New Cabinets for My Quilt Room

I have been waiting anxiously to write this blog post. My husband has been hard at work for the last two months. Now that he is finally finished I can share the fruits of his labor and my new cabinets with you. 

My quilt room is so awesome because my husband is so talented and so wonderful to me! He has made me a cutting table, a side table, an extension table, and two design walls! Now he has made me a wall of cabinets to store my fabric in. 

Before we moved to this house seven years ago I sewed in a dark corner of our den. I purchased some shelving units from Staples to store my fabric, patterns, books, magazines, etc. When we moved I used those same shelves and added to them as my stash grew. I liked them because I could also stack them and save floor space. 

But, my quilt room gets intense afternoon sun. I have had to be creative to keep my fabric from fading because it is all stored on the west facing wall, with a window in the center of the wall.

I put pieces of cardboard at the end of the shelves to protect the fabric from the afternoon sun. It wasn't the best solution in the world, but it was better than doing nothing.

I'm running out of room too! Since I took these pictures I have taken all the fabric off of the bolts and folded it flat.

You can tell how bright the sun coming in the window is-and this is with the blinds shut. I kept a piece of muslin over the bolts under the window so that they wouldn't fade.

None of this was working for me. I needed more storage-something more efficient than the open shelves.  I mentioned to my husband that I would love to have cabinets to store my fabric in, so that I could keep the sun and dust off of it. I drew up a sketch on graph paper and showed it to him. The next thing I knew we were moving all the shelves and he was measuring for cabinets! I didn't even have a chance to catch my breath. 

It was so sad and empty at that end of the room with all the shelves and fabrics moved. It was very depressing to me. 

And the room was a mess too!! All that stuff had to go somewhere. It was moved and shoved to any empty spot where there was floor room for it. The shelves were so close together that I couldn't see the fabric or get to anything I wanted without sliding them a little bit to make a space between them. That was no easy feat, either-those shelves full of fabric are HEAVY!

My husband was very busy in his workshop for weeks building BIG cabinets for my quilt room. I loved going downstairs every day to see the progress.

After they were assembled, primed and painted, I helped carry the cabinets up two flights of stairs from the basement to the second floor. I was getting so excited at this point! I was giggling like a little girl on Christmas morning. 

First a "dry fit" to make sure that everything was going to work. Already I could see my vision coming to life. After the cabinets were in place they had to be shimmed and leveled and then installed. It was sooo hard to be patient!

All ten cabinets are installed at this point and it's coming along--but there is quite a bit of sanding going on, too. 

A fine dust was coating every inch of the room--I pulled old sheets out and covered all the fabric in the room. My hubby still needed to make the open shelves that will be installed on the far right and far left of the cabinets. 

For a week I watched and waited--and I must admit--impatiently. I was so excited to see my room being transformed with a wall of cabinets! And I wanted to put my fabric on the shelves so badly!! It was killing me to just look at all of those gorgeous EMPTY shelves and not fill them with my fabric.

At last!!! The paint was dry, the shelves were cleaned and all my fabric is finally in its new home! I just love it-it is everything I envisioned it to be. Everything has its own place~nice and neat and folded and stacked and YUMMY! There is even a cute little seat under the window-I know my granddaughters are going to love sitting there.

On this side I have all of my "fabric by color", homespuns and brushed cottons, hand-dyed, and some backing fabrics. In the upper tall cabinet are all my conversation prints-chickens, I-spy, seasonal, etc. 

On the right side of the window I have my collections of Civil War repros, 30's repros, and Kansas Troubles. I also have a lot of future projects stacked and waiting to be sewn.

My Civil War reproduction collection. I love Jo Morton and Judie Rothermel. I also have some Barbara Brackman and lots of shirtings to use with them. 

My Kansas Troubles fabrics. I have over 1,000 different 5" charms. Someday I am going to make a true charm quilt out of them-no two fabrics in the quilt will be the same. I have already made several quilts out of my stash of Kansas Troubles fabrics and I see several more in those stacks.

It's like a tall tower of delicious-ness. I love all my fabrics. I am so excited to get back into my quilt room and sew again. 

My new motto. :-) I bought this sign at the Sewing and Quilting Expo last week. My husband just chuckled when he saw it. 

The open shelves on the outside edges are going to be fun for display and practicality. One of these jars has selvages and the other is my binding jar. I also have two cute Singer tins that I keep patterns in. I sure wish I could find more of them.

I love looking at the fabric so much! It's almost sad to put cabinet doors on and close it all up. I am inspired when I see all the fabric.

Here we are! Welcome.......come on in. All of the cabinet doors are installed and everything is finished. I love the way it looks. I decided that I wanted red knobs on the cabinets to give a pop of color to the room in that sea of white cabinets. I bought large wooden knobs and my husband spray painted them for me. He also took the knobs off of my cutting table drawers and painted them red too. (He's a sweetie!)

I have died and gone to quilting heaven when I'm in this room. I could just move in and never leave (except when I get really hungry).

