Take a look again at my studio and maybe pickup a few organizational tips!?

Recently someone commented on my studio pictures when I showed my new Rowenta iron

and I figured I’d do another post with new pictures of my whole studio and maybe you can pickup a new organizational tips or ideas!

This is what my studio looks like when you walk in the doors, it’s an upstairs bonus room above the garage.

I showed this ironing table in my “iron post” it’s a wire shelf unit from the hardware store (or online) and it’s half the height and it has a board on top that’s about 22″ deep and 60″ wide, which is GREAT for FQs and a WOF!

I’ve recovered this board probably 4 times now and it had a layer or two of batting first, then it’s just fabric stapled to the back.

I used to have two black shelves above it but the lower one caused a shadow when I took photos of anything on the board, so I removed it but kept the taller shelf where I have a bottle of best press, usually a bottle of spring water, a pincushion, scissors and a cup with pens and whatever pointy tools I need.

Then I just have fun stuff I like to look at on the wall- and yeah that’s Trump in the picture, I showed it before, I got it when I became a US citizen-more about that later 🙂

Under the shelving unit I have lots of 10″ x 13″ bins, I forgot when I got those from, some online, some walmart, some are 2-3″ tall some are double. I keep these for my UFOs or orphan blocks or leftover QUBE cut fabric pieces.

Like this one, I have a printout from EQ8 and then have the fabrics ready in the bin and I often take notes of what QUBE dies I need to cut and how much of each fabric-if I’m turning it into a pattern.

I also keep prepped stuff for embroidery projects, like these eyeglass holders. I know they all need a 6″ WOF strip, so if I cut fabrics for another project and there’s only 6-8″ of the WOF left, I quickly cut it up to make an eyeglass holder and put it in the bin.

Next to the ironing board is my GO BIG! and I have all the different sized mats behind it, also there’s a little ledge of the counter in front of the machine and I put leftover scraps there until the pile gets too big that it’s in the way or fall down, then I sort the scraps and put them in scrap bins- OR which I just finished, cut them into scrap blocks or pieces for scrap blocks, but I’m done with all those now, so I need to find another scrap project 🙂

Moving down the counter, at the other end I have my 6 needle embroidery machine and on the wall I have big B and L as thread holders, hubby made these for me and we were going to sell them but the little pegs you can’t get and they are too labor intensive to cut, the BIG letters are cut on hubby’s CNC router so that’s not that bad, but it’s the pegs!! Oh well, he’s made a few letters over the years for others too though.

In the drawers below the embroidery machine, I keep more embroidery threads and stabilizers etc, plus my trash can is in a cabinet under the GO BIG machine too. You can tell it’s a bonus room with a wet bar 🙂 It’s actually a mini freezer instead of a fridge but it’s unplugged now as we got a new fridge some months ago and moved our old one into the garage- need space for food for 6 people!!

On the first picture you saw my JUKI long arm machine, which is now computerized and I have an attachment for a GO-PRO, then small scissors attached with a little magnet thingy someone sent me and a roll of tape for marking the quilt.

Under my long arm I have a bolt of Warm and Natural Batting, usually I buy a King sized roll, not because my quilts are that big, but because they are usually a bit less than HALF of that, a bolt of 120″ wide so half is 60″ and often my quilts are 45″ or 55″ so that works better than half of a queen sized batting roll which is 90″.

Behind the long arm I have a few shelves with pincushions from when I used to host a pincushion swap- plus I have a huge blue bin full of more pincushions!

I used to have my table on this wall sticking out 90 degrees so I was right next to these, now I look at them instead when I quilt or at least load a quilt 🙂

To the left of the long arm I have a little white board where I write tops that needs quilting, first the date, then the name, then top size, batting size and backing size and if I made the binding or not.

Now my table! It’s an Ethan Allen Dining room table and I love it! it’s long and sturdy and I have lots of mats on it! My main Juki machine is next to my laptop and this is where the MAGIC happens! I design, print and write patterns here and of course all email stuff too.

My old neighbor gave me this black lazy susan organizer caddy and I have all my tools in there!

I have room for a thread basket, my coffee cup- can’t forget about the coffee!! Pincushions and scissors and a cord for charging my phone or uploading pictures. (We’re studying Scott Joplin with homeschooling and listening to his music for a week)

across the table I have my old Janome machine set up, my juki can only do straight stitching so if I need to applique or any other stitches, the janome is there.

  

Next to my table is an ikea cabinet, it’s 2 units technically and here I removed the doors.

On the left I have shoe boxes with scraps

On the right I have different things, top shelf I have tops ready to quilt- I have no place to hang quilts and I really get around to them rather quickly that if there’s folds or creases I just ironing the pieces again before loading onto the frame!

