Design Wall Monday: A Tour of My Studio (a return post)

Another Design Wall Monday has rolled around. Today, my post literally will be about my design wall, and the rest of my studio. So come in and take a peek. (It will never look this tidy again.)

My worktable, two elevated tables covered with a huge cutting mat atop a melamine surface.Andy installed a track light system above: some spots and some floods. Nice and warm!

Salvaged closet shelves store books; cutting rulers and rotary cutters on walls. Art supplies stored on the corner bookshelf; paper craft supplies like stamps, inks, stencils and other stuff live in the green and white bins under my Little Prince clock.

Under the worktable, a chest of drawers stores non-cottons (glitzy stuff and tulle), my hand-dyes and others', and ethnic fabrics, topped with ironing supplies.

Under the other side of my worktable, stacked bins hold longer lengths of yardage.

To left of machine area, this Chinese inlay chest stores beads, and beading books and tools.

One-half yard lengths and fat quarters of quilting cottons, sorted by color or genre (Japanese-type, edibles, etc.), and filed into Ikea Trofast bins. Atop, my collection of Dover books and Quilting Arts magazines, along with some sewing mags and photos.

To the left of the fabric bins, a smaller Trofast unit stores UFOs (Unfinished Fiber Objects).

My back wall serves as a design wall. I can stand pretty far back from it to get a better idea of what's going on.

To the left of the design wall, my file cabinets, a scanner and a yoga book/mag collection.

Here are my trusty computer, two printers: laser and ink-jet, plus a land-line phone to the left of the file cabinets and books.

My pressing station, with a Big Board, a large, padded board that fits on top of a regular ironing board. I can raise it all to make a surface that's level with the worktable. That's handy for pressing stretchy fabrics you don't want dangling off the ironing board -- or just for some spare room to lay out stuff.

The "heart" of my room: a strangely angled corner with my Bernina sewing machine, and cabinets holding my serger, threads and other supplies.

To the right of my sewing machine is a small, shorter table I use for spot pressing, rotary cutting small bits, or raising tomato and pepper seedlings (see the grow lights on pulleys above). Usually the table holds my netbook and speaker, and plays my current audio book.

In the room's closet, my rayon machine embroidery threads and arcane supplies.

The other side of the closet holds clear bags of yarns, trims, lace and hand-embroidery threads. The chests of drawers hold my collection of clothing patterns. On the top shelf I've stacked my way too large collection of garment fabric.

Thanks for visiting my studio. Although I'm sure to get great ideas as I view the studios of other fiber artists, I probably won't be able to do much about it: this one's stuffed to the rafters!

An Homage to the Birds

More and more, as we continue to explore nature with avid birders' eyes, we seek out regional parks and nature reserves. Most of these tend to publish leaflets, maps, and bird lists. These have piled up on our coffee table:

An abundance of information, but a bit cluttery.

So, as it's obvious I haven't been spending my time decking the halls and trimming the tree, here's what I've been working on. I'm covering a sturdy shoebox with hand-dyed fabric, and cutting out bird photos and drawings to collage on it. I figure I can store all the maps and checklists and brochures inside, and it might even look a little better than piles of papers strewn all over our living room.

Once the blue fabric's down on the shoebox (left), I'll add some of these cut-out bird photos.

You've probably heard my inner debates about whether I'm a hoarder. Well, the other day on Freecycle, someone was giving away a set of old encyclopedias. Who could resist? Somehow (probably because the books lived in Nestor, down near the very birdy Tijuana River Valley Regional Park), Andy agreed to drive down with me and pick up the 24-volume Collier's Encyclopedia set.

The "B" volume, containing the Birds article with pages and pages of vintage illustrations by Douglas Howland, is shown above, right. I thought the 50's era books would be perfect for cutting up and using in collages, altered books, decoupage or even art quilts. But who can bear to cut up such a cool old book?

Sigh. I see the future, and it's a New Year's resolution: to use up my art supplies without guilt and/or hoarding!

I wish you all the best in 2012.