Are you tired of reading about my house yet?

Our basement is earth-banked on the west side and level with the outside on the east side. This is a pretty clever use of a very skinny sloping lot, as you get the temperature benefits of being underground as well as the natural light from windows on the east and walk-out French doors to the patio. The basement is really spacious and has more natural light than most basements. And, because it has a full bath, it doubles as our guest room.

As far as sewing goes, this is where the magic happens. I am in the middle of several projects right now (Eleanor’s hexagon quilt and cushion covers for Adele’s window seat), so my sewing area is kind of messy, but honestly this is way cleaner than usual. That blue and purple quilt was made by my grandmother – I’m just quilting it for her (almost done!). That quilt is on a rolling cupboard that came (free!) with the sewing table (from craigslist) and it holds all my thread, sewing notions, elastics, etc. . . .

And like magic – the bed is made!

You can see the beginning of Eleanor’s quilt on the design board (leaning against the wall int he pic above), but I am going to add in some muslin and white fabrics to lighten it up a bit. I’m going for a low-volume quilt – mostly whites, beiges, and linens with some muted purples and pinks.

About the design board – I think you should make one! It’s a hollow-core door (easy to find on craigslist or very inexpensive new at a big box store), covered in a layer of batting then a layer of muslin (flannel would be even better) and stapled around on the back side. And, when I need to press a lot of large items, I lay it over the day bed, and like magic, it’s also a pressing board at a perfect standing height.

The armoire you see on the left down there holds my quilting cottons, vintage feedsack fabrics from my grandmother, cotton velveteens and corduroys, patterns, interfacings, button collection, etc. . . .

This picture (below) shows the west side of the room and I’m so glad we had room for the Victorian couch down here. It doesn’t work for our current living room (too long) and it needs to be reupholstered (but all those tufts are so intimidating!) and refinished to show its true beauty. So, here it sits, fully functional for a basement, awaits its makeover.