project sewing room: a new addition

I started the project: sewing room a couple of years to document the changes/additions I make to my sewing room. Along the years, I have wanted to make updates and improvements to my sewing room, but I am a true minimalist at heart. Okay, if you want to know the truth, I don't know the first thing about interior design. Along with being conditioned not to collect things since I moved around a lot, I tried to keep the minimum around without having to throw it away the next time I moved. I have two new milestone improvements to my sewing room! Yeah!

The most important addition is my thread rack. For years now, I have been asking my sewing friends what they use for storing their threads. Katrin of Cattinka uses this really cool idea of storing her threads on baking sheets. Her husband made a really cool storage rack for it too. I was definitely jealous when I saw hers. I even went out and bought a bunch of supplies to make my own thread rack, and my husband kindly asked me to return the items so he could "think of something" and make it himself. You see, I had specifics...I wanted a thread rack that enclosed my thread, and you could see it all at a glance.

As months stretched on to a year, he came up with a plan, not to make the shelf, but rather "have it made." I was okay with that. Of course, it always (sentimentally) means a little bit more when your sweetheart makes something for you, but if we could find it a little cheaper and didn't have to worry about building it, that would be okay too. He did his research (my husband LOVES TO DO RESEARCH) and found an awesome place to have the rack made - vitrine24.

"Sammelvitrine" for Thread

The rack or "display case" is custom-made with the measurements 19 1/2 inches x 29 inches or 50cm x 75cm. It is separated into two parts. The top part and bottom part are equal in size, but you can have it adjusted and made however you wish. Both parts have two, clear Plexiglas doors that slide open from the sides. There are NO SPOOL INSERTS. I just wanted a place to "display" my thread and keep it free of dust.

The second addition to my sewing room is a pin board. I bought a cork panel ~ 50 x 90 cm from the local home building and supply store (BayWa) and inserted three, metal picture hangers into each side and in the middle on the back to hang it up.

Picture Hanger Screw

I use it for notes and smaller blocks. The mini quilt or block pictured here in green is a free form creation from my daughter (8 years old). She made it all by herself! Seriously, I totally let my kids sew on my machine and I DON'T watch over them. : )

Do-it-Yourself Pin Board

If you think my room is nice and tidy, it is when everything is cleaned up and put away. Since I am right in the middle of a couple of projects, the "in-progress material" was temporarily relocated. : )

If you are wondering why I didn't install the thread shelf above my sewing table, there are two reasons, actually three.

1. The pin board was already installed before the thread rack. That means, there were already holes in the wall. We can't go making more holes now can we?
2. I like to see my colorful threads. At the table, I wouldn't be able to see anything if I am sitting there. 
3. I might change my room layout around in the near future. My sewing table would go where the cutting table now is. Then the threads would be at my back.

What is next on the list for sewing room improvements? Hmm. I have been wanting a new chair. I don't think I want a computer chair, but something more stylish could do. I like my wedge cushion and don't think I could throw that away. : )

Thanks for stopping by. Next time, give me a call and I'll brew a special coffee just for us!

project sewing room: storage bins and totes

Were you curious to know if this was still an topic with me or that I ditched the subject? Although I haven't posted in a looong time, it is still a part of my ongoing series called project sewing room - "rund ums Nähzimmer." My other posts are about sorting your fabric and making a cutting/project table from an Ikea bookshelf. Today I want to talk about organization in storage boxes and totes.

Free tutorial from Forth Worth Fabric Studio

I recently re-organized my fabric cabinet and bought some plastic totes to store my fabrics. I wasn't totally happen with my fabrics flying around in my cabinet. I get pretty lazy sometimes when it comes to putting fabric back to the right spot. I thought a plastic basket or tote would be a good solution for storing my fabrics away in the cabinet, not getting dusty but could be pulled out easily when I wanted to rummage through a set of colors. I bought a few different sizes and am giving them a try. I should buy about three more, but we'll see how this goes for now.
  
As you can see, It looks like I have almost no fabric!! Do you believe that? I do, because my stash is slowly getting smaller and smaller. I am finding projects to help me de-stash. Of course, I did get rid of a lot of more "country" or traditional fabrics last fall by donating to another patchwork friend. She really appreciated them too. Now I am generally working in fabric collections and rarely pull from my own stash.

