Gene's Sewing Studio

Welcome to Gene’s Studio

Hello everyone and welcome to my little corner of the creative universe! Come on it grab a beverage and sit and sew awhile!

My media of choice is fabric and fiber. I enjoy garment construction, quilting, home dec sewing, machine embroidery, knitting, and surface design.

My studio is over our 2.5 car garage. My room is 19 x 22.5 feet. It is my place to create and relax. I have 6 sewing machines and 2 sergers that I use. I usually have 1 serger and 4 sewing machines set up at any one time. Please follow me as we continue on our tour.

After climbing the stairs to get up to my studio this is the first view that greets you. It is standing on the landing looking down my wall of bookcases towards the south wall. On the left side of the photo are bookcases that contain books, supplies, buttons and yarn. In front of the window on the left is my ironing station. To the right of that is my design wall followed by another window (the shade is down hard to tell it from the design wall. The back of the chair is my guest sewing station. The sewing machine on right side of the picture with the back showing is my 200/730 set up for embroidery. Behind that facing the camera is my primary sewing station. The Dr Seuss fabric sitting in the foreground is on the end of my cutting table. Most of the cutting table is out of the picture. Directly to the right out of camera range is the railing to the stairs where I have a metal closet organizer surrounding my thread cabinet.

Here is my thread cabinet it was origionally used to store punch cards that were used to program computers. It has 33 drawers that are 2.25” high by 8” wide and 16” deep! It is awesome!! To bad all of my thread does not fit in it. The thread cabinet backs up to the stair railing and has a metal closet organizer surrounding it that provides lots of shelf space.

This photo shows most of my unboxed fabric wall (the fabric shelves go approx 6 feet to the right out of the range of the camera). To the right of the open shelves starts all my boxed fabric. Most of the fabric in the boxes is cataloged in a 3 ring binder. I use banker’s boxes and they are 3 deep against the wall. I use the flat surface the boxes create as a shelf to hold an extra roll of batting and a bunch of polar fleece. The end of the cutting table can be seen in the foreground of the photograph.

Stand with my back to the fabric wall here is  a look at the book end of my wall of bookcases. The bookcases to the right off the edge of the photo contain supplies, buttons and yarn.

Here is a close up of the dividers I made so I can keep my books organized and be able to find the one I want with out having to search the whole bookcase.

Here is a photo of my main sewing station. It currently has my 440 set up on it. To the right on the edge of the photo is my Bernina 180e set up for embroidery. The blank spot on the cabinet behind the desk lamp is where my Bernina tackle box goes. When the picture was taken it was at the shop for club weekend.

In front of my main sewing station is my design wall it is about 6 to 7 feet wide. To the left is my ironing station and behind me is my Bernina 200/730 set up for embroidery.

This photo is showing my 200/730 set up for embroidery and the back of my 1630 that is setting on the guest sewing station. It also shows my cutting table. The far back corner is where I was standing when I took the first photo. That is the top of the stairs.

Here is a close up of my iron station. I like to stand and look out the window when I have to iron/press! On the bookcases there is my yarn collection, button collection and some bolted fabric. My serger station can be seen in the foreground. To the left of the serger is my guest sewing station.

Here is a close up of the cutting implement pegboard at the top of my stairs. I am not even sure how many scissors and rotary cutters it contains.

And last but not least is Ms. Violet Royale. She is the governess of my studio she sees and knows all! She is about 24 inches tall and purple!!!!! She sits on top of a tall narrow bookcase. I love her!

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my studio! I have enjoyed showing to you. I feel very blessed for having it and I love when friends come over and sew with me!

Happy sewing to all!!!

Lisa's Sewing Studio

My sewing space is located in our small bedroom that is frequently occupied by guests.

I do not get to sew as often as I would like but enjoy sewing tote bags, purses and baby items. We are expecting our 6^th grandchild so I need to get moving!

I started out sewing on a Brother NX400 which has since been moved to the back of the line. I love using my old 830 and have since acquired a Bernina 1130. I love the “older” machines but am saving my pennies for a “new” 830!  I also have a Deco 340 and have so much fun using it.

