Sewing Studio

DIY Quilting Ruler Holder

October 19, 2017 by Cilenia

I’ve been making a LOT of quilts lately with babies on the way and some long over due one for the other grand-kids. And in doing so, I’ve been using a LOT of my various rulers. Issue is, I really don’t have a good storing system for most of them. I have Quilting Rulers, Template Rulers, Cutting Rulers… and on and on. I by no means have as many as most quilters, but I do use what I have consistently. Such a pain to figure out where to store them so they are handy when I want to use them.

Currently I have the majority of smaller ones in a plastic letter holder on my shelf above the ironing table and that works for most of them, but not the larger ones and the smaller ones get lost in there. I store my larger ones on little command hooks to the side of my cutting table. Those are my most frequent used and that works for me very well. But that doesn’t work for my 16 1/2″ Square one which I use for squaring off quilt blocks. Need something to hold them all except for the long cutting ones I use daily.

I searched for something on the internet and found several for sale at various places. Huh… well, for about $2 of wood, and maybe an hour of time, I can make couple! So I went to designing a couple that would fit my personal work space. 🙂 Now, nothing against the person who makes these and sells, but come on! $42?!

And the ones that store on the wall won’t do as my walls are filled with no room to spare.

So here is my design. I did this up in 3D in my CAD program so I can show the Mr on sizes I want.

My quilting foot rulers are thicker, about 3/8″+. My template rulers and cutting rulers are about 1/8″-1/4″ thick. I only need maybe one slot or two for the quilting foot rulers, so the rest of the slots can be narrower so I can fit more slots. I figure a 2×10 piece of wood would work well, (we have several in the garage just waiting for a purpose… this does NOT help my anti-hoarding speech I give the Mr monthly. LOL ). Has enough weight to hold my largest rulers and enough depth. That’s the nominal size so in reality it’s 9 1/2″ x 1 1/2″. Cutting it to be 18″ long should work well. Then I can store it on the shelf above the table all within easy reach.

First slot should be 1/2″ wide and rest can be 3/8″ wide with 1/2″ to 5/8″ between slots. Or 1″ from front to front of the slots. This gives me plenty of room between to store my instruction sheets with the rulers between the slots for the specialty rulers I have too. Make it 3/4″ deep and give them a slight angle towards the back to hold the rulers in place to lean towards the rear.

Side View

Top View

Pretty simple yes? I think so. I can stain it and seal it up with a spray polyurethane to make it nice looking and easy to clean.

And if better half wants to get real ambitious. We can make it into a stand easily by cutting a 45 degree angle on the front and the slots angled same and adding a piece of wood to the back to hold it up like an easel. 🙂 But I’d be happy with either one honestly.

Rear view

OK, back to work, (play time really), for me. Have two baby quilts to finish up and another one is in the cutting stage half done. Need to cut and iron a ton of 20″ background squares and waiting on the remainder of the fabric to arrive to cut the rest of the quilt. Ordered all same day, shipped from same place… but coming a week apart. Go figure. LOL

Want a peak at one of them? I plan on writing up the directions for this one and posting. I’m calling it Grayson’s Block after the very special soon to be born baby boy I’m making it for. I’m really loving it and think I may have to do a larger one too. This is crib sized. Looks greener in the photo than I think it is. Has more of a teal green coloring. Inspiration came from traditional blocks cut up and reorganized to create bigger blocks. Don’t think I’ve made a traditional 12″ square blocked quilt in 30 years plus. LOL

Can you tell I need a bigger Design wall or more of them? LOL Had to roll up my plane quilt temporarily while working on these. BUT, I have a plan for that. Ordered some fleece and going to add a roll up design wall! Hopefully when we move I will have the room space of my dreams. 😉 And that perfect LED lighting the Mr has promised me. That or I’m taking over that living room and dining room downstairs being unused. LOL

And I still need to finish quilting my own bed quilt… been hanging over the stair railing for a few months now. Got frustrated with my sewing machine and table trying to do such a large quilt and needed a break… one day… one day maybe I can get a long arm quilting machine. Sigh… still dreaming. But with the price being about the same as car… I have to keep my priorities in check. Besides… need that bigger Studio first. 😉 All in the plans for our new homestead.

