Studio re-painted and re-configured

I was having some interior painting done this spring, and decided to freshen up my studio, last painted about 25 years ago. I changed the color from a peachy-tan to light gray, which came out well. And since I had to move the furniture around anyway for the painter, I took the time to make a scale-model plan of the room, playing with the positioning of the furniture.  I discovered that if I swapped the positions of the sewing table and the cutting table, I gained enough space on the north wall (where the cutting table is in the photo above (green mat on the table) that I could move my fabric storage cabinet (aka filing cabinet) far enough from the wall that I could get in there to actively use the design wall at that end. (It doesn't look like enough space below, but it is.)   

The big change I made was that I expanded the width of the flannel-covered design wall by 16" so that it takes up the full width of the wall. I also improved the design wall by using duct tape to tape together the foam insulation panels, which I'd previously just nailed up side by side. And I covered the whole thing with flannel (and a layer of cotton underneath that) before nailing the wall up, so I have a taut, smooth surface. Much better than my old one, where I had just tacked flannel to the surface of the panels, which meant pretty loose flannel, as you can see towards the bottom of this photo from a couple of years ago.

I also bought a blue Ikea Raskog utility cart to put near the ironing board, a great place to store my spritzer bottles and other odds and ends:

In fact, I got two of them, one for downstairs, to corral my embroidery projects/supplies, so that they're not spread across the dining room table.

Many thanks to David for helping me out with the construction and mounting of the design wall, and for doing all the assembly on the utility carts.  I told him I thought the design wall would take us about an hour, but it took us more like 4 or 5!

Study to Studio

For many years, this desk was the focal point of my study, the place where I wrote books, where I did my scholarship. The laptop sat on the pull-out typing return, at the perfect height for a short person like me. This desk held current notes and drafts of my research projects. Another skinny desk went off in an "el," to the right of the typing return; this second desk held materials related to the classes I was teaching, as well as bills and letters. The room was filled with books and files connected to my job, to my professional life. It was a good place to work.

After my son's death in 2004, the study no longer pulled me in. The part of my life connected to research fell away. In the midst of a quilting design workshop I took in June 2005, an idea took shape: I could turn my study into a studio. Talking with Amy D. at breakfast, I tentatively told her about this idea. "Penny, that's huge!" I was so grateful for her understanding of what the shift would mean, and her encouragement to go ahead and make the change. Which I did.

It's been three and a half years now since I re-did the room. It's been difficult to say the word "studio"; I more usually call it my "sewing room." Louise and I challenge each other to say/write the word, without hesitating, without putting quotation marks around it. Naming this blog "Studio Notes" was one way to claim the word for myself. "Study" and "Studio" both seem to be derived from the Latin verb "studio"—to pursue eagerly. Yes, I pursued scholarship eagerly for 35 years. Now that same eagerness is going into my work with fabric.

If you're interested in a (longish) account of the FunQuilts Design Workshop and how it transformed my approach to quilting—and my identity—you can read this talk: "From Study to Studio: Meaning and Motivation in Scholarship and Art" (link added in July 2010, replacing an earlier talk referred to here previously).

By the way, the typing return is just the right height for working on needleturn appliqué.

Another view of the studio.