My Sewing Room

I'm going to participate in Between Naps on the Front Porch's Metamorphosis Monday. I don't see many westerners on her blog. It's mostly wonderful southern women who really know how to live graciously. I aspire to that. But I live in northern Utah where the climate doesn't say "sit on the back porch and drink in the sultry air." There are wonderful things about Utah, but the kind of consistent weather that makes you want to be outside all day is not one of them. I hope BNFP doesn't mind me crashing her party this week.

Anyone who visits this blog knows I'm a quilting fool these days. Part of it is that I'm using sewing as therapy right now and part of it is having a room in which to sew. Before we finished our basement I could only get out my sewing machine when my kitchen was spotlessly clean and the dining room table was cleared for cutting. Almost never. (Back off.) So, here is the metamorphosis of my sewing room:

May 2008 - framing and insulation are in, electrical is done, bomb shelter closet in the bedroom next door framed out thanks to Aron.

November 2008 - after the much-discussed blue paint went up. Since I did all the painting - three coats on every square inch of sheet rock in roughly 1400 square feet - I chose the paint colors. The end. (I wish.)

December 2008 - new bamboo floor! It's starting to look like something. Don't be jealous of my amazing view.

Same view a few minutes ago. It's looked like this (minus the lone star behind my desk - there used to be a map there) for about a year, but I'm just now getting around to photographing it. I have a car seat under my desk to use as a model for the car seat covers I make. That would be kind of weird if I just liked to tuck a small baby in under my desk while I worked. I love this room so much. It's definitely one of my happy places. Let's take a closer look:

My ironing board is barely a step away. When I did that lone star on the wall I lowered it and put it right next to my sewing desk so I wouldn't have to get up at all. On the floor is my distilled water for my iron that got plugged with calcium deposits after I'd used it for a week. Stupid hard water. The shelf above holds my big thread box, some giant spools I got from an antique store a long time ago, my patterns, a sewing box, some photos...

That's a photo of Bridget wearing her Halloween costume in 2008. To the right of that is one of my favorite family photos. The lab messed up on the cropping, so we got two of them. The box on the left of Bridget's picture is a sewing box my Grandma gave me when I was little. (The tube is a Christmas gift I haven't taken care of yet. I need help with it. I need to SEE someone do it before I can do it myself. The words in this parenthesis are for my Mom. Sorry everyone else had to see that.)

I love Sarah Jane art. I also love knowing what day it is.

A heart hook from Danforth Pewter that Katy gave me when we adopted Bridget.

My toile lone star wall hanging... extreme close up. This is one of the few projects I've kept for myself. It was my Great Grandma Rhoda's favorite pattern. She was quite a show off when it came to quilting. :)

I won't go into the other side of this room much right now, but this is part of my view from my sewing machine.

Books! There's plenty more where these came from.

How I love having an inspiring place to create stuff! Thanks for visiting and Happy Metamorphosis Monday to all. :)