Where did you put your machine?

[shadows4]

Donna,

My heart goes out to you! My niece died in 1997 at 22 years old. She was in the hospital for 3 months classified as extremely critical for 2 months of that. She was my sister's only child (they were told that they couldn't even have kids and then they had her) The pain is always there, it just gets more bearable after time. What gives me solice is knowing that everything is in God's hands, and they are such loving hands. Even when it seems that we are alone, He is there waiting to comfort. If you have a Bible, read the Psalms. They are full of comfort! Everyone here is so great also. I've never seen anything but support and care.

My studio is in my unfinished basement. My DH & I put tile down on the floor and painted the concrete so that it doesn't seem like a dungeon and that has helped alot. It looks like I'm going to have to find a name for my machine, too.

[CucumberQuilting]

Sometimes I forget how spoiled I am. My Millennium is set up in an outside basement room with two lovely windows. One looks out to the lake and the other across our two acres of property where my little boy can play while I work. He also has a personal play area he calls "King's Rabbits World" right outside that window. It's filled with sand and pea gravel and trucks and scoopers for hours and hours of fun. I also found the perfect chair-size garden bench to put there and hung a basket of geraniums. It's the perfect shady spot to enjoy a new quilting magazine and a tall glass of iced tea on a warm summer day.

Being an outside basement room makes it feel more like a business to me and customers don't have to come into my home to meet with me in my studio. Because I have a five year old, several people have suggested I move upstairs to work but I wouldn't be able to maintain my sanity with all the distractions of TV, telephone, toys, dishes, laundry...

My room is not large, just enough room for me to walk around my machine. There's a good size closet for hanging quilt tops and stashing clutter when customers are coming. At first I resisted having a computer in my studio, after all, I'm not quilting while I'm chatting, am I? But my mentor passed down her PC when she upgraded to a new one and now I have found a fabulous antique buffet table that fits into a shallow bump out. It's a great looking addition to my studio. It looks classy and gives me a comfortable place to take care of that dreaded paperwork. On the other side of the room a small wooden filing cabinet with a lip around the top holds my smaller tools, bobbins and marking pens near my machine. All around the room the lip of the foundation has been a great spot for showing off all my beautiful threads and still, I've had to put up shelves for more!

What would I change about my studio? Well, there's another good sized closet that holds the hot water heater and the oil furnace. If I could move those to another place in the house I could have all that room for rolls of batting instead of having them under the table or leaning up against the walls. Overall, it's all been good and it's a real "feel-good" place to be.

Many good wishes to all of you.

Eva Hathaway - Cucumber Quilting

[katie.mac]

This thread has really warmed my heart - I don't know whether to laugh or cry!! The posts are filled with so many sincere love, hugs and good wishes. We quilters are a special group of people indeed! I am so grateful I share a small part of this quilting world.

Welcome Donna and anyone else out there who is new. And special kudos to Linda Steller who ALWAYS comes through with the right words (on all the lists). She has gifted all of us many times over willingly sharing her quilting knowledge and good thoughts.

BTW - My studio is a finished off portion of my basement. Some day I hope to move to a room with a view.

Katie in Vermont

APQS Millennium

http://community.webshots.com/user/katiemcgraw

[JAB]

I haven't read through this thread yet but wanted to post where I just put my machine. It is upstairs in the gameroom which use to hold a pool table, my sons computer, a futon and a TV that was mounted on the wall. We sold the pool table (no one ever used it) and moved the rest of the stuff down stairs into my sewing room (a room off of the kitchen). Then I moved all of my sewing stuff upstairs and we just added the longarm a couple of weeks ago.

The room is approximately 15' x 25' with one wall being a half wall open to the stairs which gives the room an even more open feeling. I was going to post a picture of the room but all I could find was a picture of it with the pool table and you couldn't get the feel of the size of the room by the picture. My digital camera is broken at the moment, other wise I would take a picture of it now. Actually, I probably wouldn't, it isn't all neat and orderly just yet.

Julie

[QuiltFaerie]

If I took a picture of my unfinished basement with machine, it would probably break my digital camera. :D:D

Your sewing spaces are very nice! I am envious!

