A room of my own - My craft studio

Over the past few months I've been busy sorting and cleaning our flat after we had some building work done. It was messy and disruptive work which meant we had to pack a large part of our home into boxes and cover furniture with dust sheets. If you've ever had any major work done you'll know the filthy mess it generates!

After weeks of cleaning, our home is slowly getting back to normal. There are lots of things to do to get our space back to how it was. It's a work in progress project and we are 'embracing our space' and planning the redecorating ahead of us. In amongst the mess and disruption, a moment of clarity came over me. I found a benefit with all the upheaval we faced, it gave me a chance to really think about our home and how we use our space. This reflection time lead to me making an exciting change to our home. I have created a dedicated craft space just for me.

It all started during our trip away on holiday to the Yorkshire Dales at the end of January. Part of the way through the building work we had planned a holiday to escape the grime and dust. I took a number of my favourite interiors books and magazines to read on our holiday. I love the space and time of a holiday to think and recharge. After each day of walking and sight seeing we came back to the converted barn we were staying in and I sat down with a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Sitting next to the wood burner I read my interiors books dreaming of how we could update and improve our space. We had a few very rainy and snowy cold days so I managed to read my interiors books cover to cover and read the magazines I took with me.

During one afternoon I came across a feature in the January edition of Elle Decoration No.257. Viewpoint is one of my favourite regulars in the magazine and that month's column was all about 'a room of one's own', written by Sam Baker, former Editor of Red magazine. The feature was all about how Sam went about reclaiming a room of her own, her spare room to be precise, to work in following her new job and change in career.

After reading the piece it really got me thinking about how I use our home for my passions and work. We're really lucky to have a spare room in our home, it's a space I use to get ready in, and is a storage space for my craft things. After a little pondering I realised that our spare room wasn't being used as efficiently as it could've been. When we first organised our the spare room five years ago I didn't realise how my life would change in terms of my passions, hobbies and how I used my spare time. 

I realised that our spare room was being used mainly for storage and not actually for anything really practical. The desk had become too small and impractical to make many of the projects I had started. I'd taken to moving projects to our dining room table, unpacking supplies, working on things between meals and then packing up again. The storage I had in our spare room also was not really working, I had some small storage boxes stacked high with supplies and an overflowing book shelf making it difficult to find things I wanted. 

This year an intention of mine was to 'embrace my spare time', by increasing the time and energy I put into my passions. Outside of my full time job I spend lots of time catching up with friends, working on a variety of craft projects, memory keeping with Project Life, taking photos and gardening, as well as trying to keep our home tidy and have time to relax. I started noticing that I wasn't managing to balance all these things and this meant that something had to change. I realised that I needed to use our space differently to accommodate my new passions that have grown over the past few years and have become a huge part of who I am. I found that not having a dedicated space big enough to work in was becoming a real barrier to my creativity. I knew I needed to remove the barrier I had mentally and physically built up to having creative time and find a way to allow more time in the day to create.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few years oohing and ahhing over photos of peoples craft spaces and dreamt that I would one day have my own studio. I've been eyeing up storage solutions, but I had avoided thinking about them too much, as they wouldn't work in our space as it was. Any new furniture would mean a major change to our space and the furniture we had. During February I was spending time cleaning and sorting through things and I decided it was time for a change.

I decided to take the plunge and change round our spare room and create my own craft studio. I bought two pieces of furniture, a shelving unit and a desk. I chose the simple but very useful Ikea EXPEDIT white gloss shelving system. I have been lusting after the large EXPEDIT shelving unit in the range for a long time, I knew that if I ever had my own studio I would have a wall of this shelving to store my fabric and book collection. Our spare room is compact and so I had space for the small EXPEDIT shelving unit. Having this shelving meant I could organise for my book collection, scrapbooking supplies and fabric in one storage space, something I was lacking.

I also bought a simple white gloss table from Ikea that was long enough to accommodate my large cutting mat and my sewing machine. It's a real pleasure to be able to cut fabric for my patchwork projects and sew in the same space! Ideally I would've restored a wooden table and to have painted it white but I had a certain sized table in mind and couldn't find what I was looking for.

My craft studio is very much a work in progress. I've got the foundations of the furniture in the room and now I'm hoping to make the space really reflect me and my style. I'm going to create a pretty space decorated in pastel colours to create a calm and inspiring sanctuary full of inspiring things I've made myself and pretty things I've collected. I'm planning to paint the room to freshen things, add a shelf or two above the desk to store and display pretty things and make some curtains. I want to have space for a mood board and add some new lighting.