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TV-Snack Tray to DIY Mini Ironing Table

November 8, 2016 by Cilenia

When I’m sewing quilts many of the times I have to press seams constantly. This was an issue for me because I had to get up from the sewing table, walk over to the ironing area and press, walk back, sew, get up, walk over… you get the idea. LOL

I had seen MANY pins on Pinterest about turning a wooden TV tray into an ironing board. YES! Then I could just fold it up and tuck away when not in use or take it out while I’m working. No extra space or desk area needed!

So off to Amazon I went. Yes, I love that place. I found one at a reasonable price and free shipping with my Prime account.

Here it is out of the box. (You can see where I had my ironing board at that time. Aaaaallll the way across the room. LOL This was back in Sept. 2014. Can’t believe I never shared a post about it. Oops!)

How I created it – You can click to enlarge images if you need to.

: Painted Legs Black to match my other studio furniture. Totally optional.

: Bottom layer Heavy Cotton – Layer of Heat Reflecting Batting on top of that. Make sure the reflective pieces are facing down at this point towards the cotton cover.

: Laid the table centered on top of layers

: Pulled corners over to underside, Stapled

: Pulled Sides in over corner, Stapled. This had round corners, so I chose not to trim them out first.

: Stapled between corners – Trimmed excess material after

: Done! Perfect Mini Ironing Board next to my sewing machine.

I think this took me about an hour to make after letting the paint dry.

Supplies I used:

Staple Gun

Satin Finish Black Paint (could use a spray paint too, it’s just what I had left over from doing the book shelves.)

Wooden Snack Tray

Poly-Therm Heat Reflective Fleece

Untreated Cotton Duck Canvas Cloth for cover, The first time I used plain cotton fabric, lesson learned. Didn’t hold up as well with all it’s use over past two years. I have since recovered this in the untreated Duck Cloth.

Here she is today. When not in use, I fold up and store right next to my HUGE DIY sewing table. (For another post lol).

I use my Steamfast Mini Iron or my Clover Mini Iron depending on what I’m doing instead of my full sized iron. That lives at my oversized Ironing Board that I made also after this. Made it the same way using a 2 foot by 3 foot piece of left over plywood from another project. Sanded down the corners and attached the batting and cloth exactly the same way. I love love love having this larger area for ironing! It sits centered on top of a book shelf for now. Have to be cautious about not pressing down near the edge, but until I find and get another vintage treadle sewing machine base, (should have NEVER sold mine!), it will live here. When I do find one, I’m going to mount the board on top of it. 🙂 For now it’s totally movable and I even put it on the cutting table when ironing long huge pieces of fabrics.

Then it will look like THIS! Sigh… Makes my heart sing. LOL

Scrap Mission: New Quilter’s Carry All Case

November 23, 2015 by Cilenia

My little story of how this perfect for me case came to be. 🙂

How it all started! So what to do with failed dye fabrics? Cut them up and practice curved piecing! With cool blues and purples seemed logical to make watery curved lines. Why were they failed? You can’t see from the photo well, but I didn’t mix the powder dyes well enough, and didn’t come out the exact colors I was looking for. This was from last spring when I was experimenting and self teaching hand dying fabric. I have many pieces of ‘failed’ fabric pieces… but as you will see, nothing is wasted! LOL

This long 18″x36″ piece stayed this way for a few months. Then I cut a large circle out of my favorite section for a watery planet for my grand-son’s Science and Space quilt. Really need to write up that post!

Hand dyed fabrics that didn’t come out how I planned.

Cutting and sewing curved piecing. Trying out a new technique to learn. By the end of the 36″ length, I had it down!