Gail

[epprog]

Donna,

My machine is going into our bedroom, don't know where else to put her. The area where she will be is approx. 16' by 12'. Way too small I know! Donna, we too live in a larger house (5,000 sq ft) and would love love love to have more room. Ours is at the moment very rough and I know would drive most women crazy (does me too at times!) but I still feel it is more important to build our business up (rental houses) first before finishing our house. Donna, we need pictures! I too Love horses and have 3 husky dogs (very spoilt!) I think it is hard to make friends when we love stuff like quilting etc. It seems there are few women who love "anything with a needle" as much as I. I am not close to anyone who loves quilting and sewing nearly as much as I and look forward to attending quilt shows to meet some of the women whose work I love and from whom I have learned sooooo much! My dad had a stroke In December and every time I see him he has changed so much. I always wonder if it will be the last time. This is the Dad that thaught me everything I know about farming and loving the land, and I have worked on that farm lots of hours with him. I hate when life things change. I want for him to be with us for a long time yet but I see him slipping away before my eyes. Very very tough!

Cher

[bennyjo]

Hi ya'll, Have been reading all about your sewing rooms and problems with husbands and ex's so guess I should be glad I'm alone but it is true you can't live with them and you can't live without them. I really do miss mine but also enjoy being able to do what I want when I want.

I purchased my longarm in June then went to stay with my oldest brother for awhile but am back and ready to get busy but I had a problem or two with it, nothing big and have them ironed out now.

I now have my computer and embroidery machine in what was a bedroom in my house and have set up my longarm in my former sewing room measuring 14.5' x 24.5 feet that has two double windows and one single window and a door going outside. I can watch the squirrels and birds in my back yard and see who goes by as well. This is a room behind my detached garage.

When I had my sewing room out there friends and family worried about me because I would stay out there so late at night, you know how it is, you just get caught up in what you are doing and the time flies by. I wish I had a room big enough for all my quilting and my sewing as well.

Anyway,I look forward to meeting a lot of you at shows and classes in the future, until then keep giving tips to those of us who are starting out and we'll keep looking up to you.

Bennyjo

[Linda R]

I don't have a longarm machine--yet, but I would like to tell you something to think about, so the quilts you are doing won't be affected the the environment in your living space.

I live in Fla, where a lot of the floor plans in newer homes are open. In other words, thekitchen isn't blocked off from thelivng room, and so on. Well, I'm a HORRIFIC grease freak in the kitchen. and I nkow from my mother hving to move her office back into her home, and that CANNOT, have an open floor plan, when you don't want the smells-and the grease from the kitchen, to fall on things.

I'm glad somebody asked the question about machine placement, as what you have all said about machine placement confirmed my guess-if your going to add a LA machine to your living space, alot of thought has to gone into it.

We have grease on all the office equip in the office here because of me. So before I move=and buy the quiloting machine, alot of thought will have to go into it.

Also, I know I don't want to put my machine "off in a room." I want it to be in my living space. Well, it looks Like I can't do it, if I'm not going to quit the grease.

I hope this imut helps someone. and I hope that when I have a question that hasn't been discussed yet, tha tsomebody will speak up who has some info.

thanks for letting me share, and I love reading all your threads. Wonderful.! Keep up the good work folks!!

Yours in Fabric,

Slinda.

[annlittle1]

My Liberty is in the family room off of the kitchen. I don't worry about the grease because we have fans, fans, and more fans and the stove is quite a ways from the quilting machine. I have two sewing machines, a chest of drawers, and a 36"x72" cutting table in this 15'x12' room. Basicly, there is room to walk around the machine and work on both sides. I tried to talk DH into moving the livingroom furniture into the family room so I could move the studio into the livingroom area. It went over like a lead balloon. I'd have much more room in the living room for quilting; and I could keep an eye on my grandson in the family room when I am in the kitchen. He doesn't want to have to move the large TV/stereo cabinet again.