I love the little window seat! And my granddaughters are going to love it too. 

I kept one of my old shelf units. My wool and patterns are here. Maybe one day I will have used up enough of my fabric to make room for the wool in the cabinets too.

Everything is so neat and organized now. I am excited to get back in the room and finish up a few projects that are waiting for completion.

I also picked up a free quilting frame at a quilt shop a few weeks ago. It was just sitting in a box in the corner of the room by the sale fabric with a sign on it that said "free". I decided that it needed to come home with me. There were no instructions with it, but I laid all the pieces out and figured out how to put it together. The extra rods on the floor are to extend the length for a bigger quilt. I haven't decided what I am going to do with it yet. I don't hand quilt, so it's going to be a display piece~just not sure where.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my quilt room with its new cabinets. 

Happy Quilting!

French Message Board

This post isn't about quilting, but I did use fabric for this project, so I'm thinking it could be blog-worthy.

I have always wanted a French message board. I love the look of them and I thought that I could make one using the fabrics that I like that go with my decor instead of buying one and making do. 

After my husband made my hinged design wall we had a little bit of the foam insulation board left over and I decided to use it to make a message board. While I was shopping at Jo-Ann's the other day I spotted a piece of home dec fabric that I liked-and it was on sale. I had no idea how big I was going to make my board, so I decided to purchase one yard. I picked out ribbon that I thought would work well and then I decided on covered buttons. 

I had a large enough piece of foam board to make my board 25 X 35". I covered it with batting and then my fabric. If I had used a stretched canvas for my form I would have been able to staple my batting and fabric, but I had to use hot glue since I was using foam board. I fiddled with the ribbon for about an hour before I got it evenly spaced and how I wanted it. I stretched it around to the back and glued it down too. The buttons were fun to cover and really added the detail touch I wanted. Again-hot glue was my method for finishing.

I am pleased with the results and would even consider making them for gifts. It was a fun and creative way to pass the evening. I love having a place to tuck all the cute cards my friends send to me~now I can really enjoy them instead of just tossing them aside in a basket.

Happy quilting.

My Grandmother's Sewing Machine

I was in Florida several weeks ago for a family event and was chatting with my brother. In the middle of our conversation my brother starts telling me that he has our paternal grandmother's old sewing machine. He has no use for it and wanted to know if I would like to have it. On our way home we stopped by his house and picked it up. I am really happy to have this sewing machine because it is a family treasure that I can pass on down to one of my daughters or granddaughters.

In the box with all the attachments for the machine, I found this receipt for the purchase. My grandmother (Mrs G. M. West) bought her machine on Feb 5, 1948. The machine cost $165 (that included the cabinet) and the bench was $14.00. It's a Singer model 66-16.

Here is the machine in its cabinet in my quilt room. The bench is the one that she purchased with it. The lid comes off the seat and it has a tray inside....full of old goodies.

The machine is in bad shape. It is really dirty, has a frayed cord that needs to be replaced and it has that old oil smell about it. But, with some elbow grease, some TLC and a new cord, I think it's going to purr like new. If I can get it to work, I will definitely make a quilt or two on it. 

I love the look of these vintage scrolled front face plates. I have 3 other old Singers and this is my favorite thing about them all.

The machine has a knee control and the cabinet has a small tilted drawer in the front. 

There were lots of other goodies that belonged to my grandmother that came my way along with the machine. The larger box in the background has the buttonhole attachment for the machine. The jar with spools of thread was a special treat. 

I have seen lots of Singer accessories through the years, but I have never seen a seam ripper and needle threader. This one is still in the original envelope and has the instructions with it (she paid $.75) I am tickled to have this one that belonged to my grandmother.

Lots of fun stuff!!

Happy quilting! 

Atlanta Sewing and Quilting Expo

Last Friday my youngest daughter, Melissa, and I went to the Sewing and Quilting Expo in Atlanta. We make a semi annual tradition of this-going in March to the sewing expo and in October to the sewing and quilting expo.

This year's quilts were really pretty, so I took some pictures to share with you. There were several exhibits that were really unusual and interesting.  I hope you enjoy them.

I love applique and this was my favorite quilt at the show. The photo does not do it justice at all. There are many different blue fabrics used for the backgrounds and all of the applique is done in black and white fabrics. 

This quilt is actually more striking in a photo than in person. Because it was so big, you needed to stand way back from it to see it best.

This quilt is TINY!! The little blocks in it were about 1" square!

I loved the man and his sax!

There are so many talented people out there!

This exhibit was fun! It was multi panels that traveled Rte 66 from Illinois to California.

This is one of the stops on Rte 66.

The remaining pics are all from a really cute exhibit of house shaped wall hangings. They were about 12 X18". There were several with a quilt room theme or with quilters sewing in the house. These are a few of them to show you the variety of ideas that different quilters came up with. My four year old granddaughter, Sofia, enjoyed this exhibit best. :)

Happy Quilting!