Sew Inspiring Rooms {Jibberish Designs}

 

Welcome to

I'd like to welcome Irelle Beatie here today.  She has a wonderful sewing studio that I know you'll find Sew Inspiring!

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I recently found a great blog written by Amber at A Little Bit Biased. She has so many great things on her blog and also does a weekly series called Sew Inspiring Rooms. One of her posts asked for other bloggers to contact her about doing a guest post for that series so - here I am. My name is Irelle Beatie and I blog at Jibberish Designs. I am new to blogging but a long time quilter. I have a FABULOUS sewing space that I want to share with you.

I know I'm spoiled. I have a great, LARGE quilt studio to enjoy while I pursue my quilting passion. I'm going to give you a tour of what it looks like now. But before the tour begins, let's look at where it came from. First "BEFORE" picture taken in 2003 when I bought my condo. It was a child's room complete with border, yellow walls and animals.

I rented this room to a roommate for 4 years and then turned it into my home office. I work from home as an insurance underwriter so having a separate room for a home office seemed like a good idea. Here it is in a wide angle shot.

 

I quilted years ago when my children were small but just picked it up again 2 years ago. At first I only bought fabric for projects and didn't have a stash. Fast forward a year and my stash was taking all the available space in my office SO....... I moved my office to the living room and now I have this great sewing

space! So let's take a tour.

  

I have an L-shaped sewing table formed by a 6 foot portable table purchased at OSH and my Janome 6600 table. I utilize the walls on my right and behind me for thread storage, a ruler holder and idea boards. I like to have the table pretty free of clutter so I'm a big fan of vertical storage.

 

The magnetic strip on the left holds these great little tins that are perfect for pins, safety pins, needles and buttons - an Ikea find in their kitchen department. Next to that is my thread holder for my Aurifil thread. I bought a larger magnetic board from Ikea that has two magnetic pencil holders for marking tools and space to put quilt inspiration photos above my secondary thread holder. Above that is my ruler storage and a bulletin board for notes and more inspiration.

 

I use the space behind my chair to hang buckets for scraps and a basket for my many pairs of reading glasses as I'm always leaving them someplace and with extra pairs within reach, I don't have to get up and look for them. I also have a metal basket for scissors and the black organizer in the middle holds supplies that go with me to quilt retreats and classes but is easily accessible when I'm home. The shelf above is not very effective right now but holds baskets and other accessories.

My stash is a bit overwhelming but oh so fun! I LOVE FABRIC!! My theory is that stamp collectors don't use their stamps and coin collectors don't spend their coins so I am a Fabric COLLECTOR. I do use it but I also just like to look at it. It makes me happy! I have various sizes and shapes of shelving units that work well for fat quarters - baskets or DVD shelves; large pieces of yardage - shelves and bins and 1/2 yard and one yard cuts that work nicely in stacks on my shelves. This wall holds MOST of my stash. The two shelving units on the left are from Ikea :) After I did a post about this space on my blog, one of the comments suggested that I try using the mini bolts to store my fabric. You can see that I have started the transition in the photo on the right. I think this might work for me!

Now to one of the favorite parts of my room. When I first did a post on my sewing space, this is what my big board sewing station looked like.

I decided that the space under the Big Board was wasted by using an ironing board SO I went to Ikea and looked for something that would work to put my big board on but provide more storage for my never ending stash. I found a fabulous pine buffet table in the dining room section for about $80 and it works perfectly! Shelves for more storage and just the right height for my Big Board. So this is what it looks like now.

 

I found this great cubby cabinet on Pottery Barn that I thought would be great Fat Quarter Storage and it looks so cute above my ironing station. It has most of my newest fat quarter collections and a couple of jelly rolls.

 

The opposite wall from my sewing station is my cutting station and my disappearing design wall over the closet. Since I have such a large room, I have the luxury of a cutting station. I inherited the cutting table when my local quilt shop closed and the owner needed a place for the table. I was happy to

 accommodate her request :)

I have the cutting table below my bookshelf of quilting books and binders that store patterns. I have each pattern in a plastic sleeve in the binder and separate binders for quilt patterns, bags and purses and home dec.

My design wall pulls down over the closet door and I must admit it is down more than it is up. When it is not in use, it rolls up under the shelf which is nice. But I use it so frequently that it is almost always down with a project on it. Current project is a commission wedding quilt with message blocks

 surrounded by purple and gold.

 

The final wall in the room is the large window, TV and computer station. This built-in was my original sewing space when the room was still an office but now is just used for my computer and accumulating clutter. You see it on a clean day.

 

So now you've seen the whole room. The size of the room is about 12 x 15 so it is a great space. I spend alot of time in this room designing patterns and making quilts and banners and purses and bags. Many happy hours are spent here in the evenings after work. BUT - I'm moving! My new sewing space will be 14 x 17 but I lose the built-in and have openings and closets in odd places so it will be interesting to see how the new space comes together. I have a couple of more months to enjoy this space before I pack it all up, reorganize and put it in the new space. There have been some great ideas on the posts on this blog including last week from Bitty Bits and Pieces. I hope you've enjoyed my tour and that you have found some inspiration for your own sewing space. Thanks for the opportunity to share my space.  

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Thank you Irelle for sharing your fabulous space with us!  Oh ~ you are so organized!  And, I love your design wall.  You're one lucky quilting diva.  Thanks again!

Please leave Irelle some comment love below.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Amber