My father died on February 16, 1993. from a heart attack. It was very sudden and unexpected. For the next three years I took that day off from work and planned something special to do to keep myself busy. I wrote the date constantly at work and everytime I wrote that date it felt like a knife through my heart. Time does heal and the fourth year I was able to work that day. On the other hand, my mother's death was long and slow and very difficult. I felt as if I had been grieving for five years before she died so I didn't have the same type of reaction to her death. Her funeral was planned as a celebration of her life and of her homecoming. The day of her death, March 24 brings grief for me, not because of her death, but because I have trouble remembering her before the alzheimers took her away from me.

May God bless you and give you peace.

Phyllis Hughes

Oklahoma City

[KweerKwilter]

Here's a sneaky-peak at my work space. House is too small to have any sewing space inside. I do my work in a garage/shed off the back yard.

[PStelzer]

I bought the Milli with the 14foot table. I moved out of my master bedroom! I'm really glad I did.

[QuiltSnob]

Hi All,

This is my first post. I just could not help but tell you about my experiance with my new Milli machine. When I moved here to Alaska, I knew that I would buy a long arm, just had to decide which one. I was looking for a house to buy and my only requirement was a room large enough for my soon to be purchaed machine. I found the perfect home that had a room that was 12 x 24 that would hold my new machine as well as all my sewing machines and fabric. What a perfect home for me!

[gailpeters]

When we built our house (starting 2 years ago, and not quite finished) the plan was always to have the walk out basement as my room. It turned out to be 14 by 25. Our basement is 2 levels because of ledge rock. So the quilting room is only the 14 instead of the whole depth of the house. The other front not quite half that is full height is for plumbing and heating stuff. I love it down there as I can look out at the lake and at times see deer who come to stroll thru my yard. I don\'t think the room can ever be big enough but mine will do.

[randijoy]

I am waiting for my Millie to arrive. She has a beautiful home in a quilt studio to die for. The room is 25x20 with 20 foot high vaulted cielings, one wall of French doors, plenty of other windows, tons of built in shelves but not much design wall space. Oh well not everything can be perfect.

I already have her name picked out and it is bittersweet. Her name is Lucille, named after my newly departed mother who worked all of her life, depriving herself of much to give her children more. Despite having four children her and my father were able to leave enough money for us all to have an early retirement and of course my new long arm. They passed exactly 365 days apart both leaving this earth on Dec. 16th.(2006 & 2007 respectively) Leave it to my parents to not want their children to have to greive on multiple days. Anyway, thanks to their generousity and love I will spend many hours doing the thing I love most, quilting and remembering them both.

God bless to all in this group who are also very generous with their time and information. Thanks to all! Randi

[quiltmonkey]

Oh Randi that is such a sweet story. Your parents were obviously loved by their kids. I am glad you are using some of these funds toward something you love (quilting). Please tell us when you get your new machine and then we want a photo of you posing with Lucille in that new "to die for dream studio" of yours!

[RitaR]

Love is so wonderful..

I\'m in a 12 by 10 foot room, with the closet opened to give a bit exra \'around the end of the machine room."

In this alcove for now are my shelves of threads, the TV, roll of w&N above that, stencils and a couple templates hanging just below waist length.. Also a couple strips of panto\'s, gold paper, teflon sheet, etc. I have one tiny window about 30 by 36", and one door.

New laminate flooring, new paint. around the ceiling shelves, a portable pantry for wips, finished, and waiting.. Odds and ends like the Crayola colors and Rose Art Pens, Micron pens, etc. One shelf of clothing fabrics.

A converted 3 angle computer desk made into an extra wide 3 angle machine center for the viking, and handling large quilts/bindings. More shelves hold needles, attachments, quilt markers, fabriccalc. post it notes. nippers, rippers, hand needles, machine needles, etc.

The rest of my stash and the paints and beads are all in what is supposed to be the guest too..

Having began quilting in a motor home, with the Viking and the HQ frame, advanced to the klunker of a steatched model Domest WHite and now finally to a good machine.. I just wish i had one bit room plenty of light and plenty of use area to have it all out and easy to find.

