Sewing Room Update...

I enlisted Andy's help this past weekend to install some upgrades in my sewing room and I have spent the last 2 days rearranging some things.

The first thing we did was install a new LED light bar ($19.97 from HomeDepot) above this window to illuminate the far end of my sewing table where I use my Singer featherweight, my embroidery machine, and my serger.  You can hang it by the included chains or you can clip it directly to the wall/ceiling using the enclosed clips, which is what we decided to do.  (I was able to eliminate the pole lamp and table lamp that you can see in the foreground of this picture after the new light was installed!)

You can see how dark this end of the table is without it...

...and how much brighter it is with the light on now.  No more shadows!!!

It's official...the astronauts can now see my sewing room from space!  LOL

The other change we made was to add wire shelving above the cutting table to create more storage.  

Before...

It has always bugged me that the wall space above the table was not being utilized, but I wasn't exactly sure how to solve that problem.  I had actually thought of buying upper kitchen cabinets and putting them up there, but wasn't sure about how that would work with the track lights.  A few years ago a friend gave me some ClosetMaid wire shelving and some of the hardware, but I had never put it to use.  I got it out of the basement, cleaned it up, and then went to HomeDepot to get what we needed to add to it to install it.

After...

I had 2 large totes of fabric stored under my sewing tables and I had originally I thought I'd put them in bins up on these shelves.  After contemplating the set-up, though, I decided to move my UFO's to the shelves, thus freeing up 3 shelves in one of my cabinets...and store my fabric on those 3 shelves, instead, keeping the fabric low and within easy reach!  

Those two totes under the cutting table are full of batting pieces in various sizes that I have either joined together to be used, or are still waiting to be joined together to be used.

I specifically put that bottom shelf on the left down low for a reason...
When I am cutting fabric for a quilt, I use the back 1/3 of the table to hold everything that I am using.  The table becomes very cluttered and reduces my usable area until the quilt is finished and all leftovers are cut up and put in the scrap bins.  This way I can use that shelf for temporary storage of what I am currently working on, thus freeing up the ENTIRE table for cutting use!  (I had actually seen a picture online of a person's sewing table and she had a shelf just a few inches above the back of her sewing table to cut down on the clutter that tends to collect there!  Brilliant!)

I buy clean pizza boxes from the local pizzeria and use them for UFO block storage...all labeled with what is inside.  The white plastic containers came from my previous workplace...a piece of equipment came in them and they get thrown away.  They hold UFO's that have smaller blocks.

All of these things were stored on the three middle shelves of this cabinet before...

It now looks like this...

No more large totes under my sewing tables!!!  And ALL of my fabric is easy to find now!  

Loretta

Busy Busy Busy...

"It's the thought that counts".  

If that is true then I have blogged many, many times over the last couple of weeks because I've "thought" about it a LOT.  Putting fingers to the keyboard is another thing altogether.  

I've been trying to get a couple quilts ready to gift...which I thought would be happening around the beginning of the new year.  However, our plans have changed a little so the quilts will be hanging around here with me a little longer.  BUT at least they will be ready to gift when I get the chance because I've been busy binding and labeling them!

In the past couple of weeks, I finally finished up the Sherbet quilt...

...but haven't had a chance to take pictures of it.  I will post pictures of it soon, though.  I really love the way it turned out!  

Here are the labels I've made for 2 of the quilts I've finished up in the last couple of weeks...

For obvious reasons, I've had to blot out the name of the recipient until such time that they have been gifted.

I finished the quilting on the Daffodil quilt 2 years ago, but had never put the binding on it.  

BUT...I can finally remove that task from my "to do" list and now the quilt is ready for labeling!  :)

See...I told you I'd been busy!!  LOL


Today Andy installed some much-needed track lighting over my cutting table!  

I can see now...it's a Christmas miracle!  I have angled the far right light so it shines on my ironing board.

Tomorrow when I am in town, I will go get some conduit to attach and cover the cord along the wall.

Loretta

Lighting Redux...

Quote for the Day:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
~Theodore Roosevelt

 

When we moved the sewing room into the former master bedroom, I immediately noticed that the lighting in there wasn't sufficient for sewing or quilting.  

 

In 2010, when we remodeled the master bedroom, I specifically chose the ceiling fan and light to provide beauty and a diffused light to inspire a calming atmosphere.  Unfortunately, when I am sewing or quilting, I need the room lit up like a landing strip!!!   The ceiling fan was oil-rubbed bronze and the light's globe was Italian amber scavo glass.

 

The ceiling fan that was in the old sewing room was...well...functional.  It was antiqued brass with just regular downward-facing, open, tulip-shaped globes.  

 

At first I suggested to Andy that he switch out the ceiling fans with their respective lights.

 

Yeah.  That went over REAL big!  

 

Then I thought I could buy a new light kit to fit replace the amber glass glove in the sewing room.  But that involved spending more money and then what am I to do with the beautiful amber glass globe?

 

Hmmm.  Could we just do a swith-a-roo with the light kits on the two ceiling fans?  But wait...the "metal" parts of the fans are different...one is oil-rubbed bronze and the other is antique brass.

 

The globe from the oil-rubbed bronze fan only has a small amount of metal on it so it works pretty well with the antique brass ceiling fan.

 

  

But this is what the light kit from the antique brass fan looked like.

 

   

How do I make it look right with this oil-rubbed bronze ceiling fan???

 

 Enter...Krylon Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint!!!

 

Using newspaper, I covered the opening where the lightbulbs go and spray painted the rest.  

And viola...

 

Not bad!!! And cheap, too!  :)
It's so nice having adequate light in the new sewing room, now!  :)

  And I'm a happy girl!!!

 

Loretta