Subsequent Studio Refresh

Last year in July - see here and here - I shared about a couple of refreshes in the studio. There were quite a variety of things I was organizing, like threads, needles, labels; recovering my pressing and cutting tables; even replacing old irons with a new one. And most of that has continued to work well. (The lazy susan for the batting roll, not so much.)

That said, I meant to post more refreshing tasks, but got held up, and I know exactly why. I bought this:

 >> Handheld Steamer. The Conair Hand-Held Turbo ExtremeSteam Garment Steamer was recommended by Shannon Fraser @shannonfraserdesigns, and I got it because I thought it would be handy before gifting, showing, or even using quilts that had been stored away. And I fully expect it will be. Except I've never tried it. AND it is no longer available where I bought it, though I provided the link anyway, both as reference, and in case knowing anything about it is handy. Let's just say, I have it in case I need it.

Meanwhile, it's way past time to report on other things I did in my studio to organize.

>> Perle cotton storage. Mine was an absolute mess, just jumbled all together in a basket. So I bought two of these large square plastic bins, and it's better. Still not great, but it's better than what I was doing so there's that.

>>New iron - THIS is probably what folks are most interested in. Still back in July 2024, to my dismay, I realized I had SIX irons in the house, most of which I was not happy with, for one reason or another. I ended up replacing all the full-sized ones with a model recommended by Maria Shell @mariashellquilts in a workshop I was taking. It's a Beautural - my first - and I've been happy with it for over a year now. One caveat - I have yet to put water in it, even though Maria says she does it all the time with no bad results. I confess I like steam, I really do, though I've been getting along without it. So this is my current iron of choice. Until it's not.

>>Large booklet pouch for my Aurifil 12wt threads. My 12wts have also been stored in a jumble, and it wasn't going well. I made the large version (9" x 11" x 3") of Aneela Hoey's Booklet Pouch, and it has been a life-safer. It has four large vinyl see-through zippered pockets, that hold all of my 12wts loosely organized by color. I use it all the time.

>>Small booklet pouch for needles. After having the large booklet pouch work so well, I made the small version (6" x 8" x 3") for my hand-sewing needles. They aren't organized in a super logical way, but at least they're all in the same place now.

>>Recover pressing table. A year hence, it was time to recover my pressing table again. This time, I used Rifle Paper Co.'s  Lea in Navy Canvas from the Bramble collection. It always feels good to refresh this space.

>>New sewing machine! This is a biggie, I know. It wasn't entirely planned, but I'd been thinking about it. As you probably already know, I got a Janome Memory Craft 6700P, and so far, I'm really liking it. I've posted about it twice - here and here - if you want to know more about why I got it, and my experience so far.

>>Thread box storage. Just last weekend, I did the latest refresh, in the form of a new little Pixie Basket, a tutorial by Heidi Staples @fabricmutt. I've made oodles of these before, but I needed one more for the base of my miscellaneous thread bin.  

I rescued this small toolbox (my husband's childhood art box) from the donation pile ages ago, and it's perfect for a nice collection of threads. These are all those random small Aurifil spools + odds and ends ...other brands, metallic, etc. More threads that I use occasionally rather than my every-day spools and cones. The new Pixie is on the bottom left, and will help keep that bottom section neat. 

So whew! It feels good to finally gather all these things together and share about them. If you have other organizational tools or methods in your sewing space that you love or suggestions for me, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!