Louisa's sewing space

I've been putting off taking pictures in the sewing room "until it is tidy".  That hasn't worked very well -- weeks have gone by and "tidy" never happens!  So I pushed aside some of the clutter and took the picture anyway.

My favourite place to be is in my sewing room.  Usually I'm doing something with my machine.  Of course, in the daytime, the blind is open and I can look out at the yard, but the picture happened after dark, so this is what you get to see.

This is the corner where I spend as much time as possible.  

My trusty sewing machine is more than 25 years old and it has seen many miles of thread go by!  The machine sits on the cabinet left behind by my previous machine.  The cabinet fits neither the machine nor me very well, and I'm planning to replace it with an Ikea table that will give a little more room for my knees and will accommodate the knee lift lever of the machine better.   The set of plastic drawers beside the machine (one set of many in the room!) contains scraps of quilting fabrics.  The top drawer is full of what I call "pieces too small to use" -- I've made several quilt tops from that drawer, and it never gets empty!

The chair came from the library when we replaced all the cloth-covered chairs with vinyl ones.  I love it because it swivels and goes up and down!  The brown bookshelf beside the machine is one that Brian bought back in his university days.  He and a friend bought a truckload of them at an auction and sold them to students and people setting up in apartments.  This is one of a few that he kept -- it has been painted many times.  I think it was coloured aqua in its most recent previous life.

You can just see the edge of the curtain that covers the closet where most of my fabric is kept.  There were wooden doors on this closet, but they really got in the way, so they came down and the curtain went up.  The elephant fabric was a gift from Sandy purchased on a trip to India.

When I looked more closely at the pictures I took I realized how involved my family is with my sewing life!  Richard made the wooden thread racks (one is mine, the other he made for Mum).   My little bunny, Rosie, peeks out from between the spool racks -- she was made during our first retreat at Keswick.  Thanks, Anna!

 On the thread holder beside the machine you can just see a nearly empty spool of burgundy thread.  This was from Lesley this summer -- I've had a great deal of pleasure using the spools I brought home from the box of thread she shared with us!  The red tomato pincushion is a memento from a dear quilting friend who passed a way a couple of years ago.  It replaces a similar one that was Mum's -- you can read about the demise of that one here.

The pincushion sits in a little dish that Ian made in elementary school.  Nearby is the baking powder tin in which I keep little tools -- that came from my mother-in-law's kitchen. My butterfly mug (gift from Kathy) sits on the log cabin coaster made when we were on Pender Island.  And the little thread catcher tub thing-y was from our "Remember Pender" challenge.

Kathy's sewing corner

My sewing corner is not too tidy, but I know where everything is, and it is cozy to work in. It's in the basement, right under the only window, which gets the afternoon sun. The white/blue/green boxes on the brown shelf each contain a different colourway of fibres (wool, embroidery silk, trimmings, ribbon, feathers, etc.) The beads, buttons, and hardware are in the cupboard below.

In the other corner of the room (to the left of the picture) are two shelves with larger plastic bins containing fabric, also according to colour. I also have odd boxes labelled leather, batting, felt, lining, denim, fleece, and African fabrics.

My overflowing mending box is hidden under the table. Whenever I feel like sewing but don't have the patience for something fiddly, I pull out a mending item and go to it. It is very satisfying to finish something once in a while that takes very little brain power. (Louisa remembers a very young Mary being told by her mother to "go put her top (or skirt?) on the mending pile." Mary apparently let out a wail, "Then I'll never see it again!!")

I have had a couple ideas for the button swop, but need to pin one down and dive in. The contributions work so well together, and could be used for so many things!

Where I Sit

Here are the two places I usually sit to work on my crafts at opposite ends of my long livingroom/diningroom. The work table usually has at least two different projects in progress and the bulletin board loaded with ideas and reference. Right now there is a section with tiny scraps of fabric from the button swap up there to get my creativity going.

The corner of the couch has a good angle on the tv and the wood stove, and a decent lamp beside me for hand work.This photo also shows my loom set up where I have been sitting occasionally to work on a set of table mats requested by Anna.