Sewing Room Setup

hey what's up Misty hey Craig how are you oh just enjoying life here in Charleston how's life over there going well everything is busy and and you know picking up here in Hamilton so I've stepped away from crafting the last you know year or two are really focused on the business but I I really want to get back into it it's so therapeutic i miss sewing i miss creating things and I have the perfect space above the garage for a sewing room and I just can't for the the sake of me figure out the layout or figure out what I need for it and just figure out a place where the sole purpose is that I can walk in there escape and start to make you know things for my home and my friends and family again well absolutely i mean I spend quite a bit of time in my sewing room so I think I could give you some tips and tricks to get you set up for what you need i think that would be fantastic and maybe when you're here you can at least point me in the right direction to start my quilting journey i have always been encouraged to quilt uh by many people over the last few years but I don't really know what that means well absolutely i can come help you is there a time that that works for you yeah I think if you wanted to come out next week and um and set the room up i'm going to be in and out of town but I've got some ideas i really would just love a large piece of furniture in the middle of the room um to lay everything out and maybe if you have time after you set the room up you can stay and teach me a little bit about quilting because I really would love to get into it that sounds great i'd love that absolutely let's do it okay i can't wait to see what you do with the space all right see you soon bye craig had a vision and I knew exactly what he needed to bring it to life and help him create the ultimate sewing space he has a room over his garage that will be perfect it had kind of turned into a catch-all zone but I knew once it was cleared out it would be amazing so I traveled to Charleston with a few of my co-workers and we got to work we created every corner with Craig in mind using Missouri Star products from the cutting mats to organized storage for his tools it's now a sewing sanctuary and I can't wait to see what he thinks hi Craig how are you good and how are you Misty i'm doing great getting everything ready awesome well I just got back into town and wanted to check in to see how it was all going it's going well i'm getting close just putting the final details on were you able to get uh that huge sewing table in there and all the other furniture yeah I actually think it looks really great i think you're going to be excited okay well I can't wait to see it i'll be home soon all right see you soon knock knock knock hey Craig how are you oh my gosh what do you think wow this is awesome i think it turned out so good oh you're so welcome oh this is something I've wanted to do for so long and utilize this space and I just can never figure it out well I hope you love it and I hope it will kickstart lots of fun quilting and crafting and sewing in the future oh you have everything everything you have everything you had the perfect space you just needed a little help to get it ready for you and so I think you're all set yeah why don't you show me around all this new stuff so you've got this great new sewing desk of course with your sewing machine here in the middle and I've got you a couple different size cutting mats so the larger one is great if you have like big yardage or something you're cutting and of course a smaller one when you're doing small projects i can't believe we have space for everything i know it this is amazing i used to I used to stack textbooks up between behind my sewing machine to make it level with the sewing table oh and there's a place to iron over here yes so you've got this great wool pressing mat and I don't know if you're familiar i mean everybody has a normal iron but this is kind of a fancy one i've never seen this so this is an Aliso iron and so it has a lift in it so when you touch it it goes down and you can press it and then it just you never have to set it up that's so convenient yeah it's great i remember when I started to sew there was um just different things where I was like "Someone should invent this cuz I used to have to lay I used to have to clear the table and then lay like towels down to use as my ironing mat." So even this ironing mat I'm excited about what is this just like a wool mat it's a wool mat and it has a core that prevents the steam from going through and damaging the table and so you can you know iron on it and you don't have to worry about it damaging your new desk it's like a one-stop shop yeah so we hung some of your pillows of course as inspiration since that's kind of the beginning of your journey and pinned up some things that will hopefully inspire some future projects yeah i mean pillows is where I started obviously in homeck in seventh grade yeah um but it's really all I know how to sew and I'd like to get into other projects and really start to make things for around the home i've wanted to get into quilting for a while but I've just been intimidated well if you can sew a pillow you can sew a quilt it's all just straight seams i didn't know that yes i didn't know that yeah and so I I tried to set you up with all the tools that you might need and so I gave you two different size rotary cutters again this is kind of your smaller projects it's just Is this from Missouri Star these are our Missouri Star tools oh very neat and you know I'm a little biased but they're my favorite and so you have a 45 and a 60 and so this is if you're cutting through like heavier materials or lots of layers you're going to use this larger one i saw the bolts of fabric you Exactly gifted me over here yeah whatever you need to get going