Colder colors are on the top shelf and warmer colors on the second shelf. My larger pieces of fabric are located on the bottom shelf. I keep most of my pre-cuts in other totes where I can grab at them easier for quick projects.

One option to get more organized is simply to buy cheap plastic totes. My new ones are stackable without lids. Since they are hidden in the cabinet, I thought that would be an overkill. I just wanted more of a quick in/out solution.

Another creative way to organize is to make your own totes or boxes. I have always loved the Ikea boxes and wanted to make them for the top shelf of my bookshelf/cabinet. I had this really great modern fabric in my stash which is a heavy woven made in England. I thought my shelf could use a bit of color and pulled it out. I managed to make my box with the dimensions 9 x 9 x 15 inches. It should have been 9 x 15 x 15, but the designer screwed up!!

It didn't seem as stable as it should have been, so I looked around the house and found my milk container box that holds 12 cartons of milk. It fit perfectly for more stability! I completely winged this pattern "freie Schnauze." But there are loads of great patterns out there!

If you are looking for some storage for holding your different types of fleece, wadding or batting, you can make this upright basket! We made it in our patchowrk group meeting this past month. You can find free directions with pattern here. The directions are in GERMAN! Die Anleitung ist in deutsch geschrieben, juhu!

I found this great little tutorial from the Forth Worth Fabric Studio for portable fabric tote.. I have honestly never made a basket tote, so this was very exciting for me! I did a pretty good job too, if I am allowed to say that.

I think if I make another one, I will either put the handles on the ends, or sew them down in the top stitching seam. I don't really like how they flap around. Check out my perfect side seam! ;-) Don't look at the quilting lines, just the green part. ;-)

I thought this could come in handy when a new baby is around...maybe for diapers, wipes, talcum powder/creme, etc. It matches the quilt in the background that I have been working on. The top is finished, I just have to quilt it. I am looking forward to that next week.

Have you made any good storage totes or boxes that you would like to share with us? If you have please drop us a note so we all can profit! Thanks for stopping by.

What did I learn this week? Making boxes and totes can be a lot of fun!

project sewing room: essential wanna haves

Back to the once a month posting about everything concerning your sewing room. Today I wanted to show you some essential wanna haves that can really be practical in your sewing room. What could they be? Since I live in Germany, I have some found some very nice equivalents to American counterparts.

First up is a die catcher. If you are like me and prefer to use precuts and are a little worried if the color is going to bleed, this is a great solution. Just put a sheet in the washing machine when you wash your quilt or patchwork piece for the first time on a gentle cycle with a gentle washing agent.

Next up is freezer paper German style. There is no wax on this paper, but it is a great substitute for foundation piecing especially if your pattern is longer than DINA4. You can cut to the length that you need. It is also lighter than regular paper and easier to tear. One roll is 85 Euro cents!

Third pictured above are two different heat activated marking pens. Now it is a bit of a secret around here that these pens are "magical." You won't find them in a quilt shop but at the regular office supply store. The pens are "friction" activated and the ink will disappear. You should definitely try with a warm iron and see if it disappears. I will give no guarantee if it does not.

The above pictured beauty is a thread cutter and/or an SOS seam ripper. I received this from my mother many many years ago and tucked it away nicely with the two pairs of Gingher fabric scissors. I am very thankful for them and happy that I never lost them. It is also a little strange that this seems to be a German company and some are even made in Germany; I have never seen them available in a store here!! I've always wanted to put a string on the end and hang it around my neck but never got to that either. This is an invaluable tool...a real essential.


And finally...a really awesome goody! Something you can MAKE for your sewing room or any room for that matter.

This idea came to me earlier in the year when I started thinking about Project Sewing Room. I thought of all kinds of cool ways to hang up blocks in my sewing room. This was one of them! You can either make this using a horizontal stick and glue clothespins only on the bottom to hang up blocks, or use it vertically by gluing clothespins alternating on the left and right to hang up fat quarters, or postcards, or cool scrap fabrics, or notions or other cool stuff! Of course you can use a real yard stick if you wish, but since yards aren't very common in the metric world, we used a 90-95cm plain stick. We first measured 2cm from the top to drill a hole and then glued the first clothespin 5cm from the top and every 4cm thereafter. We used 20 clothespins found at a local arts store.