Now what do I do with it? Well, I needed to practice some free motion quilting techniques for an idea I had for that Science & Space quilt too! Free motion quilting with a ruler, circles, swirls… just did what came to mind and what I had seen on pinterest that inspired me.

By the time I got half way through I felt like I didn’t have good control using my bare hands, and I hate wearing quilter’s gloves for gripping. Got an EXCELLENT tip from a fellow quilter. ‘Use those rubber spongy type of shelf lining mats!’ So I cut up some into about 4″ squares and tried it out. There was a HUGE “AHA!” moment here! Think I did the happy dance too! If you haven’t tried this, DO IT! No more taking on and off gloves or fingertip gloves to do thread, and no more sweaty hands in our heat. This worked awesome and I could not believe how much better I could control the fabric movement! I was actually making perfect circles! Well… almost perfect. 😉 So I finished off the other end of this scrap piece and then put it aside to finish the quilt. And this sat for a few months. LOLI had it on my design wall for a long time… there had to be SOMETHING I could make from this! I rarely make quilted things just for art, they have to have a purpose. Yes, I’m anal like that. Really need to break out of that box!

Hmmmm Then it hit me! I hated my quilter’s carry bag. I had had it for close to 30 years. Simple zipper bag with zipped pockets inside like a 3 ring binder. I used it to carry supplies to Guild meetings or to a friend’s house for a Quilt Circle meeting or play day. It was basic, not very pretty and didn’t hold my items like I wanted. Plus I had tools I wanted to bring that didn’t fit and others not just all thrown into a zipper pocket. I wanted it organized. I searched and searched for carry bag that would work. Found tons of inspirations, tutorails and ideas, even bought a pattern for one thinking I could adjust easily… nope, not exactly what I needed. I wanted it to fit MY needs, MY tools. Something I could even use to carry from the upstairs studio to the downstairs for when I wanted to do some sewing in the family room instead of my usual box.

I knew exactly what items I wanted to have with me. Plus my rotating cutting mat which is 12.5″ x 12.5″ had to fit along with my Clover mini iron. I laid them all out on the table and began to make notes of measurements. The rulers, tools, etc etc etc. I made a sketch in Photoshop (I used the grid layout for square inches), of laying out everything so that it would lay out in a book type format and when sides were brought together nothing would fall out and leaving enough room for my bulky items like thread and the mini iron to fit too. This took a while, changed my mind several times how best to lay out and I knew I would need a space between the two sides to accommodate my mini iron bulk. Perfect spot for a pin cushion area. I even used previously made carry cases and noted what worked and what didn’t work… like need to make pencil sleeve a little snugger so they don’t fall out, or pockets deeper to hold spools better. I have several small hand sewing cases… good for a couple spools and needles but my scissors were always falling out if I want’s careful. So I planned the crap out of this. LOL

Found some scraps of black and a batik fabric that would work for the interior pockets and a piece of left over black felt to make a rolled pin cushion. I used fusible web and fusible stabilizer for all the pockets to give some stiffness. I wish I had taken photos along the way but I plan on making another one for a friend so I will make sure to do that when I do. But it is pretty easy once you know the sizes you want of your pockets. Add a 1/2″ to length and width for seam allowances and make sure you size your pockets with a little wiggle room or snugness for your items. Measure and test everything. OK, OCD showing, I know. lol

Fuse the batting and stabilizer to the wrong side of pockets, place these right sides together with the fabrics for the interior of pockets (black in my case), sew leaving a small opening and turn right side out and put a finish stitching on the tops of the pockets to not only look nice, but close the hole and also give a little strength. Think twice about order of sewing the pockets together and on the backing as some lay over other pockets.

Add some handles to the two sides and stitch the entire inside to the outside quilted piece. Add some binding and call it done! The planning took far longer than the sewing. Once I had the plan finalized, I put this all together in a morning.