All I want are to make and donate these quilts.. lose a lot of time running back and forth, looking for things, like the teeny, tiny wee crochet hook I\'ve now lost.

I also feel very selfish wishing for all that, with all I have and knowing there are others with no room to live in, much less sleep, eat, live and survive in. God help my greedy soul.

Sooo, l shall try to be much more thankful for what I have, less greedy and envious of those who have well earned more, and still make the quilts.. Thats the focus, not me.

Help me there.

RitaR

[jeanros]

We have a 12X24 room with 6 windows in it, its more like a 4 seasons room but we have used it for a family room / excerise room and now quilting studio. We also keep a TV, love seat, and a box of toys for the Grandchildren. I could use more room to store batting and supplies but I am thankful for what I have.

Jean

Mille

[meg_marsh]

I will be getting my new baby in June. Have a small room - 12.5 x 11.5. Since the room is so small I will be getting a 10 ft table and put one end of the table against one wall and then take the closet doors off to give me a little bit more room - need room for the DSM! Can hardly wait.

I lost my daughter many years ago - she was only 8. After all these years, my love is just a warm and vivid as it was then and sometimes I still hear her laughter. Those we love never truly go away - they live in our hearts and our minds. I miss her still but am always grateful that she was with me as long as she was. She was like icing on the cake - the best part!!

[Robbijoyeklow]

My Millie lives in the unfinished basement. But she\'s happy there. My husband painted the walls in her corner white, he ran out of paint before he did the other two walls and hasn\'t expressed any further interest.

But, I did have an electrician come out and install good lighting all around her, in her half of the basement. He also added four new electrical circuits, all 20 amps, something we should have done a long time ago.

When we have him come out again for more work, I\'m going to add more lighting to the rest of the basement.

I have a big dye table made out of three sections of a flat garage door that we scrounged from a friend. The fourth section of the door is under the Millie, covered with carpet and it gives me a good surface to stand on when quilting. The door has some give, to cushion my feet, and it makes me a whole two inches taller, something I can use.

I keep threads and other supplies in plastic Iris Office storage drawer units, that fit perfectly under the rails. And I can keep the current project\'s supplies nearby on the dye table.

I keep an ipod in an iHome clock radio down there, on a counter, next to the very zippy stand alone bobbin winder. I use a pair of wireless headphones connected to the clock radio, so I can stitch and not have to deal with the ipod cord. I listened to most of the last Harry Potter novel while I was doing my last quilt. I almost have another quilt ready to go, I\'ll finish up Harry with that quilt. (don\'t tell me the end, even though I must be the last person on the planet not to know it)

I like having the longarm down in the basement, the room is warm in the winter if I open up the heating vents, and very cool in the summer. My family knows to leave me alone unless dinner is ready when I\'m down there.

When the kids are home from college in the summer, I worry that the sound will waft up through the heating vents and wake them up. ON the other hand, they sleep too late, so I don\'t really care. Plus, my daughter told me that she finds the sound of me sewing to be very comforting.

Robbi Eklow

[kimmiequilts]

Hi Everyone, My Mille started out in the finished basement sharing a room with my DH\'s Lionel train layout. This was great in the beginning but I am a daylight person so it was getting to be a chore to force myself down into the \'dungeon\' to quilt. My sewing room was an extra bedroom and since I worked at our LQS for 6 years it was stuffed with all things quilting!

The trains and quilting weren\'t compatible on several levels but mostly the darn things make a lot of noise as well as talk! How disturbing to be quilting along and hear voices with no people around! (Hubby would leave to turn them on to charge the batteries).

So as much for my benefit as his my DH hired a contractor to finish the attic above our 4 car + workshop sized garage. The room is gorgeous with daylight and ALL of my sewing machines as well as the Mille are up there. We bought shelves from Ikea and my stash is out in the open, whoo hoo, I love it! I have 2 dormer windows facing southeast, 2 north facing skylights over the Mille and a picture window on the west end. The room measures 24\' x 38\', the ceilings slope along the long walls but as I\'m 5\'6" it\'s not an issue for me.

