Connie didn’t think it was fair to show her mess if I didn’t show you mine and no, she is not ready for the “after”pictures. Haha! I think we’re all pretty much alike except that I can’t find anything and many of you said you knew where everything was! Not me!
This sewing room in my house is not nearly as big as Connie’s but I also have the entire quilt shop to contain clutter. I’ll save that for another day. I hate to hit you with all of it at once – haha!
As I looked at each picture I thought “this is almost shameful” and vowed to start sorting this afternoon! First there’s my lunch hour when I can read. Just finished “The Wife Before Me” and it was pretty darned good except for the ending. Now I’m going to start “The Rent Collector” by Cameron Wright. Had to take the 9/11 book back to the library before I could get it finished. I think I’ll just order it from Amazon so I can read it when I want to.
I made this warm little corner in the barn for Mama, Darla and Danielle but I see a chicken liked it, too!
This pattern, “Crow in the Corn” will be made available for $3.00 next fall when we offer fall patterns again. You CAN buy it now for $10.00 if you do not want to wait.
I am currently sending out the red and white Live Thankfully pattern. This will be available till December 1 when we’ll want to make something new for January.
Time to read and then start sorting and cleaning.
Mary & Connie, Messy or not we are very creative people and that is what counts. I wish I had a sewing room. I store my fabric in every nook and corner of this house and cut out quilts and sew on my dining room table.
I suffered the loss of a son and this quilting has been my therapy. I would rather be creative and accomplish something than spend time in a doctors office. both of you have been a blessing in my life and I can’t tell you how much I enjoy the web site. Carolyn B
Carolyn,
My heart goes out to you with your heartbreaking loss. Quilters do sincerely care. Quilting soothes the soul! I had that sign in my previous sewing room; it was also messy like my new one here in Idaho. Keep quilting!
Launa in Idaho
Carolyn B – my sympathies on the loss of your son but I agree that quilting is therapy. I always say I quilt for the journey, not the destination.
Your messy sewing area makes me feel so good because mine is just as bad. If I’m honest, it’s probably worse. LOL. I am trying to use up fabric and weed out things I am not going to use, but the more you take off the pile the higher the pile gets. Not sure how that works, but it does. LOL
I believe my sewing room looks more like yours than Connie’s. Plus just sitting here gazing at the room I can count 17 Amazon boxes (my husband loves to order from Amazon) which are labeled with masking tape (so I can change labels out if and when I get the projects finished) with different projects in them. Plus 5 small see-through tubs with Bonnie Hunter organization cut scraps. I still have one large tub of Thimbleberries fabrics I want to use for some scrap quilts, too. And my Longaberger laundry basket full of my KS Troubles fabrics for my Block Heads blocks. JoAnne’s Fabrics just had the large rolls of Heirloom 80/20 batting on sale for $3 a yard so I have a full bolt of that in here, too. My husband calls me a hoarder, but I tell him the rest of the house is definitely not like those hoarder shows! I can find most things and if I can’t, what I was looking for this week will turn up next week when I am looking for something different. 🙂 Thanks for your blog. I love hearing about your animals and farm. Plus your adventures with Reed. I used to love to read when I was younger but then I worked with a computer 8 to 10 hours a day and got out of the habit. I have saved your list of books. It is tempting me to become a reader once again. Thanks for all you do.
I love both of you women. You’re honest. We all have our own ways of dealing with things, and we can surely tell from your blog that you get things done. That’s what counts.
Elaine in British Columbia. Thanks for sharing. Looks good to me actually looks a lot like mine- heaven. Have a wonderful day and thanks for being you- you add joy to my life!😘
I, too, am messy in my sewing room. I tend to start a new project and just push the
leftovers from the last project aside. Since this is the way I am, I’ve decided to adopt
this manta-The magic is in the mess. I can find what I want and sometimes unearth
“buried treasure” in the process.
Our sewing rooms!! I think I fall between the two of you. I should get organized though. Most of my piles are related by some reason!! LOL!
Mary, would you wash baby quilts if you were going to sell them? I see what you are saying but hesitate to do that with any I am going to sell. Thanks!
Beryl Hoff – I think washed and dried quilts are more attractive with all that puckery goodness!
OK, thank you! I may try it with the next one!
“A clean room is the sign of a broken sewing machine!”
I have gotten such a wonderful laugh from these two posts. You can’t know how much better I feel.
A word of caution…when it’s all clean and tidy, you can lose that desire to “pull that piece out and try it”
Don’t get so hung up on perfect piles.
I’d LOVE to come help, but I’m hundreds of miles away. I so enjoy looking thru other quilters “stuff”.
Jo in Wy – still didn’t start sorting this afternoon – too nice outside!
Your room looked like a true creative quilter….if someone walks into my space an gasp, then they don’t understand…
Sharlyn – you’re right, they do not get it. The rest of my house is quite tidy compared to my sewing room!
I am so pleased that we should start a group of messy sewing room ladies.
I am feeling so much better! It is so good to see that we are all alike! My room was a mess and I “cleaned it up” a few weeks ago. Everything is relative! it Is better but if it’s too clean I can’t work in there. I feel guilty getting it messy again. 😝
Paula – See? That’s why I don’t want to clean it!
