The last few days have been spent in some degree of turmoil, due to an apparently fairly small change in our house. This is the studio where I work. It is next to our house.
For years I worked on a ‘desk’ that was actually a large wooden door set on two sets of trestle legs. It gave me a large area to work on and there was space to store boxes underneath. However we recently bought a new desk – a vintage pine desk for my husband. To put the pine desk in his study/ our spare bedroom, we had to disassemble the oak desk he had been using. When it was all in pieces (stacked around our dining table) we were wondering about how best to dispose of it when I realised that I could perhaps use it instead of a door on some trestle legs. This meant virtually emptying everything from the studio. Fortunately it was a fine day. The oak desk now in the studio is deeper but less wide than the ‘door-trestle’ arrangement but it looks is if it will work well for me to sew at and also for each learner who comes to do the QUILT IN A DAY COURSE (more information about this here
To the left of the window is a little hanging that I made from fun sewing labels I designed some time ago, combined with a colourful print which I bought one time at a stash sale. Below are pots of pens, pencils and brushes.
Above the door is a garland d made from vintage cotton reels wrapped in felt, with added beads. They were first made as Christmas tree decorations (look here
To the left of the door is a framed ‘Popular Patchwork’ cover – designed the quilt and it remains a favourite.
Hanging in the corner are long rulers including a modern steel one, a plastic dressmakers rule and a large, vintage wooden set square.
Below the rulers is my tray of pincushions – all useful! They sit on top of a small chest of drawers that I still need to go through. Hmm…
i took the opportunity to move the position of the shelves that house my fabrics. They are now to the left of the window shown above and very easy to reach from the desk chair,
Down on the bottom shelf are all the boxes of machine sewing threads.
On top of the shelves are embroidery threads and boxes of other items that I use constantly, like quilt clips.
Moving everything round has allowed me to set up a work space in which I can use my laptop. The bright light at the front of the studio is great for sewing but not so good for looking at a screen.
The design wall has stayed exactly where it was, on the back wall but it is now easier to access.
In the corner of the studio I’m keeping my large roll of wadding and opposite the desk is my quilting frame. Beneath the frame are boxes which contain other things I need, such as larger pieces of fabric for quilt backs, fabrics which aren’t quilting cotton, etc.
To the left of the quilting frame is the desk, so we are back to the beginning.
One sad consequence of the big clear-out and re-arrangement is that I have had to go through all my many sketchbooks with a view to discarding the majority of them. Many of the ideas have been turned into quilts or quilted items which have either gone into patterns now available in the Etsy shop or into patterns published in magazines. Having used sketchbooks for eleven years, I can see that some of the things I learned in the beginning of this journey have just become part of my everyday experience so I don’t need to keep all my notes.
The changeover is virtually complete. I just hope I don’t have to do it again for a very, very long time!
Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt Patterns are in the Etsy shop here, Fabrics are on the Spoonflower website here, Classes are on this website here
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Amanda Jane Textiles 