My Sewing Room

This is me in my new sewing room that my husband designed for me! 

We recently moved a mile away from our previous home, and this loft area on the second floor is over twice as big as my previous sewing room.

Now I have room to lay quilts on the floor, etc.

 My paper doll quilt is hanging on the wall, and that is a drafting table that where I cut my large pieces of fabric.

This is an antique sewing machine, it might be a milliner’s machine because it's really little, and a different shape.

 I keep my antique sewing finds (buttons, bias tape, rick rack, etc) in a little wooden box on the table, along with a pitcher that belonged to my great grandmother. Below the table is a wooden pepsi crate that I use to store fat quarters.

This is an interesting piece of furniture that my husband purchased at a consignment shop. I keep all my quilting books in it, and some favorite photos on top. The basket on the floor holds some of my WIP projects.

I love the storage pieces of furniture, the tall pieces have display windows on top and hidden storage on the bottom.

I made a fabric pennant banner and a pom pom banner to hang over the window.

Here’s a closeup.

Behind my sewing table is a lot of fabric, mostly in half yard and 1 yard increments. I try to keep it neat and tidy and it’s easy to choose a piece of fabric when I need it. The storage boxes on top hold odd pieces of fabric which are organized by color.

This red chair is so comfortable and it swivels. I can sit here and do handwork, and when my husband comes upstairs to visit me while I'm sewing, this is where he sits.

The quilts hanging over the railing are waiting to be quilted.

This is a side view of my fabric shelves.

This is my brand new sewing machine, I love it! It’s a Bernina 750 QE and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sew on another sewing machine again. My favorite brand of thread is Aurifil.

This is a closeup of my photos. Me, with three of my grandchildren, my wedding photo, with a Photo Booth slide of my husband, son and I at the California State Fair. The little photo frame is me and my brother when we were small.

This is a close up photo of my cross stitch which won first place at the county fair, many years ago. I love the cross stitched quilt on the brass bed. It symbolizes me as a mom when my children were young. Lots of chaos at times!!!

This is a beautiful cross stitch that my daughter Rebecca made for me. I love it because she spent many hours making it for me and that makes me feel loved and special :)

This is a beautiful poem that my dear friend Joni Hilton, an author and playwright, composed and gave to me. The mat is covered by an antique quilt. I cherish this gift, Joni really put her heart into it and personalized it for me!

This is a closeup of one of the shelves in the tall piece of furniture. My vintage Nancy Drew books that I collect, a beautiful child’s book about quilting, and a music box sewing machine that plays “Buttons and Bows”.

On the middle shelf is a mason jar holding my washi tape collection, a mini Boyd’s bear, sitting on top of “wishes” tickets, and a cute Altoid tin. On the bottom shelf are more fat quarters and my collection of twine in lots of different colors!

This shelf sits above the TV, under the window. Some of my favorite fat quarters are displayed here, along with two beautiful fabric strawberries that my friend Joanna made for me. Woody belongs to my youngest son who will be coming home from a 2 year stay in Brazil, on Wednesday :)

 I have been keeping it for him, because I enjoy having a memento of him in my sewing room.

My husband purchased this clock when he designed the room. I love it and have no trouble seeing the large numbers, wherever I am in the room :)

I keep strips and squares in these clear containers with chalkboard labels. It is so easy to choose pieces for a scrappy quilt project from these bins. It saves a lot of time, since they are already cut to the right size.

 I have some bolts of fabric for backs of quilts, some fabric rick rack on an antique spool, and milk jars full of buttons. The brass bell used by my children when they were sick. They would ring the bell when they needed something.

The fabric “C” is for my name, Cynthia. I have a collection of Anthropologie bowls, each one is different. 

Sometimes I’ll take one out to hold some chocolate to nibble on while I sew.

My mother is a sculptor and she designed the lady quilting in a wing back chair. More pretty trims that make me happy!

My paper doll quilt is all hand appliquéd with lots and lots of hand embroidery.

This is a view of my sewing room as you come up the stairs. Lots of windows and natural light!

I hope you've enjoyed the tour!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Sewing Room Inspiration

I have been really busy lately with life, and am almost finished smocking Kylie's blessing dress.  I will show you my progress soon:)

I surround myself with things that inspire me in my sewing room.

Today, I am going to show you some of those things....

and none of them include fabric!!!

My son Sean is serving a 2 year church mission in Brazil.

He wanted to pack his "Woody", but I snuck it out of his trunk so that I would have a physical reminder of him in my sewing room!

Isn't he cute?  He talks and when you take his hat off, he says, "Wait just a second, something's missing, my hat!" 

When you put his hat back on his head he says, 

"Well thank you kindly.  A cowboy ain't a cowboy without his cowboy hat."

My collection of Nancy Drew books with a cool stallion book end.

My music box sewing machine that plays "Buttons and Bows".

The wheel moves around and the pedal goes up and down.

My mother gave it to me :)

My twine collection and roll of 100 wish tickets. 

It says, "If I had a hundred wishes I would give them all to you."

Favorite photos, washi tape and a sculpture my mother made.

I just noticed that in the photos, I'm a little girl, a bride and a grandmother.  I guess I skipped the "mom" phase......Lol!

My daughter Lindsay made me this twinkly star years ago.
I always put it in a prominent place to remind me of her :)

This is a beautiful poem about a quilter.

My dear friend Joni wrote the poem and gave it to me for my birthday.  The mat is covered with an antique hand pieced quilt.

Here is a closer look at the poem so you can read it.

This is a piece of doll furniture I had when I was a little girl.

A cute little Boyds bear in one of my Anthropologie bowls.

This is my button collection.  The three bottles on the left are filled with antique buttons.  The BYU milk bottle is full of buttons I have been collecting for over 40 years.  

Old spools that I embellish with some favorite trims.

A little sewing box filled with old treasures.

I especially love the red and blue buttons :)

You can never have too much rick rack, that is what I keep telling myself!

These are just some of the treasures that inspire me in my sewing room.