Ivy Is Home!

Posted on December 8, 2016 by prairiemoonquilts in Longarm Quilting, Studio News

After ten days away, Ivy is home from her spa treatment. (Wouldn’t YOU love to spend ten days at a spa? I know I would!)

While she was gone, I was a nervous wreck, fretting over all the quilts I have yet to get done before Christmas.

But she came home yesterday. The guys from Nolting brought her back, complete with a new frame to ride on, and they set her up in the new room I had all ready for her (finally):

setup

I’ll give you a tour of the room . . .

Here’s Ivy, set up in her new spot. She takes up most of the room, as I well knew she would (diva!):

ivy

We knocked out a wall in between her room and the adjoining room, because I knew I’d need the space to get around her. Although I can squeeze between her and the wall to get behind, it would behoove me to lose about 20 pounds to make it easier. If I’m feeling exceptionally fat, I can walk around through the other room to get behind the machine. Gotta love old houses and their little rooms. This room is 10′ x 13′.

westend

My sister bought me some really pretty rubber mats to put on the floor where I stand to work, which will be really helpful on the ol’ bones. I mounted a whiteboard on the wall we built between the rooms. My bobbin winder is getting mounted below this for easy access.

whiteboard

Opposite the white board wall is a wall of shelves we built in for extra storage, and I am really glad we did! The area we knocked out was the closet for the adjoining room, which won’t need a closet for my purposes, but these shelves sure are handy (even if sort of crude). I’m storing my pantos in a shoe rack on the top shelf, along with other various items. The middle shelf is holding my books pertaining to quilting, and the bottom is still up for grabs, with my radio/CD player living there. I have room for a couple of storage tubs at the very bottom, also very handy.

shelves

Here’s looking at Ivy from another angle, towards the door and out into the landing area. The old chimney runs up through here, so I got one of those vintage hole covers to put there. I need to still do some touch-up painting, but — time! You can catch glimpses of the row of track lighting I had installed, an entire row of LED lights, adjustable, running the length of the room directly above the frame — LOVE!! (I’m usually not one to think that far ahead, so I’m pretty proud of these lights!)

lookingne

I moved my white cabinet into the corner to hold various things out of sight:

lookingnw

The closet houses batting and customer quilts in waiting.

A note about the closets in this house: they all open INWARD! So strange. I have lots of closets, but can only use about half the space in each one because you have to leave space for the door to open inward. I will never understand this, but it is good incentive to have less stuff and not clutter up the closets. I’m trying to see it as a good thing.

Between the chimney and the closet door, I had My Cowboy put up a little wooden crate to use as a shelf, and a small pegboard to hang my tools on. Below that is my little vintage red rolling cart, to hold the tools I’m using most, and I can move it around, if I need to.

lookinn

The room is not completely finished by any means. I have lots of little details yet to take care of. Lots of thread still to put away. A new handle to replace the broken one on my white cabinet. A pretty cover for the exposed breaker box. Removing the old electrical outlet and patching the hole. Touch up painting. Pictures to frame and get hung on this back wall. Notice I have another little pegboard back here to hold some of my other rulers and tools.

lookinse2

Immediately after the guys left yesterday, I loaded up a baby quilt to try out the new frame. It’s definitely different than the one I’m used to, but I hope the learning curve is short. As it is, I have several custom quilts to quilt, and I’m a bit scared to try one just yet. But today I’ll make more progress, and hopefully be back in business real quick.

Now to finish the utility room remodel we started nearly a year ago! Ugh! Will we ever get done with this place?

20 responses to “Ivy Is Home!”

  1. Marlene Clausen says:

    Glad you have her back. I know the feeling of “emptiness” when one of my babies is not where she belongs. I can keep working, but as soon as one is away, that is the one I need to work on.

    Am guessing the real Challenge this week and next, like all of us, is completing Christmas projects immediately followed by cleaning up the mess we made completing Christmas projects.

    Merry Christmas!

  2. Wendy says:

    The room is looking good, and Ivy looks happy all nestled in there. I have an older, small house too, so I understand the small room thing. My quilt room is only 10 x 12, so I can visualize your room pretty well. These old houses are ongoing projects in themselves!

  3. denniele says:

    Beautiful room for you and Ivy! Well deserved, my friend! I have never seen a closet open inwards….what a challenge! ENJOY!

  4. Swooze says:

    Thanks for showing your setup. Why don’t you have your closet doors rehung? I wonder if the person doing them just didn’t know what they were doing. Are any other houses in the neighborhood like this?

  5. Crystal says:

    Love your sewing area. Isn’t is nice to have space to work?

    Crystal in Cedar City

  6. Kathy Fraser says:

    DROOOOLL!!!! She looks wonderful. So pretty and she looks proud of herself. Nice room. ENVY!! No really, your room is a dream room for me. SIGH!!!

  7. Bobbi says:

    I’m glad your baby is home! Thank you so much for sharing pictures of your space. I love seeing where other people sew.

  8. Ginny Smith says:

    So glad Ivy is home & back to work We lived in an extreamly small house that bathroom was so small a person all but stool in the tub or toilet to open the Tyler the door. Harold rehung the door to open into the hall. That was wonderful improvement

  9. Scarlett Ragas says:

    I love it, Shelly!!

  10. Vickie says:

    Glad your baby is home. Have you considered putting sliding doors on some of your closets so you can use the entire closet?

  11. Looks great, Shelly! That’s the same table I have. 🙂 Love your thread rack. Where did you get it? I love the idea of mounting your bobbin winder for easy access. I’ll need to think about that. The Nolting guys delivered this down to you? Is that just because you had the table, too, or do they always do that for you? That’s just great. I wish you could come stay with me for a week. I’d take vacation, and we could play on the longarm together.

  12. Sandy says:

    Looks wonderful!! I know how happy you must be!

  13. Genny Wright says:

    Looks great! I wonder about the closet doors too. My grandpa Bocke must have had a good reason when he built that house! Wonder if Roger knows. Grandpa Bocke also built the little house that I lived in for so long. It had a closet that had a door for each bedroom, but they opened out. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

  14. Bev J says:

    So fun to see your space! Looks great, enjoy!

  15. Judy says:

    Looks like a very workable space. Enjoy!

  16. Jocelyn says:

    The room looks great!

  17. Michele says:

    Congrats on the frame and your new space.

    Curious about your thread storage system. What is holding the spools on the peg board?

  18. Cindy says:

    I see you found a decorative”plate” cover for the chimney. Room looks great! The vintage red cart fits perfect there.

  19. Kari says:

    Well deserved and a great job! Love your space….now the closet doors…that’s a conundrum! Enjoy your space.

  20. michele breault says:

    lovely room! Especially the red floor!

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