Studio 216 in the Hotshops Art Center

I just started renting a studio in the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha. It's a very interesting building and I'm really excited about it. The building houses something like 80 artists in 50 studios. I could be wrong on this number. I believe it was originally a mattress factory, which is appropriate for a quilter with a longarm.

Right now, I'm a part time resident of Omaha, living in a loft at The Greenhouse, which is kitty corner to the Old Market.

I keep discovering new things I like about Omaha, which is fun, because I've lived in Third Lake for almost 30 years now, in the Chicago area, for over 50 years. So, with the exception of the Cubs winning the world series, not many surprises.

Anyway, this week was my first at the Hotshops and I spent Monday through Thursday getting some if it set up, and then Friday, working on a quilt.

Here is some of my progress so far:

The main entrance to the building. I will find out the artist of the glass sculpture.

The entrance to my studio so far. It's the door on the left, that's my quilt. The giant dollar bill was painted by dAR the artist to right of me. She has a huge space and does great paintings. 

Setting up my sewing cabinet

Designer Tack panels, similar to Homasote, but less dense. Made out of recycled wood, not  plastic. I used 10, 32x48" sheets to create a working wall that is 80" high by 15 feet wide. 

Brian helped me pin 90" wide cotton batting along the top of the working wall, using corsage pins.
Then he went back and covered the batting with cotton muslin that was 96" wide, running the selvedge horizontally.

I will go back and neatly pin the vertical edges and the bottom against the Designer Tack panels when the fabric has relaxed and I can spread it all out smoothly.

 In the meantime, I pinned up some pattern printouts and a two yard piece of fabric I dyed last week during a demo at Stitches Midwest. 

Still a little disorganized and still not much in the space. But I have more to do.

Please stop by if you are in the area, I won't be back for a few weeks, so message me at Robbi@robbieklow.com  if you want to see my studio. Otherwise, the building is really interesting and worth a visit!

I plan to eventually have my APQS Millennium here. I'm not planning to rent it out, or quilt for others at this time, but I do plan to offer free motion quilting classes in my space, either on the longarm, or on domestic machines. I have some ideas to offer during the College World Series of Baseball, which is a block away.  And the HotShops are adjacent to several NEW hotels. So the area is getting more and more interesting. And we're a few blocks from downtown. And two blocks from the basketball arena! We saw Queen during our July trip to Omaha.

I'll be here more and more this winter.