Big Sewing Room Changes

Friday, September 13, 2024


My sewing room has gone through a lot of evolutions in the past year plus. When baby girl was first born, it became feeding central on the second floor with a glider, extra armchair and lots of baby supplies. At one point Michael's spin bike found a home in here, and as baby got older I made room for a pack and play. Eventually all those things were moved out and for a number of months things in here were "back to normal".

Fast forward to this summer when we made the biggest change yet. We moved our extra queen bed out of baby girl's room and into the sewing room. We really needed a dedicated place for visitors to stay, and it was the only option. It was my idea, but I'll be the first to admit it's been bittersweet. I'm getting more and more used to it, and I think it actually looks pretty good! Let me take you along for the messy journey.

The most time consuming task was moving my shelf unit (an Expedit from Ikea). This thing is heavy, even with nothing in it! I hoped I could just partially unload it and still move it, but no luck. Everything had to come out!

There was only one other wall where this unit could fit, so that's where it went! From a sun-damage perspective this is actually a much better spot. It wasn't getting direct sun before, but either way this wall offers more protection which is a bright side! There is a vent on this wall, but luckily it lined up perfectly with one of the shelves!

These units hold A LOT of stuff. Exhibit A, the floor of the sewing room mid-move. Yikes!! It has to get worse before it gets better!

That's better. Filled back up and looking nice! I took the move as an opportunity to change up my display shelves along the top row. For now I like it!

So much empty space while we waited to move the bed! Couldn't manage all of this in one weekend. I basted one more quilt on the floor during this in between time.

Bed and nightstands were moved in and fit great. They're also from Ikea. We built/stained them when we first moved to Connecticut.

Another bright side, under bed storage! I fit a bunch of these short storage boxes under the bed to hold various supplies. This bin has part of my vintage pillowcase collection.

Here is what things look like now! I didn't even realize this vintage comforter I thrifted recently was a queen size until I threw it on the bed. It looks great, and I won't need to worry about any fading or sun damage, as it's already got a bit of both! And it's still really cute. I'd like to work on the nightstand set up, but for now they're fine!

I've set up my ironing board in front of the shelving unit, which has been working well. I can easily take it down and store it when we have guests staying.


I installed an inexpensive curtain rod behind the bed so that I can hanging quilts, quilt tops, or fabric there. I like that I can change it out whenever I want, and it adds some coziness to the room. I went with white so that it would mostly just blend into the wall. I still need to figure out what art I want to put back up, we'll see.

Dusty has given her stamp of approval and had her first nap on the bed. Baby girl also thinks its one of the best places in the house to run around and explore.

I'm happy with where the sewing room is at right now. Loosing some space to the bed is worth it to have a place for people to stay. Now I need to do a fully updated sewing room tour. My last one was from 2019! It's changed so much in five years!!

Happy Sewing!

What I'm Working on Right Now

Friday, September 6, 2024


Happy Friday! I had a big backlog of finished projects, but today I thought it would be nice to share some things I'm working on right now.


I have two (very different) sets of 12 quilt blocks that have been sitting around for a while, and I've decided to get them both finished up into quilts. The first set is a bunch of warm colored blocks from the first virtual quilt bee I participated in (3x6 bee!), back in 2010. These are long overdue to become a quilt! I've decided to make a smaller version of my Interlaced Quilt. Right now I'm working on the in between blocks, but it shouldn't take long to get this one sewn into a finished quilt top!


This quilt top came together in July! I have a bunch of 2" strips leftover from when I used to make Wrapped Wreath kits, and I wanted to use some of them up. Originally I was going to make a pillow and I made two smaller blocks but wasn't happy with how either turned out. So I made those two blocks larger and then made two more to make this quilt top! I don't always mix stripes in with the florals, so it's a bit different from my typical mix!


I'm currently working on quilting this quilt. The plan is to do some wavy lines in both directions to create a wavy checkerboard quilting pattern!


I've been working on a new pattern! This one has been kicking around my brain for more than 10 years, and it's finally time to get it out!


I started another soft and subtle quilt. This time using my Candyweb block pattern.


I'm really loving how it's coming along. I wasn't sure what it would look like with such low contrast, but I think it's still really cool! I was planning to stop at four blocks, but now I think I've talked myself into nine, so I have five more to make! Taking a little break from this to work on other things at the moment, but I'll come back to it soon!


I've been on a bit of a pillow making spree! I've made three covers in the last few weeks. I've thrifted a bunch of nice pillow forms and I'm slowly covering them all!! I love making pillow covers, they're so satisfying.

Hopefully I can share some of these projects in full soon! I'm struggling to make time to take good photos (baby's nap does not line up with the good light in the sewing room) and do all the computer work behind publishing a blog post at the moment. I would love to show up here more regularly! For now, I'm doing the best I can. Hope you're all well!

Happy Sewing!