My first quilt (made in 2014)

This pinwheel quilt was the first quilt I ever made. I took a Charm Pack from Kansas Troubles, some black "Ditte" fabric from Ikea and some own hand-dyed grey fabric for that quilt.

My new studio

Welcome to my new combined office / sewing room!

When we moved into our house twelve years ago, this attic room became kind of a junk room. Although there was a TV-Set and it has got this nice little roof terrace, it was used very rarely. We planned to make it my office "some day", but I had an office desk in my bedroom and I used to work over there or at the dining room table. 

When I started sewing, I brought my sewing machine (and another vintage sewing machine, and another vintage sewing machine, and another vin....) and a table to the attic, but it still was a cluttered, messy room, that had never been renovated since the former owners built this part of the house in the early 1990s. 

As I work from home most of the time now and as I am addicted to quilting, I really needed a room to work and sew! After one long week of repairing the roughcast, painting the walls, remodeling the room, cleaning and a lot of work, my new "studio" is now almost done! 

I think, one can see, that this is kind of a man's cave. It is more functional than pretty, with almost no decoration stuff. By the way... Did you know? Men make every room messy in no time! Women do the same, but they name this process "decoration".  ;-)

OK... Let us walk upstairs to have a look at the new studio!

This wall will become a design wall soon.

The office

The main sewing table under the window.
I found this table at the bulk garbage.

I cut a hole into the table top to fit in most of my vintage sewing machines.

This is "Hilde", my Singer 201, a great straight stitcher which I use for piecing most of the time.

Thank you IKEA, for providing us with imperial measuring tools free of charge!

Counter height (38" tall) cutting table

The cutting table was made from an IKEA Linnmon/Adlis table on bed risers with a  36" x 71" table top on top. The whole cutting table will be covered with an ironing surface soon and will then serve as a combined ironing board / cutting table.

Secret storage space under the cutting table for those vintage sewing machines 
the hubby does not yet know...

The storage units on the cutting table hold my cutting tools, some fat quarters and the quilt inspector's watchtower.

The shelve unit on the right holds my stash (or: SOME of my stash....).

Print fabric

My own hand-dyed fabric

Some (70+ ...) men's shirts waiting to be deboned and repurposed for quilt making 

Yes! There are more vintage sewing machines!

On the left: a 1953 PFAFF 230 automatic (motorized).
On the right: a 1937 HAID & NEU "Torpedo" treadle machine.

More storage space for the "Scrap User's System"
(I cut my scraps into the most common sizes at 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5" and 4.5"),
for office stuff and of course another vintage sewing machine.
It's a 1924 Pfaff 31 which waits to be restored.

A place for recreation and inspiration. And: Yes! I AM vintage!
I still have (and use!) an old fashioned record player.


And last but not least:

The roof terrace in front of my sewing room.
I often take out my treadle machine to sew outside.

There is still a lot to do:

• curtains for the windows have to be sewn
• as well as a curtain to hide the storage space under the cutting table
• the cutting table will get an ironing surface
• several vintage machines wait for restoration
• a wall shelve will be built to showcase the vintage machines
• lots of fabric and men's shirts wait to be cut ....

But I am happy to have this room now and I really like to spend time here now!

Thank you for your visit!

Something is going on in the attic ...

Under my needle today? Nothing!

But there is something under my paintbrush.
My "new" sewing-room!!!

The attic needs some remodeling to fit my needs as a combined office/sewing studio. 

I'm so looking forward getting this done. Finally there will be a huge counter height cutting-table (36" x 71" and 37" tall)!

I'm having a hard time doing all that painting and remodeling alone. Sure... My DH offered his help... But how could I hide the three vintage sewing machines he doesn't yet know, if he helped me???

Will keep you updated. 

😄

Those metric scraps

1000 metric scraps

Someone brought me 1000 Scraps. Exactly 10 x 10 cm each. No duplicates. I will definetly NOT start quilting metric! Our European measurements are not suitable for patchwork. But.... 

10 cm...? That's exactly 3 and 15/16 Inches. Just a tiny little bit more than 3 7/8. 

Wow! I think I'll pair the scraps with recycled shirts and soon there will be 2000 3" finished half square triangles.

Am I a drunkhard???

Yes, I do drink some alcohol. Especially old French Armagnac. 

But that is only, because I need something to store my 2.5" scraps!

Please meet "Miss Hippie Girl"!

Miss Hippie Girl is an early 1970's Pfaff Extra. I got her for 15 EUR (16.5 $) on eBay local about two years ago. 

She came without her manual and I couldn't find any, but I found out that she had an identical twin, the "Kayser 46". Manuals for that machine are available on the internet. 

Pfaff bought Kayser in the late sixties. They kept the brand name for several years. 

In 1970 Pfaff wanted to become more attractive to younger customers. They took the Kayser 46 sewing machine (which already was a Pfaff and only had the brand name "Kayser"), painted it orange and sold it for less money as "Pfaff Extra". 

Later in the Seventies the same machine, painted grey, was also sold as "Pfaff 204" through mail order companies like "Quelle". 

The machine body is aluminium and it has a strong motor. It's one of the last metal built Pfaff sewing machines that was made in Germany before Pfaff (like many other sewing companies) began to distribute plastic machines that are made in China.

Isn't she a real 1970's Hippie Girl in her orange skirt?

Yummy fabric

I had a dye session again yesterday and today. 

About 50 yards of fabric went from pale white to yummy colours. Some of them are already sold, the rest will go to my own stash. 

This fabric is not planned to be used in a specific project, but you know: It's always better to HAVE fabric than to NEED fabric, isn't it?

1/2 yards or more on mini bolts

Fat Quarters