Just think of all the possibilities you could use this for!! A photo board...an advent calender...a recipe holder...a missing sock board in the laundry room...a chore chart...a note board...a mail center...What else can you think of? I'd like to hear from you!

Please leave a message and I will randomly pick a winner on Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 9am. You could be the lucky winner of ONE of the essential wanna haves pictured here. Only one entry per email address please.


I really appreciate you dropping by and reading my blog. I try to answer every one's post, because it means so much to me that you leave such beautiful comments. Unfortunately, there are still a few no-reply bloggers out there that I cannot reply to. I am very sorry for that. Please make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner! Don't forget to sign up for newsletters or follow via google or bloglovin'.

Now let's get back to sewing!
Karen

service your sewing machine!

Once again it is time for a post from the series: Project Sewing Room. I was at my new class about free motion quilting (FMQ) last week, and my machine got all jammed up. I was having problems with dropping the transport (and needle) and getting the right tension on my bottom thread. I had a bunch of Kuddel-Muddel on the bottom of my fabric. And then, all of a sudden, it locked itself down! We tried to pry it out, but didn't want to damage the machine. It was time to shut it off, sit back and relax until the class was over. I practiced my quilting by drawing doodles on paper which was a great exercise! I think most Long Arm Quilters do this before they start with a new pattern.

The next day, I took my machine to the local sewing machine dealer/repair center to check it out. I also inquired about routine maintenance, because it had been a while since it was last serviced. I was actually thinking about this the last couple of weeks, because I have been so hard on my machine recently. It was starting to look a little ragged and shabby. So, the repair man just broke down the machine and serviced it which means, oiling, blowing out all of the threads, making sure the tension is correct for the top and bottom thread. He, Hr. Fuchs (that translates to Mr. Fox in English), was extremely fast with the maintenance; I picked up my machine the following day and was ready and rearing to go.

Here it what my Kuddel-Muddel looked like. This is the bottom side of my quilting sample.

So, it is very, very important to have your machine serviced or maintenaced every so often. How often should it be done? I asked and was told," the more you use the machine the less maintenance it needs." Now, I am not so sure about that, but when you start to notice that the machine just isn't running as smoothly as it used to, you should think about having it tuned. I think I have my machine maintained every two years and costs about 60€ which includes tax. It is so nice to get your machine back, and it is all shiny and free of fussles again. That lasted about a half a day!

How often do you have your machine maintenanced or what type of service do you periodically perform on your machine? We would like to know, so please share. Thank you!

sorting your fabric

In preparation for Project: Sewing Room, I cleaned up my own sewing room and sorted out my fabric. I usually sort it out once a quarter or every six months. In the beginning, it is so nicely folded and organized. Do you know what I mean? When I start to dive into my sewing projects, sometimes (just sometimes), I get lazy and just start to throw things back in without folding and color coordinating. My fabric cabinet has doors for a reason! Out of sight, out of mind.

How to sort fabric? I have sorted by color, by size, by project, by collections. What is the best way? Honestly, I haven't found it out yet. I have read books about it and didn't really understand why one would sort out by color. I usually sew in collections.

Every time I sort, I seem to do it different to see what works better for me. The last time I sorted, I folded everything nice and neatly into about 3" x 8" fabric-fold stacks. This optimized my cabinet space to fit a lot more in and stayed relatively flat instead of towers of fabrics. This time, I folded my fabric into quarter bundles. I put all of my colorful fabric on the top shelf, where I will see it and use it more often. I also put the contrasting colors in front, because I like a lot of contrast. The neutral blacks, white, brown, grays got put on the middle shelf. I hardly use these anymore.

I keep the larger pieces separated - pieces 1/2 meter and more go into their own groups. You can see these at the bottom. I will usually use these for backing fabrics.

