Traveling Studio
I was recently away from home for about a month, first in a hotel, and then in an apartment. Knowing I’d need entertainment, I decided to take plenty of art and quilting supplies with me.
Since we have a van, we took out all but two seats and I started loading! (My husband just quietly shook his head.) That van was pretty full, because I took my sewing machine, table, and chair, a card table, a design wall, most of my thread, and my entire collection of fat quarters! (See why he was shaking his head?) Oh yeah, there were some suitcases and “normal” things, as well.
This was my set up in the hotel. I had a suite, so I used the hotel ironing board as a base for my desgin wall and wedged it all in between the TV and small eating table. The card table held more supplies to my right.
Click any photo for a larger view.
The bedroom was not spared either. In it, I put the wire drawers with my fat quarters, and under the wardrobe, a drawer full of threads.
This all worked quite well, and I figure the maids got to “admire” my progress when they came every day. (They were probably shaking their heads too!)
In the apartment I had a whole bedroom as my studio. Woohoo! I pushed the twin beds against the wall, parked the fat quarters in the closet and got busy.
Fortunately, my sewing table closes up to be like a card table. (You can see it in the foreground.) So, I had a fair amount of work space for painting and hand stitching. As it turns out, I never used my sewing machine, but I made a good amount of progress nevertheless.
My husband asked me if I was happy with my decision to haul all that stuff with us, and I answered without hesitation, “Absolutely.” My projects really did a good job of keeping me entertained!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. Do you suppose the maids miss me?
I thought I was the only one who traveled with most of my studio!
I have spent a few 2 week stays with my grandmother where I took most of my studio with me. I even took my printer along with my laptop, so I could print fabric and packing lists. I keep a lot of my supplies in large plastic drawer units so it’s easy to take what I need and still find things when back in my the studio. My husband, dad and gram thought it was a lot to haul around, but I wanted to keep doing something and didn’t want to miss any possible sales from my web shops. My gram liked to see what I was doing, and I ended up having orders to fill while there, so it was worth the lugging. (Extra seats in a van just get in the way) I think I have accomplished more at my gram’s in the past couple years than I have here at home… I also took a 7 day master class at QSDS last year and did the same- I had a couple of the drawer units in the hotel room with the rest in the classroom.
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one….