Today on my weekly live video, I took my viewers on a tour of my studio! As follow-up to that tour, I thought I'd share a little bit about how I have my studio organized. If you are interested in seeing the video, you can find it on my YouTube channel here: Studio Tour with Emily
Because I have so much happening in my studio-- working on collage quilts, running CollageQuilter.com, cutting fabric bundles, sewing, quilting, painting and dreaming, I am learning that organization is absolutely critical! Here are the features of my studio that I can't live without.
The island in my studio provides excellent storage of works in progress, and supplies, as well as a cutting surface. It's a custom designed piece from Ikea's kitchen design service, and it's a life saver. The size is 42" x 74"
Also from Ikea is the cubicle wall unit, which holds all of my cut fabric. Each cubby hole is 13" square, and contains a basket for every color of fabric that I have (red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, green, blue, teal, brown, black / gray, white and multi-color). My larger baskets contain fabric pieces that are 1/8 yard and larger, and are "virgin" fabric cuts-- they don't have fusible web on them. I also keep smaller containers with fabric scraps of each color that have fusible on them and that are too small to fold up neatly in the larger baskets.
My desk and Amelia's desk are from Ikea as well-- I love Ikea furniture because it is sturdy, easy to put together, easy to move around and very affordable!
I'm SUPER excited about my new Bernina Sewing cabinet! It folds up neatly, but also has storage for my sewing machine, the embroidery machine and supplies.
I love to surround myself with things that are meaningful, too-- not just functional! This doll reminds me of my grandma because she is wearing fabric that I designed using my grandma's chocolate snack cake recipe! The doll is also very similar to an antique doll that my grandma kept in her curio cabinet. If I was very careful, as a little girl, my grandma would allow me to hold the doll. I remember how fragile she was in her 100+ year old lace and silk dress!
I love my green velvet chaise with my Wee Green Beasties quilt. Green is my FAVORITE color, and I love to curl up there to check out the latest quilt magazines or just to let my mind wander while I listen to inspiring music.
Through the secret doorway, we can enter into my painting studio! This is where I can hide away and paint without any distractions. It's also the room where I store all of my non-fabric related art supplies: oil paints, pastels, watercolor, gouache, paper, colored pencils, etc.
A few organizational tips:
1) Buying furniture with casters, or putting casters on pieces you already own, has been extremely helpful as I find myself needing to move things around all the time!
2) Inexpensive folding tables are very useful because I need lots of table space, but I also need to be able to move them around or put them away easily.
3) Using removable Velcro Command strips allows me to rotate the quilts that I hang up without damaging the walls-- they are a must!
If you have a helpful tip that you'd like to share, please add it to the comments below! Thanks for joining me in my studio! ~Emily