Your room looks good compared to mine. I have made about a dozen jelly roll rugs lately using batting scraps and strips and sample fabric etc that I had on hand and can’t even see what I used. Enjoy your news letters very much. thanks.
Mary…. Loved seeing your work area….fortunately I don’t take pictures with my cell…LOL. We’ve resided here a few years now and I am still unpacking fabric, but sewed a few projects the past couple weeks. The snow has pretty well melted and it’s gotten up to 48 at this altitude about 1 pm! Nice sunny afternoon in the mountains…5800 ft!
Off to get a spot cleared off in my sewing room so I can get a handquilting project prepped. Next comes sandwiching Cornerstones! A quilting friend used your straight line method n loved doing it!
Launa – I think easy straight line quilting will encourage quilters to make more small quilts that they can quilt themselves. My lines are definitely not perfectly straight – that would be just uniform for my taste!
I no longer have a sewing “room”… I have a sewing condo! There are machines and fabric (and lint) in every room – except the bathrooms! Haven’t had a holiday meal at my house in many years because the quilt frame takes up the entire dining area and the antique table is folded against the wall. It’s a sickness…but I sure enjoy it!!
Linda, my quilting friends and I frequently talk about our illness, but somehow none of us wants to get well!!! We’re having too much fun! I love think we’re all in good company!!!! 😊
Is it crazy that a messy sewing room can be comforting and drive you crazy if that makes sense? I enjoy the organizing part once I’ve finished a project. Like Carolyn I use sewing as therapy – things my kids have done have sent me to the edge many times but sewing/quilting kept me sane. Carolyn, I am so terribly sorry you had to go through the loss of your son.
Linette – I think all quilters use it as therapy at one time or another.
Here’s my problem with organizing a sewing room. I did that this summer and now I can’t find my embroidery tin. I’m sure I put it someplace that made sense at the moment, but I have no idea where that might be! 😞
Anna m – my glasses are somewhere in the quilt shop -they’ve been missing for over a month but by this time next week, I won’t need them anymore after cataract surgery so I’m going to quit looking for them! Ha!
Oh goodie, another sewing room that looks like mine plus Squeak (oops–Millie) is right there in the mix!!
Squeak spends most of her time in my South facing sewing room window in her basket lined with fleece. Too bad she’s so abused. My favorite (and only) son in law told our daughter that in 5 years he had never seen my sewing room. I showed it to him and he said, “It’s a creative work place.” Bless his heart:)
I saw in the paper that 67% of Iowans get their flu shots. That was very high compared to most states. Good for you:) One state had 67.5%
At least you have one floor. I sew in an upstairs bedroom. I have so much fabric on my shelves the walls have a long crack on it. My husband keeps saying that I am going to go through the floor with all that weight. I do fear that happening. I am trying to put fabric in 18 gallon bins by color and store in the garage. This is NOT ideal.
Linda..I buy foam board from the dollar tree and cut it to the size I need and wrap fabric on the boards. I bought plastic utility shelves and store my fabric boards on the shelves. I had umpteen totes but could not find the piece I needed..so now I can see everything I have before I go to the fabric store and buy more.
Love this idea. Thanks:)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a productive quilter with a tidy studio! We work on a project and then get another idea a have to try it before we forget!
Thank you sooooo much for the pictures! Makes me feel much better. I am reorganizing my sewing room, now my stash room, and it is a slow process. I can work several hours and get burned out, quit til another day; if I try to push through that feeling, I end up stacking things here and there….that is what I MUST get away from doing. Even when everything is on order, I need a designated place to put fabric for just a SHORT time until it finds a home. I have learned that my clutter is stuff that does not have a home! We must keep at it! ! ! !
I love you all!
-Jean💟
I laughed when I saw your sewing room. Looks like mine but I don’t have that big space so mine is not contained in one room. Creative people tend to have messy spaces. There are exceptions to that and more power to them. I respect them and wish I was like that but I’m not and I’m 66 and not likely to change. Embrace the chaos!
Both studios look inviting and comfy to me! Just look how comfortable Millie is!
Mary, didn’t you mention that your brother passed away and he had cancer? If I remember you and your sister(?) went to visit in a previous post? So sorry. You will miss him.
Now, about sewing rooms. My niece ran a daycare in a Catholic church in St. Louis. The church also had a group of old ladies who hand quilted to raise money for the church. When she came to this house for the first time and went by my sewing room she said “the quilting ladies would love this room.” Wasn’t that nice? We are a breed of people who like to create with lots of beautiful colors and patterns. Our minds are always at least 48 projects ahead of our hands. Working with our hands is so therapudic and having something nice to show makes us feel so good. As for messy sewing rooms, etc, a clean, neat house is a sign of a misspent life!!
Reading is nice, too.
I don’t see anything wrong with these pictures. LOL. Looks perfectly normal to me. 😀
Truthfully Mary your room is much tidier than my sewing room. My room is so bad I won’t ever take a picture there is a very narrow path across the room to my sewing machine. I am embarrassed to say that my room would probably qualify for an episode of horders. I wish my room were a clean as yours.
