Where I sew month 2012: A look at Safety Pin Studio

It's "Where I Sew Month" at Pink Chalk Studio, my favorite online fabric shop.  I posted a link to the blog there last year and got lots of new visitors, so I thought I'd take some new photos of Safety Pin Studio and post again.  Please check out the Pink Chalk link above to visit more amazing sewing studios.

My studio is a tiny fourth bedroom in our house.  I remodeled the closet so that it's all shelves in which I store supplies and finished, rolled up quilts.

Check out my new ironing board cover courtesy of Michael Graves designs for Target.

Having a studio, a space dedicated to creative work,  has been really important to me over the years.  My work table takes up most of the room now, but it is vital to everything that I accomplish in the studio.  Most of my fabric is stored under the table in bins; some is in the closet.  In Indiana, I was able to have my fabric stacked on shelves.  It's probably the biggest thing a miss here, but I've made adjustments in the way I work and I love the cosy aspect of Safety Pin Studio.

Sunday in Safety Pin Studio

I'm wishing it was just a little warmer outside on this beautiful, sunny day so that I could be on the screened porch, quilting.  Since Safety Pin Studio is on the southeastern side of the house, it gets lots of sun, so it's the next best place to be.  The new baby quilt should be quilted by the end of the afternoon.

With some of my favorite music playing and sun streaming in the window, it's a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Camp Fisher: Missing its younger campers

When our children visited recently, I gave everyone one of these t-shirts.  They come from a great little company called Inkpixi.  We all have Fisher University shirts from them as well.  It characterized this visit-- relaxing, easy-going, family fun.  Right now, we older campers are really missing the younger ones. Craft fun is still going on in Safety Pin studio, however.

My birthday pennants have now taken up residence in the studio to keep me company. I couldn't put them away yet.

My "Single Girl"(design by Denyse Schmidt) woobie is all pieced and I will try to brave the heat to baste it on the screened porch tomorrow.  

Where I Sew

Just read a post from Nova who blogs at a Cuppa and a Catch up, and I got in on Pink Chalk Studio's  Where I Sew virtual tour. (Nova was one of the organizers of the Single Girl Quilt Along.)  It's a great chance to see the work spaces of other quilters.  My link will take you to a virtual tour of Safety Pin Studio.
With the temperatures still hovering at or above the century mark, I've spent lots of time in the studio the last few days. Thanks to Kathy Mack at Pink Chalk Studio for the great idea.

Beginning the new year with some little projects

Now that my niece's quilt is finished and on the way to her, I'm starting out the new year with some little projects.  I made two sets of these little pennants using Christmas fabric for my two dear friends here who are sisters.  They have little loops on each end so they can be hung on the tree.  I made a set for our tree, too.

I decided to make a set for Safety Pin Studio using some of the safety pin fabric in my stash.  I made them just like the large pennants but rather than using bias tape to string them, I just zigzag the raw top edges to the ribbon.

Speaking of stash, I've been hoarding all of these gorgeous William Morris reproduction fabrics for years and I finally decided to use one of them to make a cloth shopping bag for Anna.  Here's hoping your new year is happy, healthy, and productive.

Pruning my fabric stash for a good cause

A large portion of this last weekend was spent cleaning out and reorganizing all the stuff in the closet of Safety Pin Studio.  Now that the studio is clean and neat, the state of the closet started eating away at me.  When we moved in, I was more concerned with getting things put away and didn't always pay enough attention to where things were kept nor to how accessible they were.  I've now got all the supplies I need for stamping under the work table.  Sewing and drawing supplies are stored together in the closet and are easily accessible.  I also got some no-skid shelf liner to put under the ironing board and now it doesn't move around on the work table.   There is more floor space around the work table and I have begun to prune my fabric stash.

With the Piedmont Quilters Guild show coming up in October, I decided that one of the ways I can help is by cutting fat quarters and making charm square packs for the boutique from my fabric stash.  Many of the canvas boxes will not close because there is just too much fabric inside.
I did a little investigating online and found that most charm square packs have 30 pieces of fabric in them--either all unique or a small variety with duplications.  Since most charm  squares are pinked, it was also an opportunity to use my pinking rotary cutter.

Here's the pinking blade and what it does.

First I pull out thirty different fabrics from each color bin.  You will remember that I have a great deal of orange because of Alexis' wedding bento box quilt.

In addition to cutting charm squares, I also cut a certain number of fat quarters.

Once I've got thirty squares cut, I make a wrapper for them and then I'm on to another color.

The newly pruned orange bin is not only neat, but will now close.

Safety Pin Studio gets a good cleaning and straightening

After I finish a major project, I like to clean and straighten my studio, but with so little time between large wedding quilt productions, that just wasn't possible until now.  I spent most of the weekend cleaning, straightening Safety Pin Studio and culling books, CDs and magazines.  Now I'll take you on a little 360° tour of the space.

The first bookcase actually has some unused space now.

