Creative Spaces Blog Hop Week 1, Day 4

Hello Everyone,

If you have never been here to my blog before, WELCOME!!!  I am honored to be among these 16 wonderful, creative, and talented designers.  If you haven't been following there are 16 designers that have teamed up to bring you 6 weeks of fun filled themed blog posts.  Each day of the week the designers post about that theme for the week.  Thursday is my day along with my friend, Vicki Hanson from Cranberry Pie Designs.  You will see below a list of the themes for each week.  It is our hope to give you some quilty inspiration.

Week 1: Studio Clean Up – before and after pics

Week 2: Favorite Tools

Week 3: Organizing Tips

Week 4: Dealing with Scraps and/or Fabric

Week 5: Dealing with Embellishments/Buttons/Thread

Week 6: Dealing with Tools/Rulers

Because this week is Studio Clean Up, I am putting a little twist on mine.  I have only been in my house here in Arizona for 2 years.  So I am going to show you pics of the room as I was setting it up and pics as of now.

My studio is always in a constant state of evolution.  Projects coming in and projects going out.  Continuing deadlines.  Lots of activity always.  So honestly I try, I said I try to keep it as neat as I can in between projects.  It really helps me to focus.

When we moved here I had tons of fun setting up the studio.  The walls were the standard Arizona beige.  And soon after I changed that to a very light gray.  It was a much better neutral.  You can see from the pics that I have a tile floor that looks like wood.  But I needed color and something soft to stand on so I got the most colorful rug I could and I love it.  

In fact, every time I post pics of this rug, I inevitably get comments and questions as to where I purchased it.  I know several quilters who have gone and purchased it for themselves!  So since you asked, I got it on Overstock.com and the rug is HUGE!  My space is about 22' x 22' and I couldn't love it more.  Tons of natural light filtering in.  I never turn the lights on during the day.  Only at night.

I love my design wall and you can see a video of how we built it here on my YouTube Channel.  There are many quilters who have taken this video and built their own the same way my hubby and I built mine.

My space includes my long arm and of course I have storage underneath.  All my furniture is from Ikea and I love it.  Inexpensive, functional and just what I need.  Although I will be getting one more table to set up another sewing machine.  That way I can have two students for private lessons.

I love my center island.  It consists of two Ikea pieces, which they no longer make.  I got them years ago and moved them with me from Connecticut to Arizona.  I love these pieces, they are functional and serve my needs well.

Even better, I love my closet.  It is a walk in closet and houses my neatly put away stash.  It also house all my patterns and my book that I sell, quilts that I need to quilt, books that I love and other various supplies.

But no quilter's studio is complete without quilt inspectors!  My Quilt Inspector Number 1 and Quilt Inspector Number 2 are always on hand to make sure that I am getting my job done and doing it well.  I love them and they are the best companions I could have during the day.  Nothing gets past them!!! 

I hope you have enjoyed my pics of the before and after....  but...

Please make sure that you visit the other designers as they have blog posts up through today.  Here is the list and the links to their blogs.