A place for everything! Even a pocket for my current issue of Quilting Arts magazine and a pocket for patterns or freezer paper etc etc etc. I have everything I need except my sewing machine! Rulers, add a quarter ruler, pins, needles, pens, marking tools, thimble, seam ripper, scissors, cutting wheel, cutting mat, threads, mini glue bottle (made from a left over Scribbler’s paint), glue stick, mini iron and an ironing mat (not in picture but slides into the mini iron pocket rolled up), and various extra needles in a CD case. I’m a happy camper! Just fold it up and ready to go!

And it stores all these items nicely right next to my sewing table. In fact!, I can fold it up other way and have a little handy tool area. NOTE: I don’t leave my cutting mat in this as I have a southern window exposure and would NOT be a good thing to have that in the sun! So it sits there under the case and the case protects it while not in use. Don’t EVER leave your cutting mats in sun or hot spots and always lay flat for storing or they will get warped and be ruined… ask me how I know! lol

Lessons here? Figure out what you want to have with you and make a plan (then plan again, check dimensions three times of your items), and make your own carry all bag! This doesn’t have to be just for sewing tools, think kids! Markers and books case to have for road trips or to take along to a friend’s house or even an easy way to carry from room to room and outside. All stays nice and organized and can hang on a hook for easy storing.

And the best part?! I used up some more scraps! And even better? I used up some practice materials. Better than just tossing it. No, it’s not perfect, I was learning. But it is a nice reminder of how far I have come also. I have that dyeing mixture down, I can do curve piecing like a pro now, and now can make pretty free motion swirls and circles and turned the whole process into a useful item for myself. Yes, doing the happy dance. 🙂

Scrap Mission: Thread Box

November 22, 2015 by Cilenia

So I’ve taken on the mission to use up scraps! But I am not one to just use up to make non useful things. So my first mission is to use up some fabrics I created using my Gelli Plate long ago. They are 8×10 pieces of muslin. Hmmm Well, I do have this cluttered area of thread next to my sewing machine. I do have a thread rack, but when I’m working on a project that take many different colors I will pull them all and have them sitting next to me for switching out quickly. This was actually a cleaner day I took this pic! But you get the idea.

Now it looks like this! I made a little fabric box to hold all those threads and a few of my marking tools and brush I use to clean out my bobbin each time I change it out. Nice a tidy. 🙂

I have seen these made many ways but usually too flimsy for my liking.

So how did I make in about 20 minutes!?

I cut out a pice of fabric for the lining inside the same size as my 8×11 fabric. Then I cut out a piece of fusible batting 1/2″ smaller width and height so it is 7.5″ x 10.5 ” and fused to the outside fabric. This makes for less bulk at the seams. It’s a little stiffer than regular batting so thought it would do the trick. HIND SITE:Next time I will also use a piece of medium to heavy fusible stabilizer on the lining fabric also. This needs a little more stiffness.

Fuse the batting to the outside fabric and quilt as I liked. I just did a concentric rectangle.

For lining and outside: Fold in half lengthwise right sides together. Sew a 1/4″ seam on both of the short sides.

Then make a boxed corner by bringing in the seam centered and mark and measure about 2-1/2″ across at a 45 degree angle. Sew on this line across. I chose not to cut my corners off but you can if you like. I thought they would add a little stiffness to the sides if I left in.

Place the lining inside the outer quilted box, right sides together and align the edges and pin. Sew the top with a scant 1/4″ seam leaving about a 1-1/2″ to 2″ area open to turn right side out.

Turn entire box right side out through your hole. Make sure you put the boxed corners, if you left in, up the sides when you turn as it will give the side a little more stiffness. If you have them on the bottom it won’t be as flat. Press the seam folding the raw edges to the inside and sew a nice top stitch seam all the way around the top of your box to close off your hole you had for turning.

Then sew about 1/8″ seam top stitching up all four corners on the outside to help stiffen them up to stand nice. I used my blind stitch foot with the needle all the way to the left as shown below.