The top of the barrister's bookcase is now home for the CD player and writing tools.

I know the scrap box and the project boxes aren't very interesting, but, look, you can see floor!!

One of my aims was to make the work table as clear as possible.  There's a new project on the work table, but I'll save that for another post.

The second bookcase was where I really got serious about getting rid of things.  (I took nine bags of books to the bookseller's this morning.)

Once again, you can actually see floor!

Finally, the little oddment cabinet also got it's top cleaned off for calligraphy pens and stamps.  

Now I'm off to do some work in my nice, clean, orderly studio.  Jim stuck his head in at the end of the day yesterday and said, "Now, the question is, can you keep it this way?"  We'll see.....

Anna and Matt's wedding quilt: Top is finished!

The top of Anna and Matt's wedding quilt is finally finished. I used the shibori knot design in the blue colorway for the borders. I'm using the white mottled with blue for the bias binding. Both of these fabrics are represented in the rings of this "Single Girl" pattern. Back to Safety Pin Studio to piece the back and finish the continuous bias binding. I'd love to be quilting on this by tomorrow night.

"Rounding on third": baby quilt progress

I'm getting ready to quilt the third corner of the baby quilt and now using the half quilting hoop. Jim was kind enough to take a few photos as I was pinning the next side down.



Marking is my least favorite part of quilting, put I do like the little chalk rollers because the marks are easy to remove.



Mugging for the photographer and a peak at Safety Pin Studio.



All pinned and ready to start quilting again. I'm hoping to finish today and get the binding on tomorrow. Updates to follow. Have a wonderful Saturday.

Phone Ripley! She's back in the studio.

For the first time in recent memory, I've actually spent most of the day in Safety Pin Studio. After fixing the hem on a pair of Jim's pants, I did a quick straightening up and went to work making more bento box blocks for the black, white, and yellow quilt that will be a Christmas present.



I love finding the light and dark fabric combinations to make these blocks. And I find it so satisfying to use so many scrap fabrics that I've had around for years and years.

I'm hoping to get this one ready to sandwich and pin baste by the end of the weekend. Next weekend will have to be devoted to pink and blue blocks so I can get two baby quilt tops ready for Make a Difference Day (MaDD). At our October Piedmont Quilters' Guild meeting, we are going to do some prep work for MaDD so that all the various stations (sewing, ironing, basting, binding, sandwiching, machine quilting) will have work at the beginning of the day.

In the benchmark area, this is my 200th post!

A Virtual Tour of Safety Pin Studio

Welcome to Safety Pin Studio. This is the name that I gave to my workspace because I've always liked safety pins and found them oddly comforting. It's a small, intimate space here in North Carolina (about ten feet square), but it serves well. I'll just start as one comes in the door and move around the room to give you a sense of the space.



When I first met my mother-in-law, she gave me my first decorative thimble. Over the years, she's added to the collection as have my mother, my husband, and my children. My mom and dad found the printer's drawer on one of their drives from Florida to Indiana on back roads. It's a punctuation drawer to be exact and it works wonderfully as a display unit.



This wonderful carving came from the Museum of Appalachia right outside Knoxville, Tennessee and was purchased on my return drive from a Nancy Crow class at Arrowmont School. It's signed "Butch 1991" and was carved by one of the remarkable, outsider artist Troy Webb's children.



Jim gave me this strange little cabinet one Christmas. He found it in one of our favorite antique shops in Crawfordsville. It's designed like an apothecary cabinet, but the drawers are very short--only about four inches wide.



The drawers were all constructed using scrap wood from cigar and cheese boxes which is a tramp art technique.



It makes a perfect place to store rubber stamps and display little hanging ornaments and mementos.



This lovely basket holds yarn.



This is one of my two metal, library bookcases holding mostly art books.



I made curtains for several of the windows in our house the first summer we were here. This is my favorite. I love the fabric. They are all lined because of the sunlight, but my studio also has a special shade that cuts the UV rays to protect the books and fabric from damage.




The barrister's bookcase belonged to my Grandmother Warner and houses my favorite literature books and mementos.



Here's my trusty old Bernina and one of the larger studies I did after taking Nancy's first Improvisational Piecing workshop.



The second bookcase has my quilting and embroidery books as well as some family history stuff and scrapbooks.



The first summer we lived down here, I refitted a number of the closets with shelves and hanging racks. Fabric, notions, tools, and finished quilts live in here. The sliding doors have got to go one of these days.



This was a gift from the children.



These are postcards and a poster from some of my shows.



My worktable is the centerpiece of the studio. Our good friend and master craftsman, Gordon Huffaker built it using a tabletop he'd acquired. It's just high enough for me and was the only thing that had to come apart to come in the house when we moved! I store fabric on the shelf underneath--not an ideal solution. I miss not having my fabric out so I can see it and having a design wall. Except for those two things, it's a great place to work.

I would love to see your studio or workspace. If you've done a tour on your blog, will you leave me a link in the comments?
Thank you.