I am a sewing room refugee :(

When we first moved to this house with five small children in tow it had seemed that we had more space than we could ever hope to use. In this home I was finally able to secure a small room under the stairs in the basement that would be all mine. Twelve years later and five much larger children with bigger piles of necessary stuff, we are all still here; including the one I thought would have moved out by now. Instead she has decided that the University experience is far better commuting from home and has decided to do her next four or five years from here. The comings and goings of a young adult are rather noisy, they keep hours that are either very early or very late and prove to be quite disruptive to the rest of the family. We decided to move her to the basement and this meant disassembling my room. That space was my sewing room/ studio/ getaway space. Now don't get me wrong. I am grateful to still have all my children around and we are all sleeping better at night, but I don't believe I fully realized the implications the loss of that space would mean to me.

As I packed away my things and moved them into storage, I had thought I would be able to find a small corner somewhere in the house to use. Instead I am shifting from room to room and groping through bins and boxes to find a zipper, button or thread as needed. I am working on getting a couple of those handy plastic drawer units organized with some items, but it simply not the same. I liked having everything laid out in my room. I had cupboards and shelves, a huge design wall and space to work. I could replace a broken zipper in 10 minutes inbetween driving children to tutoring or sports and cooking a big family dinner. Now I have supplies in one closet, fabric in another, (and under our bed) my good sewing machine and serger in the workshop (which I can't use right now... long story) an ironing board set up in the kitchen, the etsystore sale items in a storage locker and last but not least, my lovely old singer in the family room. I moved it there as it seemed the least intrusive and folds up quite nicely into a very small piece of furniture when not in use. However, it's always in use so it's never put away. This is the same room the we have our family TV in and while I was sewing last night one of my dear sons mentioned that the sewing machine was rather loud and could I sew later? hmmmm.... As I contemplate where I will shift my machine to next or how I will convince my hubby that we need to do a renovation :) I'll leave you with a picture of what I did accomplish last night on my son's quilt. (Before I was shut down by the mob!)



Happy Quilting!





PS I am open to ideas and suggestions.... I need a good sewing desk ... a cupboard... send me ideas!



Where are you quilting? Do you have an awesome small space?