Category Archives: My Studio

Meet: My Bernina 440 QE

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Meet My Sewing Machine blog hop. I’m glad you’re here!

I own a Bernina 440QE (quilter’s edition) that I purchased in 2011. It was my upgraded-upgrade machine (meaning it was my second good machine since I started quilting.) I tested Berninas when I bought my first nice machine (a Pfaff Creative Expression) in 2010 but decided they were too pricey. Then in 2010, I met a few women at the Dallas MQG who had Berninas and brought them to our Saturday Sews. That was fine. I was still happy with my Pfaff. And then our guild started meeting at the Bernina store and that was the end of it. That machine had to come home and live with me! At that point, I felt like I knew enough about quilting and sewing machines to deserve such a fancy Rolls Royce of a sewing machine.

There are two aspects of the Bernina that I ADORE. First, is the BSR – Bernina Stitch Regulator. I couldn’t free motion worth a swear word on my Brother, but was decent on my Pfaff. With the BSR, I can pretty much do any design I set my mind to and it looks pretty profesh. (You know, professional.)

The second thing I love about my Bernina is what they call the Barbie case and all of those Swiss-made all-metal presser feet inside. Droooool.

The foot I love most is #37, the 1/4″ foot. It sews a perfect scant 1/4″ seam. It was very smart of Bernina to make the foot numbers so prominent on each foot. None of my previous sewing machines were so user-friendly. There is one feature I would love to have – an automatic thread cutter. The Berninas are also kinda noisy compared to many other sewing machines. Maybe that’s due to the all-metal feet and parts. Even so, I would recommend this machine to a friend. In fact, most of my friends have one. At retreat, we sit at the Bernina Table. It’s the cool kids table.

The Bernina is a majah (said like a Spice Girl, specifically Victoria Beckham) upgrade from my first beginner baby machine, a Brother something-or-other. It was a $200 super basic machine that quickly fell apart when I started making a quilt every other week (no joke. I did that.) I also own a Brother serger that is rarely used, and I do have have a few other dream machines I’d like to own if I had the space.

Janome Horizon MC7700-QCP

These machines were in all of the workshops at QuiltCon so I spent an entire day sewing on one. And it was a dream. Super quiet, all of the bells and whistles. This would definitely be a delight to sew on every day.

Juki TL-2000Qi FS

I’ve never even tested this machine, but I’ve heard good things. It would be my quilting machine and I’d use my Bernina mostly for piecing.

Long-arm of Some Variety

I’ve gotten to play on a long-arm a couple of times, and I would LOVE to own one. That would necessitate a MUCH larger sewing room, but a girl can dream.

Speaking of sewing rooms, mine is ~~jammed full of stuff~~ very nice. I have three windows so I get lots of natural light and hardwood floors that make it easy to sweep up sewing messes (charm pack dust, thread explosions, etc). I keep most of my fabric stashed away in the closet, but I like to display pre-cuts and neatly folded fat quarters because they just look so pretty.

{Moda fat quarter bundles in aqua DVD holders from the Container Store}

{My cutting table from Martha Stewart’s collection for Home Decorators}

{Vintage shelf with pre-cuts. I store a lot of stuff in various glass jars like these and these.}

{My sewing chair – a vintage one that I painted and reupholstered}

{CD storage unit from Pottery Barn filled with fat quarters}

That’s my machine and my sewing space all in one. Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to visit the others stops and sign up for the linky party.

SUNDAY, MARCH 17
Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy
Angela @ Heart of Charnwood
Shannon @ Crafty Turtle
Amy @ Stitchery Dickory Dock

MONDAY, MARCH 18
Ebony @ Love Bug Studios
Jaclyn @ Jaclyn Quilts
Amy @ Diary of a Quilter

TUESDAY, MARCH 19
Kara@ Me and Elna
Nerissa @ Nissa Made
Elizabeth @ Don’t Call Me Betsy

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20
Carly @ Citric Sugar
Celine @ Espritpatch
Patti @ A Yankee in Queen Liz’s Court

THURSDAY, MARCH 21
Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt
The Jolly Jabber Staff (Chelsey, Kimberly, Debbie)
Rachel @ Sew Happily Ever After!

FRIDAY, MARCH 22
Erika @ Sews it All (Bernina)
Lisa @ Vintage Modern Quilts (Bernina) {ME!}
Adrianne @ On the Windy Side (Bernina)

My Studio Right Now

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Here is a peek at my studio right now. I did clean up a little for these photos but I decided that I didn’t want to pretend that my sewing space is pristine. Because with an active 9-month old in the house, it certainly isn’t. He loves getting into bins and boxes and drawers and pulling every single item out. So this is “real life” tidy. I’ve changed things up a lot since my last studio tour.