We live on 10 acres of mostly woods, I am currently watching the robins make a nest in the cedar outside of my studio window. I do love all the wild critters and I have my 2 gorgeous golden girls to keep me company up there! Life is good!

Linda S. thank you for the poem, it\'s one of my favorites.

[kimmiequilts]

Hi Robbie Joy! How\'s life been since we last spoke?:cool:

[beachbobbinquilting]

I convinced my husband to move all the furniture out of the living room. Made it tight elsewhere, but I have room. I have a Millie with a 14 foot table. He also made me an A-frame for a batting rack which holds 5 rolls of batting, and the A-frame also holds 250 cones of thread. Then he made another table, with a layer of batting and muslin on top for pressing tops and backs. It also has a couple of shelves. The shelves I use for my various cutting mats and templates. My sewing machine and serger also went into the quilting room along with a small TV. I also have a pie safe which holds various tools I do not need on a daily basis, but use frequently. Unfortunately, my fabric stash is still in theguess bedroom, and the chest of drawers holds unfinished projects that I\'m slowly clearing. The closet....well, I hope no one needs to hang much up.....that\'s where the fabric goes. I do have a small chest of three drawers for guests to use which I do keep empty. We live near the beach so we have lots of company. Everyone is impressed when they walk in and see my living room/now quilting room.

And we finally sold some of the furniture so everything fits nicely into our house.

I\'ll try to take a picture, if you\'re interested in my A-frame. I love it. Easy to roll the batting out, and keeps it neat.

:cool:

Cathy

[ramona-quilter]

I recently moved my studio from the second master bedroom to the living room. I liked the old space, lots of light from windows, end of the hall, wall of closet space, a full bath. Then my oldest son, Jacob, and his family moved in with us about a month ago. The house is big (4 beds 3.5 baths) so when they started feeling the bite on the economy and struggled every month, we invited them to move in. 6 mo or a year until he gets that union job he is on the waiting list for. They were in a 2 BR/2Bath house, about 1000- sq ft renting for $1250. When their 3rd, Madison (sweet pea), arrived they just got more crowded. A 3Br here goes for about $2000- $2250. I know, it\'s awful. Hey, it\'s California.

Anyway, I digress. We didn\'t use the LR much so I moved in. It is 15 x 20 with 8 ft of patio doors to the back yard where I can sometimes (children permitting) hear the bubbling of our fountain. There were 3 door ways and no doors in the interior so I had to build barriers to keep the munchkins out. They are 5, 2.5 and 14 mos. As you can imagine, our life style has changed quite a bit. But I just love to have them so close. I get hugs and kisses every night.

The old studio had carpet, this one is wood floors. Pros and cons for both.

We are still trying to decide about moving the separate studio telephone line out to the LR. Who has a phone in a formal LR, anyway? Well, maybe a quilter who moved her operation to the LR. :D

I miss my closet space. I have boxes and racks full of batting in the LR/studio, den and garage.

And when my son and DH moved the machine and re-assembled, it was not level ...in either direction :mad:Grrrr.

Plus now my thread is locked in thread jail because I refuse to drill holes in the LR wall to hang my two huge thread racks and the LR does not have room-darkening shades like the studio did.

My machine is working fine now after some minor adjustments. I find that I don\'t quilt as much as I did, say a month ago. I bet you mothers can understand why. But I have settled in to the room and can work when I want. And that is what is important.

When I grow up (or move out of California), I will have a studio like Shana. But, I am not going to move to Alaska to get a bigger studio. :D

[kennan100]

Ahem.....Kim.....If you have a studio that gorgeous would you mind sharing pictures? Sounds like Longarm Heaven! Puleeeeze??????

[Chocoholic]

My machine is in a room that used to be our rec room. We sold the pool table (I do miss that, but not as much as I love my Milli) and installed the LA. I wish I could put all my sewing in there, but the room just isn\'t quite big enough. The room is in a walk-out/daylight basement. It has a sliding glass door in it which looks out on our front yard, which has a large natural pond. There are often ducks in the pond to watch, or deer in the yard or birds at the bird feeder so lots of things to easily distract me especially if things aren\'t going so well at the LA!