I'm so pleased I now have a workable craft space, my own little studio space just for me. A place I can leave projects half finished if I want to, a place to group together my craft supplies, and a space for my library of crafting books. One day I may use the space to teach friends how to sew and create...for now it's my own little haven that will slowly be turning into my dream studio.

Over the past few weeks I've been sewing in the evenings and updating my Project Life album. I've enjoyed the simple pleasure of listening to the radio and spending a few hours to creating things after a busy day at work. It really is a special space where I can escape to... to create, make and reflect. I feel I've really embraced our space and made it fit me and how I want my life to be.

Have you looked at your home recently? Is there anything you could change to allow more space for your passions?

A long weekend :: Time to get crafty

A few weeks ago I decided to book myself a long weekend. I had planned to take a few days off work to dedicate to my hobbies and to start making the Roman blinds that we so desperately need in our lounge to keep us a little warmer this year. A combination of still trying to understand the instructions in the Roman blind kit I've bought (I'm starting to write my own!), and the fabric not being chosen in time, has meant that this part of my long weekend had to be moved to a few weeks time. I managed to get lots achieved instead!

Having two days off work before the weekend meant I could catch up on writing a few blog posts and taking photos. I spent my time enjoying cups of tea, eating toast and jam, waiting for Christmas decoration deliveries to arrive. I filled our home with music I haven't listened to in a while and alternated between Radio 2 and 6Music. I enjoyed relaxed lunchtimes having home made soup for lunch and then pottering round nearby Clifton Village and visiting my favourite shop, Pod, minus the weekend crowds. I had the time to use our local post office, and visit our local charity shop to drop off a few bags of things following a clear out. I indulged each afternoon drinking tea from my special Emma Bridgewater mugs and eating triple chocolate cookies from my pretty plates. All of that interspersed with time to craft. It was absolute heaven!

I had chance to start making the cushion cover I have been planning to make for sometime. I enjoyed having the time to think about the structure of the cushion and loved playing with some of my newest fabric.

On Saturday we went out for brunch with friends and walked home along the floating harbour near our home, enjoying the crisp fresh air. I had time to appreciate and enjoy where we live without rushing around.

I spent some of the weekend sorting out my Project Life album and printing out photos to get myself up to date. I love Project Life and I'll tell you more about it on another blog post soon.

On Sunday I continued crocheting granny squares whilst nursing a bad cold and cough.

I had fun gathering supplies from my paper and scrapbooking stash for Christmas card making. I've started pulling together the supplies I'm planning to use for Journal Your Christmas and December Daily this year. I'm getting really excited about a craft filled December and taking the time to capture all the details in my photos.

I've really loved having the opportunity to take a few days out of my normal routine and do things I love. I like to get up early, keep busy and make the most of the free time I have. I think it has recharged me, perhaps I relaxed a little too much! I have ended up with another cough and cold in the space of a month. I don't know how I've managed to get unwell twice in such close succession, both times have been when I've really relaxed! Oh well, the perfect excuse to snuggle on the sofa and crochet.

I'm definitely going to make time for a long weekend of hobbies again in the future. I've got some time off before Christmas to really get into the spirit of things. What do you love doing when you have a bit of down time?

A busy month :: Autumn is here

Autumn has well and truly arrived. My scarf collection is making an appearance on a daily basis, my boots are out, my winter coat on, and I get to wear my favourite hats for the next few months.

 My morning walk to the train station is getting prettier by the minute, the trees are slowly changing colour and crisp golden leaves are filling the pavements. I love how the way my walk to work changes throughout the year. However on the flip side, the walk home is dark and I’m missing the daylight and the view of the sun setting on the way home. With the dark nights comes the excuse to hunker down, snuggle in blankets and not feel guilty about getting crafty. 

I haven’t been posting on my blog for a while as I’ve spent the past month planning projects I’m hoping to achieve by the end of the year. I always set myself so much to do, with a full time job and a hour commute to work, and then an hour back again, the days are so much shorter than I would like! The dark evenings mean the light isn’t great, so I don't get to see how things look in the daylight and I am unable to document my progress in photos. 

During last month I was off sick for a week and in bed and whilst I was waiting to get better I had time to think, relax, look through my favourite interiors books to get inspiration and watch some of my favourite movies. 

After being unwell I wanted to kick start things and make the most of my free time, I think you realise how little you achieve when you are feeling under the weather and how much you want to do when you stop and think. I decided to pick up my knitting needles and continue knitting the cosy cable cushion cover I started last year. I put the project down at the beginning of the year but I'm loving the feeling of yarn in my hands and watching my knitting grow. It's a perfect project for after work as I snuggle on the sofa and feel that I'm achieving something line by line of the pattern. It has also got me thinking about attempting to crochet again, (I'll write more about that in a few days time!).

