The Ultimate Draft Stopper

Each winter I create a "tent-with-in -a-tent" in my basement studio. The basement is a big space and I use about a third of it for my sewing. The rest has space for yoga when I have enough discipline to actually do yoga, a big bookcase and a second sewing machine I rarely use. 

 
I can close off the sewing part of the studio with hanging quilts and a partition/design wall my husband built for me. This makes the smaller space I am actually using much easier to heat and very cozy. Each winter the configuration may be a little different. This time I ended up with a space about a foot wide between the partition and the hanging quilt. 

I needed a solution. I created the ultimate draft-stopper, made completely of scraps from my box of "bitsy pieces"

It is a strip made of 7 large blocks that can hang from the end of the quilt stand and close the gap and cut off the cold air.

I made the blocks about 14" wide and most of them are 10-12" long. The strip goes from the ceiling, almost to the floor, effectively closing the gap and keeping me nice and warm.

It was lots of fun to make the blocks and mix fabrics with abandon. 

This is also a great way to use scraps to make place mats, table runners or even quilts.

Center section

In the picture below, you can see the draft stopper doing its thing, creating a cozy warm space for sewing. 

On the left is the design wall/partition, on the right, a quilt made of alternating simple blocks out of a huge variety of Asian inspired fabrics. For now, the barrier on the right is just a big piece of polar fleece I had laying around.

I always like playing in my scraps. Right now, I have a class called Samplers, Settings and Scraps going at the Academy of Quilting.I hope you will join me!