making rebecca lynne: New House, New Sewing Room

Ha! Did I write *new sewing room*? How about FIRST sewing room. Two bedroom apartments in Brooklyn don't exactly lend themselves to extra rooms designated solely for a serious fabric addiction and the sewing projects that result from said addiction. Before we moved my sewing machine and cutting board shared a space with the desktop computer, my serger was lost under piles of fabric, a whole section of my closet shelf was designated for fabric storage (hey, it was Brooklyn, I was lucky to have a closet shelf let alone a closet), and I could never keep a project out while it was being worked on because fabric would migrate throughout the apartment due to my daughter's inclination to help mommy. A good friend kindly suggested that I should "build shelving in the corner" to tame the large pile of fabric in the corner that was starting to rival the Tower of Pisa. I refused because I just wanted to move damnit! Well...my wish was granted...and I have the best husband in the world who did not even blink when I claimed the extra bedroom in our new home for sewing and all my other projects. Muhuhahahahhaaa! It is MINE all MINE!!! Of course now I have no excuse to leave my projects lying around anywhere else...darn.

In fact, hubby darling and Miss E and Miss V went even further! For my birthday I received a Design Wall! Yes! Just imagine me dancing around our moving box filled house clutching my Design Wall as I planned where it would live... Oooh baby you and I are going to have so much fun together...

Here are some shots of my new room...unfinished of course!

Hubby putting together the table

The Infamous Design Wall!

I interrupt your photo viewing to point out that the table now holds BOTH my cutting board & sewing machine! Heaven! Before, due to the computer, I used to have to take the machine on and off the table to use the cutting board. This is going to rock.

Trusting Ikea Shelving - I plan on filling those cubby holes with fabric!

My family even generously donated the old tv to the cause. It doesn't do anything except play DVDs but that is okay, I only use it as background anyway.

tiny window above table, but at least there is A Window

And look...even the serger came out from hiding! I can't wait to break that puppy open again and start using her. It has been awhile since I was able to sew legit clothing with appropriate serged seams.

Of course, even surrounded by all these boxes, as soon as I had the design wall up I had to try it out! I immediately grabbed a project I have left lingering for awhile. It is meant to be a gift for a close girlfriend who had one of those periods in life where you need a girly quilt from an old friend. Unfortunately, I managed to get pregnant and have a baby before finishing this quilt so her period of reflection is long gone and she is onto bigger and better things (yay!). But...I still need to finish this quilt! Here are the quilt top strips on the design wall:

Heh heh...isn't that wall awesome? I am loving it! I finally can SEE everything all at once without standing on a chair! The piecing is cut from a charm pack of Botany by Lauren & Jessi Jung for Moda Fabrics. The botany theme, hummingbirds, and general all over earthiness really reminds me of my friend.

Here is a detail of the strips. I sewed the charm pack into strips and then cut each strip into thirds. I wanted to do the brick path design you see here. Now that months have gone by I am actually thinking I'd rather add some solids to this quilt top. From far away it does not look busy...but up close it can be pretty detailed. I thought solid blocks of color might break up the details and make the individual fabrics pop a little more as right now they compete with each other. Then I thought of doing one solid color on one side (teal blue)...and using the rest with a different solid on the back (chocolate brown).

Yes. I did a digital sample. I'm so predictable... Ha!