall. Hope to get some of those things off of there by the end of the year. One needs to be completed right away so I need to get on that as soon as I get all those pesky tax forms completed. Joedy built the sewing cabinet over 10 years ago. Did I mention that he built the doors for the storage area, along with the awesome thread cabinet.
This is the other end of the studio and these cabinets were built by my husband as well. They use to be in the old sewing room. The drawers are full extension and deep. They hold some items that need to be finished as well or just started.
The cutting table can be seen in the corner of this photo and below. I love this table!! I have had it for 14 years and it was in the old studio. It is 6'x8' and rolls.
It has storage on both sides and holds PFD fabric, other types, batting and bags. I don't know what I would do without this table!! It also has a large cutting mat on top. It has electrical outlets on either end as well. Comes in handy.
I dye fabric on it when I am doing the large pour pieces that I use sometimes. It also works well when ice dyeing. I will have to be a little more careful now when using it.
This is the inside of the large cabinet. And yes, my husband made it as well. The top use to sit on the cabinets in the old sewing room and we had to redesign it. He built a bottom and used the two drawers that had been previously built and incorporated them into the lower part. Then he made the pulls where the rulers, cutting tools and whatever else I have that use to hang on the peg board in the old sewing room. I didn't want peg board on the walls in the new studio and there wasn't a good place to have it either. I much prefer the buttons and other items hanging on the walls. The inside of the cabinet holds embroidery supplies and more books. I have learned a great deal from books, one of the few sources I had before the internet.
This door leads to the fabric dyeing room. It was in the house my husband grew up in here on the farm. When his parents remodeled the old farm house 33 years ago, they removed the door. It was in the top of the garage for many years then moved to an old pump house where he found it and thought it would work in the studio. So glad he did!!! We stripped the old finish off of it and stained it. It has all of the original hardware on it with the exception of half a hinge on the top and bottom. I found those on ebay as well. They are a perfect match.
This is the fabric dyeing room. I wanted it closed off from the rest of the studio to prevent any stray dye from attaching itself to other pieces of fabric. And here again, my husband built these cabinets as well. They are full too. It is absolutely wonderful to have more than 17" of counter space and something other than the toilet to hold the containers of dyed fabric while they are batching.
And a double sink so that I can rinse out in one side while opening bags in the other one and dumping dye. This area was commonly referred to as the kitchen by the builders, electricians and anyone else who worked on the project.
The cabinet to the right holds the dye powders, chemicals, soda ash, etc. used when dyeing.
On the left is the old ice box that belonged to my sister, it is one of my treasures. Thanks Jim for giving it to me.
The farmhouse vanity on the right is in the bathroom that I share with the guest room. Joedy made it with the left over wood from the two large storage doors that are made of knotty alder.
So that is the tour. I would like to thank my husband for making it all possible and building so many of the things that make it the special place that it is.
Thought I should update the blog. It has been so hectic that I haven't had time or access to the computer most of the time to do any posting. There has been some positive progress made with the studio. We are finally to the painting stage!!!!
We did take a few days off last week and went camping in the mountains. Camped at a friend's ranch. The weather was great, had a heck of a thunderstorm on Sunday though. Nothing like being in the mountains with lightning all around. It was a very enjoyable trip, just too short.
It was a bit depressing to come back home to the chaos. There is not a room in the house that hasn't been touched by the addition in some way. Dust abounds everywhere!!!!! We took up the sticky plastic that we have had down on the carpet and replaced it with some fresh. There is a plastic curtain hanging in the hallway until the sheet rock and texturing is completed. I will be thrilled when it comes down permanently.
It remains folded up to the ceiling unless the dust is flying. We took the wall out that separated the new addition from the rest of the house Tuesday night. We decided we had waited long enough and why leave it to those guys. We left the messy part up on the ceiling for the guys though.
We had already removed one ceiling from a closet in the house when we remodeled 17 years ago and had an idea it would be a very big mess as they didn't believe in putting anything up there to hold the sheet rock and insulation up if there weren't any walls doing the job when the original house was built. And that is exactly the way this one was, too.
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| dyeing room |
The walls in the dyeing room have been painted once, need to paint the dark one again. I really liked using the dark paint as it widened out the room and didn't make it feel so long and narrow. As soon as that wall is painted, there will be some cabinets going up on the wall to the right. My cabinet builder is ready and waiting anxiously for the moment.
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| south end of studio area |
They will start on the underlayment in the areas where there is vinyl either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday. That will be a big day when it is completed
as well as the base cabinets can be set. I hope it will continue to come together each week and be in the studio in a month's time.
The beams are being prepped for what they will become. Will post the end result. I think they will look pretty darned good when completed.
The bricks were delivered on Wednesday and we picked up tile and vinyl yesterday in Denver. The doors, counter top, and large window, providing it was ordered weeks ago (no faith in the guy that was suppose to order it and it was a mystery to the one guy at the lumber yard the other day when checked on), all should be here sometime this week.
The stucco guys were here yesterday and put some of the chicken wire on the outside so that should be underway tomorrow as well.
Of course all is not well as the a/c is leaking on the floor in the furnace room. That took a few phone calls to convince the installer that we knew what the heck we were complaining about. Always have to have some wrinkle in the plan.
Picked up the barn door hangers the other day so we can start building the doors once the cabinets are out of the wood shop.
