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 :)

Cut Out + Keep

Cat Morley from Cut Out + Keep contacted me and said that she would like to do a blog post on my sewing room.

What a compliment!

Here is the link to her blog where you can see my sewing room.

I hope you enjoy it, there are lots of photos :)

I love the way Cat arranged all the photos, and the questions she asked. 

We moved to a new home a month ago, only a mile away, in the same city.

On Monday I will post photos of my new sewing space.

It's pretty much the same, except that I have double the space and a new piece of furniture.

Easter Bags tutorial

I made 9 little Easter bags for 9 little grandchildren!

The little doggie one is for my 8 year old grandson.

It's sort of girly with the pleated band, I hope he likes it.
This will be the last year I will be able to give him a gift like this! 

I made a few of them a little different, but the fabric was so cute and "Easter" looking, that I used the same fabric for the rest of the 8 bags.  

7 are for girls and 1 is for my little 1 l/2 year old grandson.

He can carry his cars around in it, and won't be embarrassed at all!

It's so much fun choosing fabric for a project, especially when you have a good selection in your stash!

Isn't the puppy fabric lining cute?

I'm sure my 8 year old grandson won't want his friends to see his bag when they come over to play Legos!!!  Ha ha!

Here is the link to the tutorial on my Pinterest.

The bag was designed by Kim Walus for Moda Bake Shop.

It's really quick and easy to make, once you figure out the little trick about the lining.

The bag's about 6" tall, by 7" wide.

I'm going to fill the bags with goodies and send them off to 4 homes.

I won't be able to spend Easter with them, as well as most holidays and birthdays, but hopefully they know I love them and think of them always!

That includes Grandpa too :)

"Home Sweet Home" quilt block

I made another "Home Sweet Home" block, they are so cute and fun to make and the color combinations are endless!

I've made 2 of these house blocks before, you can see them here.

The block is designed by Lori Holt, and that is the only reason that I bought this magazine :)

I'm really anxious to quilt the house block because again, the possibilities are endless!  
To be continued sometime in the next few weeks.....

Tee Shirt Quilt, finished top!

I wondered what I could do to brighten up the border on this quilt.

I love, love, love red in a quilt, and I also love stars.

I decided to make four Kona red stars with white backgrounds to sew into the four corners of the quilt.

I think they're bright and beautiful!

I needed 2 people to hold up this quilt, but my husband was the only one available :)

Even though the stars at the top of the quilt aren't completely visible, you get the idea. 

I love the effect of the bright red stars in the corners, it makes the reds in the quilt pop.

Now I have to quilt it.

My machine will be able to handle it, but will I?

I've only ever machine quilted baby quilts before, but I never had my Bernina 750 QE then.

This is a full size quilt.

It may take a little over a week to complete, but I'll be sure and show you the results.

Stay tuned.....

Quilty Fun Sew Along, Finished border and top!

I have enjoyed this quilt along so much!

If you're just joining me, Lori from Bee in my Bonnet designed this quilt.

I managed to keep up every single week, which was a lot of work and late nights sometimes.

This is the entire quilt, with all the sashing.

I always love a red border, it adds a good pop of color.

I think the scallop that Lori designed is so pretty.

It's a nice, pieced border, and a lot of little squares to cut out :)

One of my favorite color combinations, is red and aqua.

I love the aqua border, luckily I had this great fabric in my stash.

The red is by Moda, designed by Bonnie and Camille.

The aqua is by Moda also, designed by Aneela Hooey.

I will have to put this cute quilt on the back burner for now as I have to finish my tee shirt quilt and I'm going to begin Lori's new quilt along on Monday :)

It's the Great Granny quilt along.

I hope you've enjoyed my Quilty Fun Sew Along journey.

I've enjoyed seeing some of your lovely blocks too.

Tee Shirt Quilt, WIP

I'm almost finished with my tee shirt quilt!

Well, there's still lots more to do, but now I can see the light :)

This is the top, all pieced together!

The "cougars" letters to the extreme right of the quilt are embroidered letters that were on a baseball jersey.

I cut them out and topstitched them onto white fabric.

I really like how that block turned out.

I was originally making a twin size quilt, but it has turned into a full size quilt.

I'm using this Kona slate for an 8" border, and the red polka dot for the binding.
I'm going to add quilt blocks to all four corners, that will be an extra feature that will add more interest.

I'd say it's a masculine quilt, and there are some touches of red in the quilt.

I always love a red binding that adds a little pop!

Did I tell you that I'm quilting this baby myself?

Yup, it will be a new experience, but I'm confident that my machine and I will be able to get the job done :)

Stay tuned.....