and hopefully keep sewing for a while well there's no excuses now no you're you're really and truly set up okay so you got a small rotary cutter and a large and a large and then of course a variety of scissors and so same idea you know it it goes with the size of the thing you're cutting and so I love these little snips just to trim my threads and a seam ripper cuz of course we all have those mistakes that we make along when we when we did our presentation in Hamilton uh I think someone asked what my favorite sewing tool was whatever you did and it's always been a seam ripper you know I think it's important to remind people whether you're first beginning or you've been sewing a long time like this is an important tool you never stop using it there's not a single quilt that I've made even after all these years that I don't use it at least once so you have this built-in table so your projects can just keep flowing through which is really nice yep exactly and you know if you decide that this is the machine you're going to use daytoday you can actually get a great little um insert so that this is completely flush while you sew and instead of having to stack up those textbooks you have this great smooth surface to just keep stitching you've got some pins clips what are these things those are called jelly rolls so in quilting yes they're just rolls of 2 and 1/2 in strips okay and so in quilting we have something called pre-cuts and what it is is a designer designs a whole line of fabric and then instead of having to buy a bunch of different cuts of yardage they put them together into these pre-cuts and a jelly roll is one of those what would you use these for to make a quilt of course a thin strip like that yeah because you'll just cut it into different sized pieces that you'll need for your pattern i have so much to learn you do but you're going to be a fast learner this is a light because extra light goes a long way when you're sewing i guess I didn't realize how quilting is just sewing it really is you don't need any fancy machines you don't I think some people get this um this they get overwhelmed by the idea of it because you see these beautiful intricate quilts right but really you're the majority of them you're just sewing straight from like here to here and so if you can sew a a long straight seam you can sew a small straight seam and you can do it what are the different things you can do with um your quilting blocks like the use usewise well the the possibility is really endless you can make you know a pillow you can make pot holders table runners quilts uh whatever whatever that's awesome anything that you can use fabric for you can use quilt i need all of those things i've never seen neon rulers before so we actually make our rulers and templates in house in Hamilton oh really and so we use this kind of neon green acrylic because we find it to be the easiest to see when you're making your cuts on fabric and so whether you're using light fabric or dark fabric it really stands out and you can see your measurements i love how trans like how it's transparent and you can see right through it yeah and so this one is 2 and 12 in wide by 15 and the reason that we designed them this way is because of those pre-cuts we use those so often and so you know 2 and 1/2 in is a/4 of 10 okay or equal to the side the size of your strips right the 2 and 1/2 in strips and then that's what these are exactly and let me show you here on these 10in squares they're 15 so if you're going to make a diagonal cut it will reach point to point and so it's all just designed to work with these pre-cuts exactly and then you just use your rotary cutter yep you want to show me sure and so see we could just make a cut oh and then this is perfect for that yeah exactly just like when I started out except now I have a place for everything yes you do do you find that having like being organized makes crafting easier it really does and having good tools makes all the difference and so I went right through it yeah and I tried to give you a variety of sizes depending on what you're working on and and sometimes you know just having just the right size ruler or template makes all the difference so I have these two sizes here and I also have some larger ones over on the wall for you okay so those are Oh wow they're much bigger yeah and so those are if you're using your bolts or you're cutting like a border for your quilt that I know you're going to make yeah your utility is very good like there's a place for everything like I love knowing exactly where these are going to be when I need to find them instead of getting lost under all the scraps for sure and as you spend time in here of course you'll adjust things so it makes sense to you but I I think having a home for everything really does make a difference how long have you been sewing since I was a little girl my grandma first taught me when I was probably 10 and um she made all my clothes for me and I started making you know doll clothes and and little little little projects so you I should trust your setup i feel like I you know what you're doing i've been at it for a while so know where the best space is for everything and then when did you make your first quilt so my first quilt I made when my son was born and No way yeah so I I just made a little baby quilt for him and um that was the one I made by myself my grandma taught me to quilt um so before she passed away um I sat and pieced with her and she was like sew these two squares together but I didn't really count that as my I have a great friend who's having a baby girl in a couple months so maybe I'll make a little baby blanket for her i hope you do and you you'll have to send me a picture so you're confident you'll be able to teach me to do that absolutely you'll be you'll be obsessed with quilting in no