- I want to thank Panasonic for sponsoring this video.
So many people have asked to see my sewing space.
Well, today's the day,
and it sure isn't pretty.
So I need to purge, plan, and reorganise,
but not necessarily in that order.
So stick with me and I'll show you how I do it.
(soft music)
Hi, I'm Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts.
I give you tips, tricks, and strategies
to help you make the quilt that you want to make.
And if you like what you see,
please hit that subscribe button.
I just want to give you some background on my space.
We downsized to this condo 4 years ago.
This was a dingy, dark den that we painted,
and put a door on, and installed a murphy bed,
so it could be an occasional third bedroom,
but ever since it's been a revolving door of kids moving in,
and kids moving out.
And just recently, my eldest son stayed here
while he was undergoing chemotherapy.
And each time I pack up my stuff,
and move everything into my bedroom,
and then I bring it back in.
And, hopefully, for a little longer this time.
So I thought this would be a good time to start a series
about organising your sewing space.
Now, as I look over on this side of the room,
you can see there's a tonne of mess here,
but truly this is all secondary issues.
This is fabric, this is UFO, and other stuff.
I haven't touched it in weeks,
and it's not a problem
if I leave it for a couple more weeks.
Today, we are dealing with the foundations
of your sewing space,
getting our sewing machine, our cutting table,
and our ironing board in the right place.
And the first step in organising your space is acceptance.
You have what you have.
I know it's hard,
but stop comparing your space to fancy filming sets.
Some quilters have sewing rooms,
some have dining room tables, some have closets.
Every space, no matter how big or how small
has advantages and disadvantages.
So take a deep breath because you have what you need.
No matter what size your space is
the foundation of any sewing space is the sewing triangle.
Your sewing machine, your ironing board,
and your cutting table.
To avoid bottlenecks,
they should be about 3 to 4 feet apart,
but never more than 12.
There's more to the triangle than 3 points.
It's about how you're moving in between these points.
We have other needs as quilters.
We need to have power to run our machine.
We need lighting to light up our space
so we can see what we're doing.
We need access to storage where we keep our fabric.
We have accessibility issues,
and we might want to be alone,
or we might want to have company.
These variables can be hard to understand in a drawing.
You need to be in your space and use your space
to understand all the different priorities,
and how you rank them because we all have different needs.
And since you have different needs with every project,
I recommend, if possible, any furniture you have,
you put on either casters, or put Teflon pads underneath.
You might need to push everything to the walls
so that you can use the middle floor space,
or move it away from the walls
so that you have some design space,
or even move your items to a different room.
The most critical part
of choosing your sewing station is posture.
So when you're sitting you want to be able
to sit directly square in front of your needle.
You don't want to be like this.
You don't want to be tilted like that.
You want to be square in front.
And the other thing is
you want your feet flat on the ground.
You want a 90 degree angle in your hips,
and you want a 90 degree angle in your elbows
with your shoulders down.
Now, immediately you're going to say,
Karen, your table is at the wrong height, and it is.
This table setup was made for my old Bernina.
And this new one is too big for the opening.
And I have 2 calls into the manufacturer of this unit
asking for help in a solution,
and they have not returned my call.
And I think that's an engineer telling me
that there's no solution.
So I'm still working that through.
My solution at the moment is to bring my chair higher.
Now I have that right angle in my elbows,
but now my hips are too high.
So I put my presser foot on a yoga block.
I have 2 yoga blocks down there.
That can bring my feet back up,
and I have that right angle.
Power, you don't want a situation
where you're tripping over your power cord
as you're accessing your cutting board,
and your ironing board.
So you want to make sure that you have good hookup in place.
I have one down in this corner here,
and I've actually had to cut my drawer face
so that I could still use the drawer.
There's other considerations
like where are you putting your coffee mug?
I have access to a ledge here by a window.
I've added an iPad stand
because I'm very isolated in this space.
So this allows me to attend Zoom meetings,
watch movies, and listen to audio books.
The other two main considerations are lighting and storage,
but I'm going to talk about those in another video.
You'll also want access to some snips, or scissors, water,
and starch if you use it.
And if you have a tailor's clapper, or a sew stick,
or your lint brushes, they also need to be stored nearby.
This is my DIY ironing table.
Not only is it the perfect height for me,
the racking underneath provides storage.
You could easily find a size to fit in a closet
to store when you're not using it.
I'll put a link in the notes to a video I made
showing you how to make it.
And for months the cord on my iron
seems to be getting always in the way.
I'm either tripping over it,
or it's dragging over my quilt tops.
And I was remembering that I used a cordless iron
at QuiltCon during one of their workshops.
And I was just in the process of doing research online,
and asking other quilters about it when Panasonic called,
and asked me to take one for a test drive.
So it arrived, I unpacked it.
It came with an iron, a base, and a user manual.
I did take a moment to read the user guide first,
and I was surprised to find out
that it wasn't a rechargeable iron,
which means there's no long recharging times,
and no batteries to replace.
