All the talk everywhere is about “man caves,” but what about the perfect “woman cave?” I’ve been sewing and crafting since before Farmer Bob and I got married, and always had to pull everything out of boxes and bins to work on a project on the kitchen or dining room table, then pack it all away again. Well, after all these years, Farmer Bob and I decided to turn one of the kids’ old bedrooms into my quilting studio! Yay! We gave all the furniture to our nephew and his new wife for the guest room in their new house, and I got busy!

We went to a used furniture store and found a tall bookshelf and a fabulous dresser for storage, but they were black, and I wanted my room to be cheery and bright, so I got to work and painted them bright white. Then I removed some of the shelves on the book case so I could fit whole bolts of fabric in it. With the help of one of the great employees at our local Home Depot, I bought some insulation board, cut it to size, wrapped the pieces in batting and VOILA! A design wall!

Everything fits, although it’s tight and I have to keep everything in its place and put things away when I finish, and it’s wonderful to be able to be so organized and have everything at my finger tips. I still need to make a valance for the window (I gave those to Mike & Heather, too), but I have the fabric already and will get to it soon. Here’s the unveil of my new quilting studio!

Right now I’m using this folding table for sewing, but I have a DIY sewing table in the works and will start on that once the weather cools off a bit since our carport isn’t air conditioned and it’s been “hotter than blue blazers.” 🙂 You can see on top of the dresser that I’ve been watching streaming video on my little tablet, but I found a really cheap TV on Amazon Prime Day, and now my TV is Supersonic!

Here’s my redone book shelf with bolts of fabric and batting, and you can see my collection of knitting needles on the top. A friend showed me how to wrap comic book cardboards with smaller lengths of fabric, and they are all lined up on the smaller book shelf. The bins above contain even smaller fat quarters. It’s wonderful to be able to see everything!

We’ve hung the mirror that’s resting on the floor, and behind that you can see the design wall. That cutting table folds out and then tucks away nicely, and I got that from a friend who no longer needed it. Farmer Bob got me a comfy rolling desk chair, and there’s not one more thing that I need (or could possibly fit) in my quilting studio!

I must admit that with the farm and Farmer Bob still working and traveling, I don’t have much time to enjoy my new room. After our farm tour on Saturday, however, I started baking for our farm market on Sunday and, while the pound cakes were in the oven and Farmer Bob was mowing, I retreated to my haven and started working on a new design for a baby quilt. Here it is on the design wall. (Don’t you KNOW that babies will LOVE all these bright colors and patterns?) Every time I walk into the room I move blocks around to balance out the colors. Tomorrow morning I’ll pack it up and take it to work on with some friends who are getting together to quilt and chat. I plan to make several of these and will have them at our market on Sundays for sale, and will take some to Thames Farm Day on September 17th.

Until then, come visit us every Sunday afternoon from 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Fox Trot Farm and stock up on fresh eggs, raw honey, baked goods, honey and beeswax soap, quilted goods and more. You can find us at 5066 Rowell RD, Lancaster, SC. (Please call for an appointment for other days for honey purchases and tours.)

EIEIO!

Deb