Although I have been working in the studio this week, I have nothing to show for it. I will get the Under the Sea quilt bound this week so I have a finished UFO for the challenge in Feb but other than that I seem to be in the middle of several things with nothing done. But I love putting pictures on my blog so today I am showing some of the storage ideas I have come up with.




This is my cutting table. It looks like a storage unit because for some reason I have been pulling things out to look at them for current or future projects and they have just be piling up there. The plan is that when I finish posting this blog I will go back to the studio and CLEAN UP THAT MESS.

However, at the end of the table is my idea of a scissor and rotary cotter holder. I found this rack in an antique mall in Jacksonville, FL and it is perfect. Since I got it home I have also been using it to hold small items that I am putting together: block pieces, piping for a quilt, binding makers, etc. It is almost perfect. It rotates so I can get to anything on it and it doesn’t take up too much room.

My DH bought me this pants/tie holder. He said he knew I could find a use for it in the studio: it took me three months but I did. When I came home from a Bonnie Hunter class I had all these 2 ½” strips that I didn’t know where to keep them. Now look at the pants holder. On it now are the batik strips I just bought and the January block for the Calendar Challenge quilt. I was really shocked at how it slowly filled up but how easy it is to get the strips I want. I have now used it for three quilts and love it.

Besides quilt I also embroider. I have a growing collection of embroidery threads, which I also use for quilting, and had outgrown the portable holders I was using. I found this

at an antique mall in St. Augustine, FL. I have no idea what it was originally used for but it is perfect for thread. I can see everything, it holds hundreds of spools of thread, and everything is dust free. And it makes a beautiful, colorful, large art piece in my sewing room.

And this is the oldest antique in my studio: me. The studio is three rooms and this is the quilting room. There is just enough room for the quilt frame, some shelves and me. It is the only room where no TV runs because I can’t watch or even listen to TV when the HQ 16 is running, both because I have to concentrate and because of the noise. However, I do love this room. I have a bay window, facing south, on the other side of the frame and two large windows that face west. It is so light in that room that I only have to turn on the lights at night.