zoethe | A (mostly) clean, (kind of) well-lighted place

Yesterday afternoon I put the final touches on what I can now refer to as my "studio."

Laughingly, mind you. Laughingly.

The impetus for finishing was telling Amy that I'm starting up quilting again.

"That's great!" she said. "You have to make me a quilt. You made Erin a quilt, but you never made me one."

"I made you a quilt," I protested.

She scoffed at me. "A baby quilt! You never made me a big quilt, and you did for Erin."

And she's right. I did make Erin a big girl quilt, but by the time Amy was a big girl, I was not quilting. So now I am tasked with making her a blue and purple quilt out of sturdy enough fabric that it can be hauled about and thoroughly mauled without falling apart, but also soft and cuddly.

Will get right on that. Bought the tools, chose the pattern, now I just have to get the fabric and get to work.

But I realized that I lacked a working space. I mused this issue, lying in bed Sunday morning, and I remembered that the best working surface I ever had was actually an old door laid over two book cases. It was supposed to be temporary, because it was so ghetto, but in actuality the sturdiness of the door made an exceptional working space and I kept it for years.

What a shame, I thought, lying there, that I don't have a stray door n--SAY!!

Turns out we did, in fact, have a stray door lying about, the door that was at the top of the basement stairs, which I took off its hinges as soon as we moved in (it blocked a window and was never going to be used).

I was in business.

I no longer own half-height file cabinets, but there were other possibilities: book cases, for example. I didn't want to spend very much money, however, and found myself strapped with Golidlocks issues - this one is too low; this one is too high. Eventually, "just right" turned out to be a 4 shelf storage rack from Home Depot, made up into two units in what they call the "work bench" configuration.

As you can see, the door is not quite wide enough, being an interior rather than exterior door. But it's wide enough for my cutting mat, and a heck of a lot more space than I had a mere day earlier. If anyone in the area happens to have a cheap, flat exterior door they want to get rid of, I'll of course be happy to take it off their hands! In the meantime, the little shelves where the door doesn't quite cover the rack below makes a handy extra shelf, don't you think?!

I debated about the L-shaped configuration for a while, but I prefer to have room behind the sewing machine for fabric to hang down, rather than bunch up against the wall. And it makes reaching behind to grab something much easier.

The room is also the laundry room, which is actually quite handy for prewashing fabric. And there is a large double-sink washtub, so if I ever get back into dying fabrics this is a very convenient setup. All I'm really lacking is storage space - not a problem now, but I know quilting. It will be.

What you can't see is that Ferrett's drum kit takes up a large corner of the room, off to the left of the first picture. He has not been using it at all of late, and unused space in a sewing room soon becomes comandeered. My mind's eye can already see shelves and cabinets there, brimming with bright-colored fabrics. Because, after all, if he's not actually using it....

Consider yourself warned, my love. Quilting brings out a mad streak in women.