I have smaller sewing surface that provides a lot of book storage. I’m happy with it for now, but some day I will have a drop in table for my machine. In my next sewing room…

I did get a new cutting table this past year, and I absolutely love it. It has tons of storage, adjustable dividers in each drawer (the drawers also pull out completely so you can see everything), and I like the open lower shelf to corral all of the baskets and bins I already had. Since I started doing some scrapbooking again this year, this cutting table has been really useful. I only wish I had room for two! One for quilting stuff and one for scrapping. Again, in my next sewing room…

With this new desk, I also have a separate work space, which is very, very nice. It’s not as convenient for watching movies while I sew, but I don’t have the time to sew in such long stretches anymore. (And I highly recommend that chair from the Container Store. It really is comfy.)

I put all of my 1 yard plus fabric pieces on mini bolts to take up less space so I’m down to the one bookcase (for prints and quilting weight, at least). I would like to thin it out even further if I can force myself to really destash. For all of you who covet a big fabric stash, I will say this…Yes, it is nice to have so much variety, but it is also overwhelming. It tends to kill my inspiration when I look at all that fabric. I have learned that I DO NOT need to stash 1 yard or bigger pieces. When I need bindings and backings, I will buy them then. Half yards and fat quarters are plenty large enough for the kind of sewing I do. Half yards are ideal actually because you can cut into two fat quaters, use one, and still have one to stash.

This corner is my favorite part of my studio (after my cutting table)

I don’t sit there often but my dogs and baby seem to really enjoy it. They tell me it’s comfy.

This last photo is part of my sewing room that I have never shown. The closet! Eek. This is where I hide my WIPs, fabric and notion overflow, srapbooking stuff, and just a miscellany of things that make me ask myself, Why did I buy that? The top left shelf that is just out of view is stuffed with pillow forms. There are about 20 pillow forms there. Why?! I don’t know. My husband would probably have a heart attack if I ever covered them and put them around the house. Two pillows on the sofa is too much for most men. I’d really like to tackle this closet one day. My goal is for all of my fabric to go in here. I dream of a tidy space with just 12 WIPs in those perfect ArtBin containers, and a perfectly folded stack of fabric. Someday…

So that is my space. The things I love about it most: lots of light, my Martha Stewart cutting table, my Bisley drawer unit (shown above), and my Bernina.

fabric overload

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I’ve spent many hours over the last couple of weeks organizing my fabric stash.

I’ve put my one yard plus pieces on mini bolts (really just pieces of acid free cardboard). They look better and it’s definitely easier to see what I have (before pics here). But the mini bolts are flimsy and I find it hard to make the fabric stay straight and neat without using pins. It also takes up A LOT more space. All in all, I’m not sure I would recommend organizing your fabric like this. It definitely doesn’t work well for pieces that are under 3/4 of a yard. If I hadn’t invested so much time into all of this folding and color coding, I might just put it back the way it was.

There is an upside to all of this reorganizing, though. I’ve finally started to see that I’m mere yards away from true hoarder** status. My husband was right!

[pre-cuts]

[fat quarters]

I gave up fabric buying for Lent, but I think I could easily give it up for the next couple of years. And probably should. The pressure of all of that unused fabric is kind of cramping my creative mojo.

**I know some of you are rolling your eyes about the hoarders reference. True, there are no mountains of garbage here, but it’s not all hospital corners.

Even though I’m not thrilled with the results, I am glad to be finished with that time-consuming project so I can get back to actual sewing. I predict lots of pre-cut friendly quilts in my near future.

stalled out

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I really wanted to finish the top for my “Belle Squared” quilt this weekend but of course I ended up short on the grass green sashing. Instead I worked on other things – hand quilting, sorting scraps, cleaning my studio space a bit – and I finally hung up some of the art I thrifted over the summer.

I rearranged my studio a couple of months ago and moved a large storage piece to another room. I’m happier with this layout because I have a lot more floor space, but my actual workspace is still a bit of a problem [older photos here]. The entire desk is covered! To add to that, I normally have my iPad on that little pullout shelf just below my laptop. [I adore this desk. It's a 1950s/1960s executive desk that I bought for $20. That little pullout shelf has probably held a lot of martinis and low balls of scotch over the years, if Mad Men is to be believed.]

There’s just too much going on in that one area. It frustrates me. I’m thinking about moving the computer to my cutting table and just cutting on the desk. Well, on the mat on top of the desk.