Working as a tech, I have been bitten by the Bernina bug (caution: it is an incurable disease ~ worsening with frequent trips to Seams Like Home!) My co-workers are so talented and inspire me with their creativity. This in turn, causes me to start more projects. 2012 is the year of completing those unfinished projects! The quilt in the picture was started in 2005 and is now complete! Wish me luck on the rest…..

Lisa

Meg's Sewing Studio

Hi!  I’m Meg and I’m a sewing machine repair technician here at Seams Like Home.

I moved into my childhood home 3 ½ years ago, and now have a great space for sewing/crafting.  Having to show my area in this blog prompted me to clean up the room, and really get organized.  Look now, because it will never be this clean again.

I am using my formal dining room as a sewing room.  What a lot of space!  I have the TV to watch while sewing, and my Aussie to keep me company.  One end of the room has my sewing machine, and the other end my cutting table.

My favorite tool is the design board.  Using the top of a bed for laying out a quilt got to be a hassle if someone needed to sleep, and having the quilt horizontal I just didn’t get the whole picture.

The dining room table was too low to use as a support for a cutting surface.  The top of the dog kennel is higher, so I put a board across the kennel and now have a great cutting area.  My newest tool for cutting is the rotating cutting mat.  Now the dining table is free for me to have a space for beading and paper crafts.  I especially like Tim Holtz tags.

I have been sewing since I was 12, doing mostly clothing and home dec.  I made my dress for my senior prom.  Well, I made the dress, and on the day of the prom my Mom was sewing on the pearl accents. 

I started quilting in 1986, but never felt that there was enough time to devote to it.   I retired June 2011, and now I have time.  I especially enjoy Breakfast Club here at Seams Like Home.  Marcia picks a new quilt to do every month, and she introduces new techniques with each quilt.  I get to use those beautiful Bali Pops in many of the quilts.

The quilter’s saying is “the one who dies with the most fabric wins.”  I’m doing my part in this contest.  I have so much fabric that I use an empty bedroom to store it.  One wall is nothing but shelves where I have boxes of fabric by color and by theme.  I love the Asian-themed fabrics and the blenders that go with them, batiks, and I have several boxes of my hand-dyed fabrics.   I also store my needlepoint projects and yarn here, along with patterns, batting, and pillow forms.  In a different bedroom there is wall storage for all my quilt and craft-related books.

Thanks for visiting.  Now I’ll get back to sewing, and mess up my room.

Chris' Sewing Studio

Hi, and welcome to my sewing room - or as my kids used to call it: "Mom's Sanctuary where she communes with fabric".  

Since none of the rooms in our house are plain squares,  I took advantage of the narrow part of the room by the window to set up workstations along either wall so I could just turn in my chair and use whichever machine I needed at the time.  The cutting table has lots of room underneath for those bulky items like batting, pillow forms, machine cases, etc.

We spend a lot of time at hardware stores for our never ending remodeling projects, so I've gotten a lot of ideas for organizing there.  I used parts cabinets for organizing needles, buttons, snaps, etc. and the peg board for scissors, hoops, and anything else that can hang.  The work surfaces are solid doors laid atop file cabinets or shelf units. They come in various widths and can be a real bargain if you look in the "scratch and dent" section of the store. You can always put the bad side down!

I have a storage cabinet by my sewing machine with drawers and I put a small ironing surface on top for quick pressing, or a small cutting mat for trimming. I also love swing-arm lamps! They clamp onto the door top (in the doorknob hole) and can be moved into just about any position.

Ahhh, the fabric. Behind the ironing board is a wall of fabric. This time, I used those wooden closet folding doors as shelves - narrow and sturdy so they don't bow. On the left you can see the result of my "I love fleece" phase. All the furry friends you see I've collected for the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Teddy Bear Tea project. The plan is to make a small quilt for each of these critters. In the meantime, they add cheer to my room and keep me company.

One of my favorite storage devices, which was my husband's idea, is the slack rack mounted in that small, flat space behind the door. It is a great place to hang pressed strip sets or other pieces and it takes up virtually no room.

Of course there is also a closet  and other corner in this room dedicated to yarn, must fix, and all the other crafts that I've tried out over the years. I'm trying not to overflow my space, but I'm finding that quilting needs a lot more room to maneuver large expanses of fabric, so maybe I need to reorganize? Thanks for visiting, I'm off to commune with fabric