Due to a lack of space, I don't have a room for sewing at the moment and can't see that changing in the near future. Although one of my boys is 20 he is only 1 year into a 4 year apprenticeship so won't be able to afford to leave home for quite some time. My other son is still at school, doing year 12 and wants to be a chef so if he gets an apprenticeship, he'll be living here for quite some time too!
Luckily our home has quite a wide hallway and while its not ideal (particularly from an aesthetics viewpoint!) it does mean my sewing cabinet fits in there and we can still get past it. However when its open it takes up most of the space which means I have to pack it up at the end of each session. Sometimes its just too hard to be bothered to unpack it to fit in a little bonus sewing time too!
Last weekend when I got set up quilting I snapped some photos so you'll know what I'm talking about!
This is in quilting mode. You can see its a bit cosy! The doorway on the left at the back of the machine is my older son's room and its a manoeuvre to get in there when I'm sewing. Its also a bit dingy in our hallway so I have to use a bright light in front of the machine to see what I'm doing. At the moment I have an Ott-Lite but I'm thinking of getting one of those great bendy lights that I can attach to my machine. I'm forever nearly knocking the Ott-Lite over and its in the way at the front but for now it will have to do!
With the machine in flat bed mode you can see the lifting mechanism drops quite a way down into my knee space and I just can't get my knees in there. Once I don't have to fold up the cupboard each day I intend to lift it up higher to get over that and put a table the same height behind it. At the moment its me and the wall!
For those people to whom I have lamented my lack of space for fabric storage, the photo above is my stash! Yes that's the whole thing. (Ignore the mess on top, that's my pattern folder and quilting diary as well as leftovers from making dog blankets.) Other than a small fat quarter bag and a small cardboard box containing scraps I have cut into different sizes, this is my entire fabric stash.
The bottom box contains all my bagged up projects for my 13 UFO's in 2013 quiltalong at Marti's 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks blog - loving that system this year! The box second from the top has my very small scraps and my scrap strips all sorted into colours (hoping to make a string quilt and confetti blocks to use them up later this year), along with my swaps received from a recent width of fabric swap at Rainbow Fabric Fun on Facebook. The other two boxes are fabric - thats it, there aint no more!
This unsightly mess is what the cupboard looks like when its all packed up and I have moved all the stuff back on top of it which I usually dump on our bed. I really should have taken a photo of the mess that lives on my bed when I'm sewing! This does look a bit worse than usual as there are three pillow inserts on there waiting for their turn to be made into pillows. They are projects waiting their turn from the UFO box - as soon as their number comes up they'll be done!
The box on the front corner contains all my bits and pieces I need when I'm sewing, all stored in the little pink plastic containers with lids. They are recycled cotton bud containers and they're great for quilting pins, all my non-standard machine feet such as my walking foot etc, I have one with needles in it, binding clips etc and an open one with my snips, scissors, the dreaded stitch ripper, marking pencils etc. Tucked inside the box are also my 1/4" seam gauge, binding tool, mini ruler a roll of masking tape and an old pill bottle for worn/broken needles waiting to be disposed of safely.
All my cutting mats and larger rulers live behind the machine. I do have another area next to my lounge chair which has bits and pieces for hand sewing but that's a whole other
Oh dear - I can relate to that a bit - I used to have the "formal" dining area - hardly ever used, but all my supplies were in one of three different places. Luckily (for me) my eldest daughter got married about 18 months ago - and moved out!! - not that I was pushing her of course!!. So now I have a room all to myself - its still not big enough - LOL! Its amazing though that we can still produce great stuff even with a minimum of room. You have done well!!!
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