Honestly, it doesn't look like I have that much fabric looking at this picture! But I also sorted out fabrics for special projects I am working on. My Hasenbach, North Pole, Kitschy, and Mod/Mod Block Lotto all got new project totes. I bought these at our local home improvement store - Bau V-Markt; they fit great into my cutting table shelves. I also have a few smaller collections of fabric stored in plastic bags in the other cabinet. I store my scraps, other projects, batting and notions inside that one.

Now, I really don't think I have a lot of fabric, but who ever really has enough? How do you organize your fabric and why? I would love to hear from you!

project: sewing room

Hello my very dear and loyal readers! Today I would like to share with you my sewing room and a few ideas I have about it. If you are coming to my site via IkeaHackers to take a look at the customized sewing room cutting table, you will be very excited about this new project.

I first uploaded "how to make the cutting table" almost one year ago and had big ideas for the rest of my sewing room. But as things usually go, the day-to-day gets in the way. Now that I am working in the room, I see room for improvement and desperately need to make some changes.

My project is to improve and vitalize my sewing room with (new) ideas that are very functional for the 20-ten patchworker! I will bring out a post (once a month) giving tips, ideas, or little projects that will "WOW" your sewing room. Now, I know we all have our own style. Some like dark wood, some black, some cherry, some beech (Buche) wood. I like it "modern rustic." For me, that means the look of old wood combined with white. I love color, believe me I do! But in my sewing room, I want the room to be my canvas. My sewing room will stay within this theme, but you can tailor the projects to your style and your space. I will even talk a little bit about ergonomics in the sewing room.

I am very fortunate and thankful to have a medium sized room with lots of light. It is used not only by me for sewing, but additionally as the "ironing room" where I get the laundry back into order as well as the place where the kids do their homework. So, this being said, it has to accommodate these things as well.

The essentials are already set up - cutting table, sewing table, storage. I have a wonderful cutting table (100x140cm) made by my Schatzi. I am using an older Ikea table (80x120cm) with adjustable legs which gives me the perfect height I need to sew. The table is turned perpendicular to the wall, because I want to look around my room. Otherwise, I would feel like I were in a jail cell looking at a cement wall. It also allows me to quilt larger quilts and let them hang off the table. Last year, I also bought double cabinets for fabric storage and a tall book shelf with drawers for unfinished projects and additional storage.

My room looks a little messy right now, but I wanted to be candid about it. No one is perfect and nothing is ever 100% clean and organized all of the time. My room is in a working condition, not a museum.

First up on the To-Do-List is to get my sewing room back on track and do some spring cleaning...sorting out projects, fabrics, and some general cleaning. I found a good article about it here.

I hope you will join me once a month for a post on project: sewing room! Please feel free to leave a comment about ideas that have helped you in your sewing room/space.

new customized sewing room cutting table

Hello everyone. Today is that one day of the week when the sun is SHINING! My spirits are up and am hopeful that summer is just around the bend. AND I am really EXCITED to share with you my new sewing room cutting table.

The table measures roughly 100 x 140 cm and is 92 cm high.

As some of you may have gotten or known, we bought a house and moved to Bavaria this year, and with it a new sewing room. Before, I always did my sewing at the kitchen table. We didn't have a formal dining area, so this multi-purpose room (sewing, breakfast/lunch/dinner, homework, crafting) got a little crowded at times. I really enjoyed sewing there on our dining table which was light birch wood.

Wow, a whole room for my sewing (and crafting). How much better can life get? I had a clean slate to design my area. I thought and designed and thought and designed. I am so happy I allowed myself time to think about it.

When we first moved in, everything got cluttered up in there - all of my fabric, hallway tables, two desks, crafts, bulletin boards, chairs, etc., etc. A couple of months later, I started to take the matter at hand and start to purge and organize (after most of the other fires in the house were tamed like light fixtures and kids' rooms). My husband was kind enough to offer me his office table which is 180 x 60 cm. This is really a great table and matches another smaller table of 120 x 60 cm (both from Ikea) which I wanted to use for my sewing. Of course, it is great to have such a LARGE table for basting and laying out patterns, and I was really thankful that my husband offered it to me, BUT I thought it took up too much space in my room to serve just one purpose of a table. I wanted storage room under the table. Do you know what I am talking about? I read blogs and looked for solutions and found that other sewers also had the same "beef". I need it simple-easy-practical (and multi-purpose).

