Tuesday, June 5, 2012

So Clean You Can See the Floor

After a day of work, my sewing room is ready for its duty as guest room.  My husband was duly impressed when I showed him how clean it was.  I can even close the closet doors!  And I organized all my batting scraps. 
 My goal, aside from not being embarrassed to let guests in there, was to get my new treadle machine in somehow. It was a big somehow; but I managed.  I even moved it down the hall from our bedroom all by myself. 
I had to shuffle some things to make it a space.  I really don't like having my back to a door, blame three older brothers most likely, so I really wanted to find it a place that wasn't under the window.  I ended up being able to move my fabric storage system to the other side of my desk.
(When I initially covered all those boxes I made a girl side and a boy side for each one. We used this to store baby clothes when baby still shared a room with mom and dad.  When I made it I told my husband that I would use it for fabric storage someday.  He was skeptical as it would have to survive children.  Little did we know it would only have to survive three. Totally made it.  And now it houses fabric.)
 Anyway, I was able to move my treadle machine to the now unoccupied space under my idea board.  (sounds way better than "the magnet board when I stick stuff," huh?)
 I even managed to make myself a design wall.  It was a long time coming and such an improvement.  I've had the dollhouse block laying around forever, getting wrinkled, and miraculously not colored on by my daughter. (the other half of the room has, aside from the sofa bed,  a roll of paper for kiddos to color and the top drawer of the guest nightstand is full of crayons and coloring books.)
 It's really nice to have a place to stash some blocks to keep them safe and not all over the floor.
 My treadle machine is still waiting on the leather belting that connects the wheels.  It should be in my LQS by now, I just haven't gotten over there yet.  The machine cleaned up nicely and according to the serial number is from 1904.  I love the history of it.  It makes me wanna make something way traditional, like a double wedding ring.  I've also fake named it Ruth.  I don't name things in general, but if I did, it would be named Ruth.  It's a New Home which became Janome.  Every other Janome is named Naomi, so my New Home is fake named Ruth.  Ruth and Naomi, get it? 

And what fun is a treadle machine if you can't play with the treadle?  I will probably have to crack down on this once I have the leather in place, but for now my almost six year old is totally the king of getting the wheel spinning.  Seriously, he's got a knack for it.

So there you have it; my clean sewing room.  It kinda makes me wanna paint, but would all my fabric smell like paint forever?  And how do I choose a paint color?  I don't want the walls to clash with my quilts and make them look all weird.  And besides, Audrey and Gregory own the walls in this space.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Congrats on cleaning up! I always enjoy seeing sewing spaces as they're all so different! And I was just thinking that mine needs to be picked up too. Maybe I'll at least add it to my to-do list so it has a chance. :)

Susana Neiger said...

Awesome! Great work! Lots of work to get things moved around and reorganized, but it's refreshing, isn't it?! Enjoy.

Audrie said...

Along as there is still room for us to visit I am happy. It looks great.

Jeanette said...

My Mom used to have a machine just like that and us kids would get that treadle going like it was a jet engine. I honestly don't know how it wasn't broken. Lovely sewing room. Did you know Pink Chalk Fabrics is having a where I sew month in July. You should add yours!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Great sewing space and love your treadle sewing machine!