Organizing & Rearranging the Studio

After working on my Liberty of Paris quilt, I realized that my sewing machine arrangement is not ideal for the work I was doing.  This queen sized quilt top was always dragging itself onto the floor, and I got lots of aches trying to keep it on the table.  Meanwhile, my serger was sitting in a prime L-shaped spot. I'm terrible at taking "before" and "after" photos, but here's a photo of me trying to maneuver a king sized quilt to do the binding:

Notice how I shoved the ironing board under there, to get an L-shaped work surface?  Well, no more!  I swapped places with the serger & now my area looks like this:

The bonus for me?  I can look out the window into my garden, and it gets GREAT sunlight.  Why didn't I think to do this before?!?  I use the serger maybe once a week, where the sewing machine gets daily use!  Now I have an L-shaped space to support my quilts.  It really works out a lot better.  I will be relocating the ironing board.

Speaking of, I recently purchased a Long Board by Reliable, which gives a whopping 19" x 55" wide SQUARE pressing surface, plus a separate rack to store the iron.  I can now press fat quarters in one pass.  This thing is massive, sturdy, heavy, and perfect for tall people as it raises to a height of 38".

I also attempted to replace my leaky Rowenta with a steam generator, the Rowenta DG8030.  However, when using the steam generator, it was kicking off all these wicked fumes, and after a day of using it, I now know why:

You see those two odd shaped divots in the housing above the tip?  Well, that's not a design feature - that's my generator getting so stinking hot (literally) that it started melting itself.  I'm so utterly disappointed and had to send it back.  Incidentally, I purchased this from Allbrands.com because it was cheaper than Amazon + free shipping & also came with a free 3-year extended warranty, but the really killer part?  I had to foot the bill for the return shipping on this defective item to get a replacement.  What is that saying in Spanish? Lo barato sale caro.  The cheap comes out expensive.

Not that this iron is "cheap" by any stretch of the imagination, but I highly doubt it's supposed to exhibit this kind of "feature" and kill me with toxic, plastic-meting fumes.  I really hope the replacement is fine, because if it isn't, I am TOTALLY done with Rowenta.

Since I'm on this organizing kick now, I decided to take care of my last pile of fabric yardage to be organized on my new boards:

What makes this task somewhat daunting for me is my OCD requirement to measure the yardage & label it with an inventory number, yards, and original cost per yard.  It's a little frightening to know exactly how many hundreds of yards of fabric I have now, and exactly how much it cost.  So with the exception of my last influx of fabric which has already been ordered, 2011 will be free of fabric purchases.  Seriously.  The only fabric I will purchase is fabric which is needed SPECIFICALLY for a customer project & won't be going into inventory.  It's time I learned to make do with what I have.  Because what I have is a LOT.

Here's the "before" picture:

And here it is, "after":

I am so very thankful it's all folded & accounted for.  And - glad to be going on a fabric hiatus, because there is no more room at the inn.

Happy quilting!