My fabric area is also pretty much at maximum capacity.

Every time I look at that shelf, I think “wow, I had really better get started on some more quilts.” I’m sure my husband thinks something similar. Ha.

I also spent some QT with my seam ripper this weekend. It’s my newest favorite notion of all time. [purchased at the retreat last week.] It looks like something Dexter would use.

Yikes, right? It works soooooo well. I recently bought a couple of aprons on Etsy solely because they were made with some of Erin Michael’s long OOP and seriously lusted after Paint by Number Birds. I felt a tiny twinge of guilt for basically shredding something another person made, but this killer seam ripper let me do it without damaging any of the fabric. So now I have my Paint by Number Birds and the start of two cute aprons! Win/Win.

I gave up making aprons when I started quilting because all of the cutting seems so tedious, but I sure had fun re-making this one. Part of the appeal must have been that it was 90% complete. All I did was cut a new front panel and sew it all back together.

before + after

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This poor chair has been in my garage since June.

I picked it up at a consignment shop for $12. In spite of its disgusting condition, I knew it had cuteness potential. My husband was not very pleased with me for bringing it home since I already had three rescued chairs awaiting makeovers in the garage. He did say he liked this one best, though.

After lots of cleaning, a new seat + cushion, a bit of spray paint, and some fabulous fabric…

I think it’s living up to its potential. I had it in my booth at the Urban Street Bazaar over the weekend and nearly sold it. To my secret delight, the buyer couldn’t commit. So now it can live at my house.

Life is Messy and So is Crafting

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My sewing space normally looks something like this:

But with a craft market on the horizon, I’ve been feverishly sewing and it currently looks like this:

OMG messy, right? I can’t stand it anymore. Must. Clean. Up. (Yes, I’ve rearranged the furniture again.) Someone please call Hoarders on me so I can get some help.

While refueling on supplies, I witnessed quite an incident at JoAnn’s today. Isn’t that place the worst? As I was browsing the magazines near the register, I heard this tall man call out in a booming voice that I’m sure the whole store heard. He said something along the lines of “Can you please quit chatting and finish checking her out so you can help the rest of us? You’ve been chatting for 15 minutes.” He went on a little more and then talked to the manager afterward (also in front of everyone in a super loud voice! What kind of manager wouldn’t have taken him aside?!) The whole time I was feeling a strange mixture of horror and glee. I’ve stood at the register at JoAnn’s many a time seething at the horrific customer service but I’ve never done anything about it. So while I was shocked at that man chiding the cashier, I was secretly elated. JoAnn’s has consistently awful service, every store is a mess, they harass you about the coupons and then can never seem to be able to scan them, and don’t even get me started on the ordeals of fabric cutting. You know what that JoAnn is? A frenemy. I need to cut her out of my life for good. And then write a scathing memoir in the thinly veiled guise of a racy teen novel like Nicole Ritchie did to Paris Hilton.

getting organized.

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As part of my ongoing saga of studio redesign, I’m reorganizing my fabric stash. It’s outgrown my shelves, and the Target bins just weren’t cutting it anymore. Last week I saw this shelf on Knock-Off Wood:

The whole point of Knock-Off Wood is DIY furniture, but I’m just not that kind of DIYer so I bought mine from Pottery Barn. I was a bit worried that the cubbies might be too small, but they’re perfect for my fat quarter collection. I couldn’t be happier.

I’m really excited to plan out the rest of my redesign and incorporate some of those vintage finds I shared last week.

Oh — and if anyone plans to buy one of these cubbies, don’t expect it to be bright white. It’s definitely cream/off-white. It also comes in a nice wood tone.

dresden plates.

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I unpacked my retreat stuff tonight and realized that I forgot some of my quilt blocks on the design wall. Looks like I’ll be trying to sweet talk the 1890s House into mailing them to me or making a 30-minute drive to get them. BOO.

Tonight was the first time I felt like sewing again since I’ve been home from the quilt retreat so I did a bit of paper piecing. These little Dresden plates are addictive! And they’re the perfect way to use up scraps. The finished plate measures about six inches across so it’s going to take quite a few of these to make a quilt. When I bought the paper piecing templates, I saw an even smaller version that seemed ridiculous but now I’m tempted to go back and get a few. I can think of lots of uses for tiny Dresden plates.

In other news…if you’re in Dallas/Ft. Worth, don’t forget that the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild is having a monthly Saturday Sew this weekend. It’s a lot of fun! You can find details and RSVP here.