- 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. If you liked this video,
please give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to subscribe, and hit that bell beside
the subscribe button so that YouTube will notify
you when I make new videos. You can also find me
on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest at Just Get It Done Quilts. And, of course, my website
at justgetitdonequilts.com. So take care, and I'll see you next time.