The two shelves below that are yardage- yeah it’s actually not much! I really don’t have having fabrics I don’t need, I feel guilty having spent money on fabrics with no plan! They’re sorted by color and then 0-1/2yd is in one pile, 1/2-1yd in one pile, 1yd-2yds in another pile and 2yds + in the last pile!

Below that shelf are my precuts

below that are two shelves of thread cones for my long arm- usually all Signature threads!

and the bottom shelf is for binding and long arm rulers and tools.

I just love looking at fabrics and scraps, all the pretty colors!

To the right of these cabinets I have my red snappers and blue clips for the long arm, I really have nowhere else to put them other than on the floor.

across my table I have 2 double or 4 single Ikea Cabinets, I ordered them extra deep and I’ll show you why in another picture, above these and my open cabinets I have tons of quilts!

Let me show you the inside of them!

Here’s the first two cabinets on the left, far top left I have table runners or small quilts folded up, next to those is a shelf with little sewing notions, the owl bin has zippers, elastic and stuff like that, the little drawers on the right have EPP papers and buttons mostly.

Then I have QUBE sets below everything and companion sets and on the bottom I have single dies.

The taller dies are taller than the door of the cabinets but it’s not much and if it’s not totally full I can still get a die out without opening the door above it, and really it’s ok if I do 😉

Now here’s the reason why I needed DEEP shelves, it’s to fit the GO BIG dies, they are huge and I wanted to be able to close the doors with them in there side by side like this and they fit perfectly.

You’ll also notice I have my dies sorted my SIZE and they are alphabetical too per size and I have the Accuquilt app to keep track of what dies I have. (I have 137 with the QUBE sets counting as 2 or 3 sets)

Because I work with Accuquilt I often see dies before releases so when I get the final die for myself, I leave the wrapper on it until it’s released, this way I can register it too on the app! (don’t worry the wrapped ones here have already been released, so no sneak peaks!)

Above some of the QUBE sets I have little trinkets, here is a pincushion I made with the date I became a US citizen, so I wouldn’t forget the exact date! A lady from out church gave me the American Eagle on the right, I had these things on display on the extra shelf above my ironing board but after I removed the shelf, I had to put the stuff somewhere, I know it’s behind closed doors, but it still makes me smile when I work with my 8in QUBE set, which I do a LOT!!

In the left cabinet, I have pillows and really an empty shelf, then below that batting pieces, which I inventory on my dry erase board too and I label them in the cabinet too. Then top right I have insulbright and other batting packs like that, and below that a red bin- I’ll show in another picture, fiber fill, then heat n bond and books and then at the bottom I have more Accuquilt dies, I keep all the dies on the bottom of the cabinets because I know that so many dies would make it all heavy!

Here you might be able to see that the dies are sorted alphabetically!

and here’s most of my quilt books and there’s some specialty rulers below too, which I rarely use.

Here’s what is in the red bin: leftover BINDING strips! I use these to make baskets or one time I ironed them and make a quilt out of them or make a scrappy binding if the top is all scrappy!

Under my table near my cutting area, I have this blue bin and inside it I have scrap batting pieces, I’ve had it under my long arm frame and it was hard to get to, I wonder if I just shove it all in a cabinet, maybe just in a plastic bag??

On top of the bin I have quilts I need to list for sale or if I need to add binding or a label, either way they are NOT ready to go on the shelves!- not that I can fit many more now- usually at this point I gather a big pile together and donate them.

My cutting mat is a 24″ x 36″ mat from Accuquilt and I have a smaller mat next to it, I don’t know why, but I like it there and it protects the table from other stuff, then I have a thread basket there too, so usually 2 on the table, one near the cutting and one near my sewing machine.

And last, but not least I have to the left of the door going into the room, I have my design wall! It’s a big frame that’s covered in batting, it originally was an overhead projector screen, so there’s some sort of canvas under the batting, hubby made it years ago and now I use it, every few years I staple new batting to this if it gets too hairy or starts sagging.

(and that’s Chewy our German Shepherd)

Above the design wall I have a roller with a backsplash for taking pictures of my quilts for the pattern covers- and I have spotlights I use too.

I have this snazzy wall mount and a chain so it’s easy to pull the backsplash up and down!

I’m very Blessed to have this room as my studio! Hubby wants to repaint the walls and MAYBE lay new floors, I’d like wood flooring but I’m afraid of the cold/heat and the noise from the garage, so I don’t know…..but I don’t like carpets, how I can’t find a pin if I drop it! But that’s just me being picky!