Most of the ideas I found involved Expedit shelving from Ikea. (I love Swedish design and not just from Ikea.) I found a really nice cutting table using 2 (2 x 4) Expedit shelves and a butcher blog top on wheels. Probably most of you have seen this? I wanted my cutting table smaller so I can also put in a couple of book shelves for storing books and fabrics, so I found another version at Ikea Hackers for an awesome cutting table using 3 (2 x 2) Expedit shelves. I wanted to have legs on mine so I could sweep under the table when needed. (I hope I don't need wheels or casters in the future.)

My husband was really wonderful and did most of the work for me!! Thank you, Schatz!

Here is the material list:

QTY	Description		Price
3	2 x 2 Expedit shelves or similar		66€
8	Capita 11 cm legs		20€
1	118 x 79 cm Pressed Board? "Spannplatte"		10€
10	Small L-Brackets		15€
1	100 x 140 cm Butcher Block Counter Top (beech wood unfinished) 18 mm thick		60€
50?	Wood Screws
1	Can of Birch Color Wax-Stain		12€
1	Strong and Willing Partner to do the dirty work
	Various Grains of Sand Paper
2	Optional Drawer Set of 2 for Expedit		30€
	Rough Expenses		200€

We started by putting the shelves together per Ikea instructions. (My husband has become THE Ikea furniture builder the last couple of months.) After I sanded the edges of the pressed board, we then set it on top and screwed them in place. There will be a one centimeter gap between the shelves that butt up back to back. That is one reason why the additional board is needed. Then attach the legs. We were very calculated when lining up and measuring the distance of the legs. I am a quilter and have all of the necessary tools. ;-) Please refer to diagram for a better idea of where to put the wood screws; remember, there is a gap between the shelves. (We first attached only six legs and found that it needed more stability in the middle. Seven legs give a good design and added stability.) Here is a good stopping point.

After we got the butcher block from the home improvement store - we had to order and wait on the wood, my husband put a wax a stain on the counter. I didn't want a dark stain and was pleased with the natural look but KNOW that I will have a cup of coffee on the top and with it a stain. A clear lack coat would not work for me, because I didn't want the red beech wood to show through. So, we needed a water-resistant coating. We choose a birch coating just to knock of the look of redness of the beech wood. One coating is enough. Let it dry for a couple of days. Sand with fine sand paper.

Oh, my hubby only stained the top and sides per my request. If your counter top is not super flat, you will want to stain the side that is bowed up like a boat. When the board is screwed down to the base, it will level out better.

Then we put the counter top on the floor right side down and the base on top. We centered the base, pre-drilled wholes for the wood screws and screwed the L-Brackets to three adjacent sides of the counter top. The base was flipped back over and counter top was slid over one end. Then the counter top was screwed to the last side and then to the base. We carefully flipped the table back over one last time and voila!

I was so excited to see my table finally set up....I took some snapshots and ran to the basement for my quilting books and magazines. (Check) Two more boxes sorted and emptied. Twenty to go.

If you build this cutting and crafting table, leave me a comment so I can check it out.

I look forward to sharing more ideas from my sewing room in the future. Stay tuned and keep sewing and crafting.

Yours truly,
Karen

Update: Some things I forgot to mention in the post yesterday.

If you don't want to spend the money for a butcher block counter top, just buy a second piece of pressed or chip board the same size as the base. Invest the money into large cutting mats and your cutting surface is finished. I personally like the look and feel of wood, so this was a better option for me.

Also, there is a gap between the cutting table and the wall! I thought about this before we made the table. We could have extended the cutting top on three sides and left the base flush with the wall, but then my options of moving it around in the room would have been limited. Now, I have a little extra space at the end of the table (where the wall is) where I can put my large cutting mat or rather my travel bag with cutting mat and rulers.

If you don't want to put legs on the base, you could also attach spacers at the top and raise the counter top up so the table is at a good height for cutting. Ninety centimeters is a good height for a 5'5" quilter. Then, you could put your mat and rulers between the base and the counter top. I would still recommend connecting all three shelves at the bottom and top though.

Oh, also, these shelves and drawers come in a variety of colors now from pink to turquoise. Go wild!