What I've Been Up To The Past Few Days....

A Brand New Sewing Room!!!!

Okay, before I even begin to share this story I have to say....I absolutely LOVE Ikea, but if I never build another piece of furniture again...I will be okay! Ouch, my poor back is killing me from being in all kinds of crazy positions to build all this stuff. Okay, I'm going to stop whining now! 

For the past few months my old sewing room was really beginning to get on my nerves. Although it was very pretty and had a lot of charm it just wasn't working for me anymore. My fabric collection was taking over and I had no place to go with it. It was all just in big piles and in all honestly it was driving me nuts and I am one of those people that has to have a neat and organized spaces in order to work more efficiently. So, I drew up a plan and made my shopping list and on Sunday Oliver and I drove up to DC to go to Ikea and we filled the back of the minivan with Lots, and I do mean lots of boxes!!! BTW... I am so thankful to the great guys who helped me load all this stuff into our car and to Ole who helped me schlepp it all into the the house. So, first things first, we had to move all the dining room furniture out and find new places to put all that stuff. Thankfully, we were able to repurpose most of it in other places in our house and just the table and chairs need to go into storage. Then to start building and building and more building...not to mention relocating all the stuff that was in my sewing room so that I could move all the new stuff into place....So, that's how I spent my birthday and the next two days. Although, I have to say that most of yesterday was spent re-folding ALL that fabric and organizing it all by color and putting it all on my lovely new shelves. Ole and the kids keep saying it looks like a fancy fabric shop in here and I have to agree...it's pretty awesome!

So do you want to go on a little tour?

This a part of "The Great Wall Of Fabric" as I have dubbed it and you can see 

the top of my awesome new cutting table!

Those big wooden buttons have to be hung up yet, but I didn't want to start 

hammering first thing this morning...NOT a good Idea!

Next we move over to my sewing area...love this, however, I do want to switch out the "Legs" for drawer units like I have under my desk...but I am in no hurry to rush back up to Ikea to get them. They will wait for the next trip! I have so much more space here to spread out and...hmmm, maybe even fit in another machine sometime soon...

Here's a better photo of my cutting table...LOVE THIS!!!! Tons of room underneath to store all kinds of "Stuff". Including boxes, bins and baskets of all kinds of little necessities..

Another shot of "The Great Wall Of Fabric". Just as a reference, each shelf is about 8' tall and 40" wide and I have 5 of them....can you say "That's A LOT of fabric!!!"

More shelves on another wall, these are only 3 shelves high instead of 6, and they hold some of my sewing magazines, more books, jars of ribbon, baskets of vintage lace, etc. etc. and on top my treasured featherweight and in all those drawers (which I want to paint white) they are filled with more, lace, trim, ribbon, rick-rack, bias tapes, piping and so on...everything I need to have fun!

Over in the corner is my tower of even more stuff....Jars and jars of buttons, my iron, and an antique silver candy dish filled with vintage hankies...and of course there's 

"Sergio" still looking as "hot" as ever!

another shot of my sewing table...with my chalk board and my inspiration board, but that's going to get relocated. I bought wall shelves which still need to be built (yuck) and then installed..that's what is in the box in the corner!

My desk....and my beloved iMac! Sorry the picture is not the greatest, but I took these really early this morning before the sun had really come out and I had to use artificial light. This is where all all that pattern writing and drafting happens and where I sit and talk to you....

More of the "Great Wall" this time showing off my yellow's, greens, blues, purples, browns, blacks, grays, whites and creams!

and finally another shot of the top of my cutting table with these cute wire baskets

 I found at good ole' TJ Maxx!

Keep in mind, I am not quite done. I want to give it a fresh coat of paint. I'm thinking a really pretty shade of a light butter yellow, new curtains and I really need to do something with that awful light fixture! But for now it's going to stay this way until I catch my breath and have had a chance to adjust to my new space. Now, I can't wait to get back to sewing!!!

Dawn