Art Gallery Fabrics - The Creative Blog

So we searched far and wide for a really cool sewing room and then lo and behold we get a glorious email from Irelle of Jibberish Designs. She was kind enough to show us her space and share the story that went behind it...

Where I sew...

If you have been following my blog, you know that I moved a couple of months ago.  The bad news is that I moved away from a fabulous quilt studio.  See that blog post here.

The GOOD news is that I have an amazing quilt studio in my new home!!  This is what it looked like in progress….

And NOW – let’s take a tour!

When you walk through the door of my quilting studio, the back wall of fabric immediately tickles your senses with the beautiful color!  This is definitely my happy place.

When I moved, I wrapped all of my fabric on boards for storage.  You can purchase hard plastic boards in two sizes from Polar Notions here.  I started with them but when I realized how much my stash has grown, I needed a less expensive alternative.

Enter this post by Jennifer at That Girl That Quilt and I had my solution – comic book boards!  I bought two packs of 100 but had to go back for more!  I used the comic book boards for all of my quilting cotton that is 1 yard or more.  I used the Polar Notions small boards for pieces that are larger than a fat quarter and smaller than a yard.

My fat quarters are stored in baskets, a CD tower and a cute Pottery Barn cubicle shelf.  Some of it is stored by collection and some of it is just random.

My sewing space is comprised of my Janome sewing table with an adjacent large table for all the necessary accessories. I definitely love Ikea for all those lovely storage ideas.  Many of them come from their kitchen section.  The magnetic strip with the tins is great for pins, safety pins, and needles.  The large magnetic board and the bulletin board are great for design ideas.

Here is a closeup of some of my tools and accessories on that wall.

To the left of my sewing station is my ironing station.  In order to maximize my storage space, I purchased a pine buffet from Ikea that fits my Big Board perfectly and has two shelfs of storage below for my project boxes. I put some plastic bins for scraps and a couple of decorative shelves above the ironing board.

No sewing room is complete without a design wall and my space has TWO!  I have a Disappearing Design Wall above my closet and a second one to the right of my cutting table.  And Art Gallery fabric in my Work in Progress!

My big board can double as a cutting table BUT, I have a separate cutting table between my design walls. Spoiled – I know. I put the cutting table in an opening that would normally go through to my bedroom but I needed the space.  One the backside is a second dresser as my bedroom was too small for two.

The final wall in my quilting studio has two closets for messy storage and my TV and library of quilting books.  I store all of my patterns in plastic sleeves in binders and since that collection is growing – I have quite a number of binders sorted by category of patterns.

I keep all of my messy storage in the three closets in the room.  The first photo is the closet below my disappearing design wall.  The other two closets are on either side of the TV/library.  I put extra shelving units to maximize the storage capability in these two closets.  I don’t have a photo of the left closet as the mess was too much

The bonus to this sewing space is that I have quite a bit of floor space.  It works for laying out a quilt to baste it.  And also has enough room that I can add two portable 6 foot table to the front and side of my sewing machine table when I want to do some machine quilting.  I’m trying to do more of that but I still prefer to send my tops to Heidi at Rocky Mountain Quilting for her magic.

I think that completes the tour.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my quilt studio.  I spend many wonderful hours in this space. I’ll leave you with a close up of my sewing room art from the makelifesweet gals and their Sweetwater Etsy store.  I love these prints!

Thanks for checking in!  I hope you enjoyed my studio tour. 

Happy sewing,

Irelle

** Thanks Irelle! We really loved seeing your space and we hope that this inspires people to make their sewing space a creative haven.

Have an amazing space? Did something cool and creative? Well what are you waiting for? Share your sewing space with the rest of us... we really would love to see it. Email [email protected]

Til next month :)

Love, The AGF Team