And that’s it! Easy peasy! Fill with whatever you like. Now I even have room to keep my rulers there also next to my rotating mat. 🙂 Think I will make some more to hold misc items in my studio. You can adjust the size easily. This size holds 10 of my Aurifil Spools which now live by my machine. I will never buy any other kind of thread again after using Aurifil, but that’s for a different post. 🙂 Need to use up all my misc other threads first on projects like this. lol These also make sure organizing containers for markers, pens and pencils or anything you like.

My Sewing Studio

September 29, 2015 by Cilenia

Well, last year I had remodeled the Studio, but I still had all my art and sewing in one room. As I started to get back into more and more sewing, I found the need to separate the two. So earlier this year I tackled the job again. I have an empty spare room so decided to move all the art supplies there. Wish it could be all one, but I’m happy how this turned out. Still tweaking things, but thought I’d share. I alway love seeing other peoples creative spaces and hope something from mine sparks ideas for yours. 🙂

I purchased a table top CHEAP from Ikea. I have two book cases purchased from Wally world that are the perfect height for standing at or sitting on my bar stools to work. At first this taller book case was around the corner, but found I needed/wanted that shelve space as I worked. The book case is ions old from an old office of mine. Painted the exterior black to match the bookcases and left the inside shelves natural wood. Love that look! I adjusted one of the shelves so that the table top set almost perfectly aligned with the shorter book case while resting on the taller bookcase shelf. YES! Now I have extra storage above work table!

Under you can see this is where I store my bolts of fabric on one shelf and the bottom shelf is all my stabilizers I use on bolts and half bolts. Did you know?! Your local fabric shop will be MORE than happy to give you empty bolts. Just be careful or you’ll walk out with more than you ever carry or use. LOL

The two file cabinets have a black and white fabric adhered to the outside. The left holds my glues, tapes, misc projects in process etc. The right holds all my batting. Cottons on top and my poly blends on the bottom. I can store my spray bottles of starch, basting spray and water right in my reach. My rulers are hung on the sides of the bookcases using Command hooks. Love those things! Strong, but remove easily if need be without messing up the surfaces.

The top of the table has my two largest cutting matts. These cover the whole surface. The one got warped long ago as you can see on the top left… lesson learned, don’t put hot cups of coffee on a cutting matt. Still good for a cutting surface, but can’t use the lines any longer as guides. I hope to one day get a custom matt made for this table. 🙂

On the end below I store my small trash bin which is SO handy to have there while cutting and trimming! I pull it out just a bit so that while I’m cutting I can easily swipe the scraps right off the table and into the bin. The boxes hold projects in the works. Once is Miss Bailey’s and one is mine.

The other side of the table are all my traditional fabrics stored by color in dollar store plastic bins. The top shelf has a cafe curtain rod that holds my freezer paper and another behind and lower holding my fusible web. I like that I can just pull out onto the table and cut off what I need.

This is a view of my sewing table area and Batik and hand dyed fabrics on another shelf unit. The top one is an old wood CD case holder I painted. I use old CD cases as shelves to store smaller pieces of fabric and organize by color. Under that I store larger pieces on comic book boards. They are like mini bolts of fabric.

My threads are stored on a wall shelf above my sewing table. Easy access. Have another shelf sitting in the corner waiting to be hung when I decide where I want it. Hard to see here, but there is also a magnetic knife holder on the front of that shelf that holds my scissors, seam reapers, and extra sewing feet for my machine. All in easy reach.

My BF is making me a new sewing table! Currently it is in the garage waiting for some muscle to get it up the stairs. LOL It is solid wood and very large. Will fill that corner. Miss Bailey will inherit my smaller one. 🙂

See above to the left of my sewing table, there is a wooden TV tray that I can fold up next to my table for storage. This is so handy if you’re doing any kind of piecing and need to iron seams especially if paper piecing. I use my mini Clover Iron usually.

I covered the top of it with heat reflective batting and then a piece of muslin. Now it’s my portable mini ironing table right next to my sewing table! There are lots of tutorials on Pinterest how to make these. So easy! I painted the legs black to match all the other furniture of course. 😉

To the right of my sewing table I keep things handy too. A rotating cutting matt for paper piecing, my sewing box with the current threads I’m using and my fabric bowl to hold my pens, glue stick, quilting glove and finger tips.

