The Sequim Studio

My studio is done!!! Its lovely having my own space, especially being right off the house. We've converted the garage and if we open the door to the studio when we leave in the morning to work out, by the time we're home its lovely and warm. I also have an  Eden-Pure heater that keeps it warm and is quite efficient. However, I'm not sure I'm buying their claim that it will heat a 1000 square-foot area; but it does fine with my 300 square-foot area.

My first quilt was done in here.  It was cold and dark and made me really miss my yurt!

But now I get to quilt in here! We put in a wall that leaves Dennis all of about 10 feet at the front of the garage, where the main door garage door is. I have the back two-thirds of the garage with a view of our backyard and the pond. This picture sort of gives an overview of the whole room.  My plan is to make a long quilt to hang on the back open wall.  It will be squares of black and white 12" blocks with different background fills quilted in each one.

Taken from the same side, showing a different perspective. The two cabinets hold customer quilts and batting. The shelves near the window will hold all  my quilting books (when I finally put them up there). The cutting table has shelves for all my Art-Bin project containers and my bolts of fabric. I purchased this table from a longarm quilter that was going out of business. This is the first time I've actually had the room to use it. The door you can see will be replaced with a full-light door that I found at a used furniture shop. I am going to paint the inside with black and white blocks of some sort to carry on the theme from the floor. If you look closely, you can see that the switch plate by the door is also black.

This was taken from the opposite side of the room toward the house. As you can see, the door is open and the dogs have been great. They know not to come in and they lie right in the doorway. Its pretty cute. The other door you see is to Dennis' teeny-tiny bit of the garage that's left.

Same basic view, but you can see further into the house (notice the cute little Dash dog??) 

The racks hold my thread, the cases below hold my bobbins. I've just bought another holder so that I have six instead of the odd five. I've also noticed that I don't have nearly enough thread!!

This is a shot of a curtain rod that has hooks on it for me to use to hang my quilts for pictures. When I have local customers, I will hang their quilts there so that they get a full view upon entering the studio.

And my sewing are.  Of course, I haven't been able to sew there yet, but soon...I hope!

Quilt pics will start to follow...thanks for hanging in there with me. It feels so good to be quilting again!

Dory

I'm as sane as I'll ever be!!

Yep, I'm quilting!!!

I loaded a practice piece the other day, did some stitching to make sure everything felt right and then loaded Marei's quilt. Its a great pattern called Tradewinds. Its made for Jelly Rolls and it turned out great!

I now have an Eden Pure heater to keep me warm. I was very skeptical at first, but mostly my studio is warmer than my house. Of course, this is the Eden Pure Gen. IV and its supposed to heat something like 1000 square feet and I'm only using it to heat just under 300. But it works and I'm warm. I don't have the ambiance of my wood stove, but I don't have to haul wood and start a fire either. Just push a button and go!

As you can see from this sad picture, not much has been put away...not even my thread. I plan to get my customer quilts done and then play in my studio. Not sure how long it will be before I get some local customers.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Dory

I will be sane, tomorrow!!

Yep...the studio is done!!! Of course, there are some minor things that still require attention (like moving all the boxes in and unpacking), but the main "work" is finished. Tomorrow I can quilt; tomorrow, I will be sane!!!

What do you think??

This photo is from the southeast corner by the window in the next picture:

This door leads into our house and will be replaced by a full light door, when  I can find one. They're hard to come by in this size, but I'm not giving up. Dennis thinks I'll have to settle for a half-light, but I don't think so!

This photo is from the opposite corner looking back toward the house. The half-light door looks into the teeny-tiny work space that Dennis has in the garage. His side is really cold; mine is insulated and warm and clean!!!

This is looking toward the door that will be the customer entrance to my studio. This door opens onto our back porch. Customers entering this way will have a lovely view of our pond and yard before they come in. I found a full light door for this spot; it will be in as soon as I paint it and will allow for tons more light.

And now for your test...can you find the Border Collie???

Dash just has to supervise everything!! <snicker>

Dory...sane again...<sigh>

Going, Going, GONE

CRAZY!!!

Upon arriving in Washington, I had one quilt that had to be finished and sent back immediately. The good thing about that: It made us focus on getting the boxes out of the garage and into the house. We set up my Millie in the garage and I got busy!

But since then...many options have been discussed and a decision finally made. My studio will be in our garage and will be 13 x 20.5 -- not a bad size at all. That is approximately 270 square feet of space that will be ALL MINE!!! We discussed putting up the yurt and even buying one of those Park Model RVs and having them leave out all the interior stuff, but finally decided on the garage. At first, Dennis was going to have his screen printing darkroom in one corner, but he kept remembering more and more stuff that needed to be in that darkroom and I kept seeing my studio getting smaller and smaller. Once I reminded him how important it was to keep his wife happy, he came to his senses and agreed that the space should be all mine! Smart man I married!!

Our friends have been great. We've been working on the studio almost every day, but its taking forever! Shelving and an inside dog kennel had to be torn out; a non-bearing wall had to be added, everything had to be insulated, sheetrock bought and hung, taping and texturing, painting, etc., etc.  We are at the sheetrock stage now and I have a ceiling. Its starting to look like a real room.

Unfortunately, since all this has happened, my longarm has been under wraps! She's protected by plastic and even if that weren't so, quilting in a garage with no heat really doesn't sound like much fun.

Wish me luck that within a week or two, I'll be in business and posting pictures of quilts once again!



Dory