My family calls my sewing room my “sewage” room because it is so wonderfully messy. And, like so many others, I do know where things are. Piles and bins and bags and stacks on shelves. Projects galore. Fabric and thread and paraphernalia. It’s all mine. It allows me to relax, regroup and create. I am thankful I have it.
Thanks for the info. on the crow pattern. Guess I’ll work on a few UFOs until next fall. I loved the photos of your sewing studio and Connie’s.
I love reading your blog. Makes me feel better about the condition of my sewing room! I’ll have to show your pictures and the comments to my husband so he understands us sewing gals better, haha! Where do all you ladies store your finished quilts when they aren’t in use? My quilting closet is so full of fabricand UFOs that I don’t have a good place for the finished ones.
A tip we received at quilt guild is to roll finished quilts on those dollar stores
“Noodles” you use in pools. Then store them in a bucket in a corner.
Kathy – what a great idea for storing quilts!
Annette – all husbands should realize sewing rooms follow a different set of rules
I love feeling I am not alone in my creative mess I call my sewing sanctuary. It’s my happy place and never has been perfectly tidy. Just thankful I can shut the door so others don’t do the gasp thing and think my whole life is messy. It’s not. I someday wish for a cleaning person but then I remember I do like picking up my own treasures to dust and rearrange. We just returned from a trip to Ohio Amish area and today I have more bags of fabric to put away that I wanted to buy. It’s my sickness and when I am too old to shop at stores, I will have all my happy fabrics to pick from. Prices use to be bit more reasonable there but they are the same now as what I pay here in NY at my local quilt shops and I still bought cause I want to. I love Ohio Amish farmhouses for their simple fall outside decorations. And yes Mary I had to buy the 9-11 book as well cause I knew I would want to pass it on to others to read.
Kathy, Try Somewhere Sewing in Millersbury, Ohio and Country Fabrics in Shiloh, Ohio. Both are somewhat more reasonable than in Berlin or Charm.
Thanks Diane! Somewhere sewing was unfortunately closed for the week so I was kinda bummed we drove from Mt Eaton to it. But I loved their saying I read in one of the ads…..” if I’m not home, I’m somewhere sewing.”
Thanks Diane. Unfortunately Somewhere Sewing was closed for the week. I was disappointed as we drove from Mt Eaton to it. But I love their saying in an ad….” If I’m not home, I’m somewhere sewing “.
you and Connie have made me very happy! Everything in its place–all over the place. projects are fingertip ready! I’ve always worked that way, but only most quilters can understand (some quilters don’t work this way). Thank you again!!!
Just love your blog and photos of the dogs and messy sewing rooms. My sewing room is just as messy and sometimes I can’t find what I am looking for but it does eventually turn up later but it is when I don’t need it any longer.
We did adopt a cat who is two years old and is named Riggs. He is a Turkish Van (never heard of the breed and had to look it up on the internet.) He is very mellow and keeps his claws in most of the time. Now to keep him off the counters which I don’t like. We have a routine every morning and he seems to be happy with the routine. Must order some patterns.
Judy Berna – I have to look up Turkish Van – I’ve never heard of it.
The level of “stuff” in my three-bedroom, one and a half-bath sewing studio got to me about two years ago. I started a practice of doing one organizing-decluttering-cleaning thing in my sewing room on days I sew before I do anything else. It’s not a big thing, but it sure does help, and it didn’t take me long before I noticed a difference.
It can be anything from emptying and going through a drawer, shelf, box, bin or finding one item to donate, sell, trash, or put away to un-sewing a leftover block that’s been around too long to vacuuming, running the lint roller over my ironing board and cutting mat(s, dusting the window sills or TV, putting a new needle in a machine, etc. And I find stuff I’ve been looking for!
It also helps that my quilt group comes over once a month, and I have to clear my tables.
Mary, I am sending you a big hug. My condolences on the loss of Gayle and your brother. It is always so hard to lose those we love, at least their physical presence, they will always be in our hearts.
Judy in soggy Texas – Last week I was at a quilting retreat and watched as ALL of us began with two or three tables apiece. Then we were merging unto our neighbor’s table. Then we expanded to the table across the aisle. Projects in process just seem to EXPLODE! At home I begin in the “studio” where two machines are set up. When those tables fill up, I move to the next room for empty tables. Traveling to retreats makes me pack up, pick up and clean some areas. But I am back home now – laughing-out-loud catching up on the blog and all these wonderful comments!!! Y’ll are WONDERFULLY encouraging!!!! Now I am off and ready to begin a new EXPLOSION!
Judy Linn – I’m ready to start a quilt explosion tonight!
I had started to clean before you guys started the messy sewing rooms…..I is just as bad if not worst!!! I just think that just we quilters do…..
I just love your Sewing Room! Sometimes I feel if I’m too focused on organization I can’t be creative. Quilting is my therapy and stress reducer! My husband can’t always understand why I need “more”, but he does like the finished products. Enjoy hearing about the books you have read. So many choices! I don’t think I can keep up with you!
Again, love hearing about your daily adventures!
Sharon in Oswego, IL – you don’t think I read all those books on the list, do you?