That bowl was made from a pieces of scrap muslin and batting. I simply did some thread sketching in an organic circular pattern just to play and then used fabric stiffener on it to shape as I liked. It’s perfect for what I needed. May make a few more as catch all baskets around the house.

On the other side of the room is my home office area. There is a file cabinet to the left of that table for all my files and records. Top shelf holds all my solid colored fabrics, yarn and a few very old projects never finished. Middle shelf holds all my office supplies and my Quilting Arts collection of DVDs for the last 15 years. LOL Gave up trying to find shelves for all those magazines and decided to go digital. LOL Having my computer in the same room has made life so much easier also. This is a temporary design wall area. I had planned on getting some foam board and making a real design wall. I will adhere flannel fabric to it. Currently this is just an old piece of scrap batting hung with thumb tacks so I can place fabric pieces to visualize ideas. This changes constantly, but recently found the need for a larger design wall area… might need to come up with an idea to use that open wall space to the right. Thinking a roll up exterior shade covered in flannel.
Usually on my cutting table is my large surface iron board. I made this the same way I made my TV tray one but I used black fabric instead. I find a lot of my work has black binding as a nice frame and putting it on this board also gives me a visual of how it will look. When it’s not being used, I tuck it under the table upright. What’s really nice is this can be moved over to the ironing board also when I need the space or set up against the wall or bookshelf there if I want for extra design area or need a little visualization space with a black background.

I did take pictures of constructing both the TV Tray mini ironing board and also the large one. If you want to see a tutorial on how to do those, I’d be more than happy to post just ask.

In the end I am really happy I decided split up into two rooms. I don’t have the art room arranged yet but hope to soon. Need to find some more of those floating shelves in garage sales! And maybe a few more bookshelves. 😉

Some have said my rooms are so organized… believe me, they don’t stay this way, BUT, I do clean up and put things away as I work. And at the end of a project, which is about weekly, I do the entire room. I dust, I vacuum, I refold, I make sure everything is back in it’s place. I just can’t be creative or work in chaos and sometimes even during large projects I have the need to stop and clean it up too. I find I am far more productive that way. I think that’s why the room has only black and white furniture also…. besides that most items were mismatched yard bargains. LOL Less distracting and all look more uniform now refinished and painted. I’d love to get new flooring some day. A wood floor is on my wish list. The carpets in this home were severely damaged and stained before we ever moved in and I have tried everything including bleach! LOL But, I think a wood floor would be far better than carpeting. Plus makes for easier clean up in a sewing room.

NOW…. don’t think this arrangement came about easily. I have rearranged this room more times than I like to admit. Finally, I decided to do it the right way. I had my notes from as I worked what I wish was where or what I needed to be better organized or make life easier. This I used a FREE online program to draw the whole thing out. The Architect/Engineer came out there. LOL But you don’t have to be one to sue this program! It’s very user friendly.

I gathered all my room and furniture measurements and began to arrange, and rearrange, and then arrange again. What’s really sweet is you can see it in 3D also! It’s at http://www.roomsketcher.com You can easily resize the standard furniture they have and even set heights for shelving etc. Made life easier! This is also how I knew how much room I needed in that corner for the new sewing table when it’s completed. 🙂

Here was final floor plan. This is a small loft room, only 10′-10″‘ x 9′-6’ not including the hallway. But I have made it work for what I need.

And here are two camera view points looking into the room. Pretty darn kewl! I even show my two orchards there on the cubicle. LOL Have I said yet I’m OCD and everything needs to have it’s place? Proof! LOL

Do you have a creative space you’d like to share? I’d love to see it too! Please feel free to link us up in the comments.

I do pin a lot of ideas big and small, so if you need a distraction for ideas, be sure to visit and follow my Pinterest board of Art-Sewing-Quilting Studio Ideas-Tips.

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