Cutting Table

After they finished the design wall, my dad and Mike were sweet enough to build me a giant cutting table on wheels.  I wasn't sure I'd like it on wheels but so far I've already moved it around to take pictures in front of the design wall and to clean under it.  It's slightly higher than my sewing table too making it great for cutting without back strain.  We chose the size so I could have get the three panel olfa cutting mat which is great for squaring up large quilts.  I didn't have one before, but was excited to use a 50% off coupon to get it at Jo-Ann's last week (love those coupons).

The frame of the table is built out of 2x4s and the top is three small hollow-core doors we got from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for way cheap.  They're great for the table top.  So far I've also been enjoying using the table for other projects too (as long as I don't get crafty stuff on the cutting mats).

Thanks to Dad and Mike!  The cutting table was the icing on the cake for my yummy work space!

Rolling Design Wall

I realized I never showed you guys the fabulous design wall my dad and Mike built for me when my parents were out a few weeks ago.  One wall of the studio is filled with wire rolling shelving units and my goal from the beginning was to have a big design wall in front of the units.

My dad is very handy and designed a system comprising 3 4'x8' panels which roll in a track and are held upright along a high shelf.  He and Mike built and installed it and it's pretty super awesome.  The 3 units roll together or apart so you can use a lot of space to work on big quilts or just work on smaller projects.  There's also space to access all the wire shelves, plus the large shelf on top (which currently houses a christmas tree).

For the actual design panels, they attached 3/8" plywood to a 2x4 frame (with cross bars).  We then glued 2x4 pieces of celotex ceiling tiles on each one and covered them in flannel. 

You can hang stuff with pins or just stick it on the flannel. In addition, you can iron on it or steam on it.  So far I love it; I've got one with lots of my little inspiring things pinned up on it and the other two I'm using for designing.  Thanks so much Dad and Mike!!

The studio is..... functional! Hooray!

I promise that soon there will be more crafty posts on here, but for now everything is so crazy I haven't been sewing at all.  I thought I'd just pop in and give you guys an update on what we have been doing; working on the studio!

Mike is the true hero of the story, after painting and painting and painting, he then installed all the flooring (on two consecutive days) all by himself!  It looked so lovely and pristine and wonderful.

On Saturday we assembled shelves and moved all the furniture in (in anticipation of some work that will be done in the house this week).  It took the whole day and into the night, but the studio is now completely functional.  I even have my apple TV and DVD player hooked up.

I sewed my first stitches in it on Saturday afternoon, sadly nothing exciting, just some minor repairs to a tote bag I found while cleaning up.   We still don't have a cutting area (which will be in the center of the room) or the design wall (which will be in front of the shelving) but my parents are coming out in a few weeks to help with that.  The most striking thing about the space is how open, light, and airy it feels although that may change as we fill it up with things.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  More sewing soon!

The studio is..... colored?

Things have been pretty crazy lately in our neck of the woods, so I haven't been sewing quite as much as usual.  One of the things that's been keeping us busy is the new studio project.  I'm so excited its finally coming along and am very anxious to get moved in.  To make things more chaotic, we've decided to take advantage of the general moving-around-ness to do some other small home renovations, so things inside the house are all in an uproar.  The dogs aren't quite sure what to think.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd pop in and share a few updated pictures from the studio.  When last I checked in,  it looked like this

The next step was to have it framed which happened just before Christmas.  Then the electrician came, and then the framer came back to do the sheetrock and tape and texture, and then the electrician came back again, etc.   Finally, today Mike and I painted.  It took us all day, but we got one coat on all the walls.  I painted the center truss with several coats of white spray paint since it was just bare, so now it blends in better with the walls.  We'll be putting on at least one more coat of the bright yellow on the back wall, but we're definitely making progress.  Special shout out to Mike who did most of the hard painting including the whole giant ceiling!

It's kind of hard to tell since Mike was madly snapping pictures after it got dark as I finished up some last painting, but the yellow is bright saturated crayola-8-pack-first-grade-color-wheel-just-plain-yellow yellow.  It's the brightest yellow I could find with as little green or orange undertone as possible.  The color is great and after one more coat I think it will look much awesome.

 For anyone local, my electrician was Feegee Matlock and my drywall/framer was James Henslee.  They were both awesome and I'd recommend them for sure.

 Any of you have ongoing renovations?  Home improvement projects?  New studios?

UPDATE:  You guys!  You will not believe the awesomeness!!!  While I was at work today Mike painted the whole building again white and yellow as a surprise for me!  It looks fantastic super-duper wonderful.  He's such a sweetie.  Then he sat down on one of the dog poofs and scrunched around on the floor with a scraper scraping off all the texturing compound so we would have smooth floors to lay the laminate this weekend.  How blessed am I to have such a guy!

The building is growing!

Right now my house is totally chaotic with pre-Christmas crafting.  There are lots of projects going on but that means little time to blog.  As well many of the projects are for people that might read here, so I'll  wait to post them till after the holidays.

I did want to pop in quickly and give you guys an update on my studio project.  Well, last week the builders came!  I'm very excited!

The builder called me and asked me to mark where I wanted the windows, but when I got out there with the chalk, I got a little carried away and left a bunch of different messages!  I'm sure they think I'm nuts.

Anyhow, this is what it looked like at the end of day one!

Here's what it looked like during day 2- it was very cold and I was thrilled that the guys were still working.

In the foreground of that second picture (which Mike took through the sliding glass doors) you can see the barnyard animals that are part of my stick-to-the-window nativity.

And here it is finished (at the end of day 3).

I'm so grateful to be able to be doing such a big project.  The building is absolutely great, total shout out to my builder Rick Means (awesome guy) at Moore Custom Buildings.

I'm now facing the challenge of getting the electrical and the sheetrock done, both of which are presenting much more of a challenge than the building, so who knows when I'll be able to move in, but I'll keep you guys posted.

Hope you're having fun and not stressing too much!

I Have Concrete!

I'm super excited to start sharing this with you guys (pretty much in real time).  I'm starting to build a studio!  Or rather, my fabulous contractor is building me a studio.  I've been saving up for a long time to try to buy a long arm quilting machine, but realized a while ago that we don't have anywhere in our house one would fit.  So I either had to build a studio or buy a different house.

After much hemming and hawing I decided to build a studio in the backyard of our current house and after much e-mailing back and forth things are finally getting going.  I'll be sharing in here as stuff happens, right now it's just the part that's boring to everyone but me.  So far, all we have is the foundation and a little sidewalk, but I'm so excited I keep rushing out into the back yard to gaze lovingly at it.  Mike thinks I'm nuts, but has been very supportive.

I wanted to get doggie paw prints in the siedewalk, but by the time we were able to get out there it was too late for anything but the date (11/11/11- the last binary date of this century my sister told me).

So to make up for the lack of paw prints, here's a picture of the great flying Bentley for you all!