And it was pretty well ready to go right out of the box,
as long as you remember to turn it on.
I timed it, it took 60 seconds 'til I had good heat.
I preferred to put it on for 15 more seconds
to have super hot heat.
And because the iron was cordless,
it didn't matter whether it was on the left side,
or the right side of my ironing table.
So not only was it cordless,
the base had this retractable cord.
So you only had to pull out what you needed,
and nothing extra was under foot.
No matter how nice it was without a cord,
but I'm an ironing junkie.
It needs to deliver the heat for it to work for me.
And I was so pleased at how well this iron worked.
I tried it out on small pieces.
I tried it out on big pieces.
I tried it out on yardage.
I tried it out on quilt tops.
I took it on the road with me,
and I did some freezer paper piecing,
and had no problem getting the heat I needed.
I used it in some quilt sandwiches.
I tried it with bonding powder,
and I tried it with fusible batting,
and it gave me all the heat I needed.
And, finally, I took one of my husband's work shirts
for a test drive, and these are crinkly.
And I could not believe
how good it could make a rough and tumble shirt look.
So when you place it back in the base,
it's re-energizing, not recharging.
I've never had a situation while using it
where I had to wait for it to heat up.
Usually the time of moving my fabric around,
or flipping my quilt over
was all the time it needed to re-energize.
Here are a couple of other features
that I didn't know I wanted,
but now I have them I'm not giving them up.
It has two heads on it.
That means you can grab it anyway.
You can use it forwards, you can use it backwards.
Also, because it's cordless,
I found I could use my nondominant hand with it.
It has a retractable cord,
so it fits nice and neatly into the base
when I need to move it from location to location.
It has vertical steam.
So if I want to steam my clothes in my closet,
I don't have to worry about dragging that cord in there,
finding power.
I can just bring the head with me into my closet
to steam my clothes.
And it has an auto shutoff.
Now I know lots of irons have auto shutoffs,
but not a lot of portable travel irons have auto shutoffs.
And I've been taking a couple of those
for a test drive this year,
and found out I kind of need that feature.
Now, you might be asking,
is there anything I didn't like about the iron?
Well, I have a love-hate relationship with the cover.
This cover is great.
It fits on nice and securely very quickly.
You can take it and go.
It's self-contained because you have the base
you don't have to wait for it to cool down.
And the cord, as I said before,
retracts really nice and easily.
So you don't have to worry about
anything dragging on the ground.
It's all in one place,
and then when I arrive someplace, again,
I don't need to reset things up.
It's on its base location, and it's nice and simple.
My problem is is that this is another piece of stuff
that you got to worry about.
I can't put it in my locker
because when I'm moving around I need it.
So it's in my sewing area,
or when I'm travelling it stays nearby,
and I have to find a place to keep it
where it's not underfoot,
but with all the other wonderful features of the iron,
and how useful it's become,
I realise this is just something I can live with.
My sewing table expands to a cutting table.
Though this was designed that way,
I'm sure there are several Ikea tables
that you could hack to do something similar.
Your cutting table doesn't necessarily need power,
but it does need access to good lighting.
You should be able to stand
square in front of your cutting mat
with your ruler and cutting lines perpendicular to you.
Ideally the height of your cutting table
should be the height of your forearms
less two to three inches.
This allows you to push through the cutting motion
without straining your shoulder or your wrist.
So this table is actually too low.
So it's not a problem for me
if I'm just doing a couple of pieces,
and I practise good form,
but if I'm cutting a lot,
if I'm cutting all the pieces for a quilt,
I am doing it on my kitchen counter.
Next to your cutting board,
you need easy access to your rotary cutters,
and your favourite rulers.
And you produce a lot of scraps,
so have a collection system nearby.
Which leads into the last considerations
you need to think about when designing your space,
and that is there are many stages to making a quilt,
and you may not do all of them in the same space.
And so often that ends up to us having tools,
and fabric scattered all over the house.
So make sure that your secondary locations have a station.
For example, I do my English paper piecing,
and my binding in my living room.
I have a little station here
that has all the things I need and storage,
or design yourself a kit
that you can easily pick up and move from place to place,
or simply having a checklist, or a packing list.
When I long arm my quilt,
I do it at a totally different location.
I have a checklist that I refer to
so that I bring all the necessary items,
so when I get there,
I don't need to have to borrow them or buy them.
And, of course, the checklist
ensures that I bring everything home.
And my last note here
is that your needs and priorities change
as your sewing improves and your lifestyle changes.
So having flexible furniture and tools
means they can grow with you.
Still to come in this series, I need to purge, clean,
reorganise and, of course, deal with this mess over here,
so stay tuned.
For more details on the Panasonic cordless iron
I'll have links in the notes below.
Last week on Karen's Quilt Circle, I had Irene of Sugaridoo.
If you haven't seen it yet,
I will also leave a link in the notes below.
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So take care, and I'll see you next time.