time awesome what's this so this is called the Caterpillar Glow and so it has both a cutting mat that you can actually use your rotary cutter just like I showed you before and then you can also pull this off and use it as a lightboard so like if you decide you want to applique something onto a shirt for example you could use this to trace it and and not have to you know awkwardly hold it against a window or something like that one of my first pillows was a tooth fairy pillow okay and I did applique with uh the baby's name on it um and a pocket for the tooth and a pocket for the money and I found it it took so long and I was like there's got to be a better way to do this now you have it oh my gosh why didn't I find you guys earlier in my life you know everything happens for a reason exactly so let me show you over here we have you know some books for you extra storage you can tuck away funny thing about this book look i wrote the forward sewing for dummy but there's nothing about quilting in there at least for me maybe that'll be your next one yeah I would love that and so we have some block magazines so I'm determined to get you quilting and so that has patterns and inspiration for you in there okay and then of course you know if you look on the back the beautiful family yeah and so there's beautiful pictures and patterns included in all of those and then one of the things I love about our block magazine if you flip all the way to the back then you can see what projects are included oh that's incredible yeah so in here this is our template binder okay and so we also use um same as the rulers we have just some little template shapes that are great for quilting so we have this half hexi template for you a little half heart but we have loads of shapes at Missouri Star and so as you get going you'll see what these um can be useful for but the the half hexi template is great it's a really fast and easy beginner quilt so that's why I tucked that one i feel like that will mean so much more to me soon it will it will okay we got fabric to start thread is it a different thread that you should use when you're quilting um I just use cotton thread but really it's personal preference this is a pretty yellow that's my mom's favorite color to me see the gifting part of crafting especially sewing is so incredible because making someone a present means so much more these days it It really does so now it's all here right at your fingertips for you to keep going cool well I really appreciate you um helping with all of this because I learned to sew in home class right um I loved to cook and garden um I would well because in home class we learn half the year we spent cooking half the year we spent uh sewing right my mom was an elementary school teacher so she didn't mind me cooking at all i would just leave a total mess in the kitchen but my dad's job was to clean up uh do the dishes so I've realized that I love to create and about um a decade ago I was uh going through uh a breakup where we lived together so I had to leave together my leave behind my garden and my workshop but I only had a sewing machine okay uh I thought I wanted to make clothes or something like you know grandiose and um but I didn't know how but I remembered how to make a pillow from home of course and so I tore up some old shirts and cut squares out of them uh and you know you make a pillow inside out obviously and when I made when I turned it right side out uh I got that you know euphoric feeling of creation again and so I just started to sew pillows since then we've been able to launch this big uh home decor company but we specialize in throw pillows i love it it's so fun and I love that you've got this nod to Charleston where you're from and all of your designs and also you know how much therapy it can be to create and I I love that you share that with so many people because there's no reason to be ashamed to sit down at a sewing machine and take some time to make something and uh and it was fun but once I had made so many pillows you can only have so many pillows in your house i was like maybe I need an excuse to do this so I turned it into a little bit of a company the problem is is then I lost myself in the business side of things a little bit and all of a sudden I wasn't sewing as much um and sewing became a business instead of why I started in the first place and so a couple months ago I was like you know I really want to get back into crafting and for the therapeutic reasons and the joy of it of course and you know I've already done pillows so I want to try something new and that's when we discovered Missouri Star and this incredible just incredible community that you've built a global community yeah it's it's been pretty amazing like a journey that I don't think anyone in our family could have expected or uh foreseen but man we've just been enjoying the ride and like you said I think people come together by the joy of making something and so that's really how this community was formed is everybody uh feels the positive impact of making the time to create something new learn a new skill and to just sit down and sew but it can be intimidating and that's why you know I've wanted to get into quilting but I didn't know where to start sure uh but with everything else that I've tried in my life like different hobbies I've just Googled or watched YouTube or read and I was you know I just needed to take the first step to get into quilting cuz I didn't know if I needed new machines or what and I feel like you guys make it very um unintimidating and very approachable so that's certainly the goal i'm ready to learn ready to start and hopefully if I put one foot in front of the other we will get to the point where I can make you know that quilt absolutely so join us next time and we're going to make your very first quilt block