With the dark evenings I have also started to notice small things that would make a difference to the comfort of our home. One of the projects is to make Roman blinds and curtains for our flat. I have two windows I want to make curtains for, and a back door and window that I plan to make Roman blinds for as all the windows are longer or an odd size. I want to create a more insulated and cosy home to ensure we stay warmer this winter. I've been looking at fabric samples, deciding on the style of the curtains, selecting curtain poles and getting my head round how to make Roman blinds and curtains. I had a perfect excuse to go to John Lewis and swoon over the fabric section, even Mr C didn’t seem to mind! I'm still deciding on the fabric but over the next week or so I hope to be able to choose and to make a start on measuring and cutting the fabric. I'm still waiting for a few fabric samples to arrive.

I've also been planning to make new cushions for a while to make our sofa more cosy. I've made one cushion cover already but I want to make one more that is unique and something new I haven't done before. Over the past month I have started to plan the design for the new patchwork cushion cover and I've made a start on making it, so I'll update you shortly.

I have also spent time thinking about Christmas in our home. I have decided to treat Mr C and I to a few new Christmas decorations this year. I have a real passion for all things scandi style. All my decorations are made out of wood and are painted white and red, I’ve collected these over the years and I love them.  For over 5 years I have had a wish list of Christmas decorations I’d love to have. A few weeks ago I took the plunge to make the investment and buy them. I have wanted them after all these years so I know the investment will be worth it. 

I am planning to make a few things on the run up to Christmas, including Christmas appliqué bunting, festive cushion covers and Christmas cards. I’d love to create a Christmas quilt for Mr C and I to snuggle up under but I just don’t think I'll have the time. I'm hoping to also do December Daily/Journal Your Christmas to document the run up to Christmas too. I’ll start posting my Christmas related posts during December so keep an eye out then and you'll get a little insight into Christmas in our home. 

What projects are you working on at the moment? Have the dark cold evenings made you pick up some hobbies again? I'll update you on the things I'm making, doing and what is inspiring me over the next few weeks, in the meantime keep warm!

Handmade and stitched with love - My first quilt

You may have wondered where I’ve been for a few weeks! Well, life took over a little...as did finishing my top secret project! I’m delighted to let you know that today I can do the big reveal…

Since April I’ve been working hard to create my first quilt! Inspired by the taster day I did at the start of the year, and making the quilted sewing machine cover for my Mum, I fancied making a quilt on a bigger scale. It was a huge challenge for me and I had to do quite a bit of research before I got stuck in. Making a quilt has quite a few stages, all of which I didn’t know about until I started. Thanks to a few great books and blogs I discovered recently I managed to work my way through the complicated parts! Plus some great videos by The Missouri Star Quilt Company gave me the confidence to dive in and have a go.

Before I started this big project I had in mind what I wanted to make. I wanted to create something useful that could be a gift and something quite special all in one go. My friends Charlie and Vic had their first baby, Olivia, in April. In the months running up to Olivia being born I started buying fat quarters of fabrics I thought would work with the nursery colour scheme. Choosing the fabrics was such an exciting, and addictive, part of the project. 


...After many months of sewing I can reveal my first quilt! Ta-dah!!!

Here you can see the quilted squares and a few of the fabrics close up...

and a hand stitched label for the quilt on the back...

and you can just see the alphabet fabric I used to create the white border next to the binding...

I decided to hand deliver the quilt last weekend as I couldn’t bear the thought of it going missing in the post. I was so thrilled to watch them both open the quilt that I had carefully wrapped with brown paper and green ribbon. Seeing their eyes light up when they opened it was magical, and when they realised that it was handmade by me, it really was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced when giving a gift. Watching them looking at the colours, spotting all the details I’d thought of and included made me very happy.

I’d spent time choosing fabrics that would work with the colours of the nursery, adding a few ‘educational’ things like animals, different colours, patterns and shapes and the alphabet as choices for the squares. Watching their faces so happy (and slightly shocked!), I knew at that moment that every hour spent doing research, thinking, planning, shopping, cutting, patching, quilting and hand sewing was really worth it. The reaction from my friends brought a lump to my throat and when they told me it was one of the most beautiful gifts they have been given, it made me realise how very special handmade gifts are.  

Olivia’s quilt was stitched with so much love. I cant count the number of hours that I’ve put into thinking and making it, however I know now that every hour was worth it. I hope that Olivia uses her first quilt for lots of thing as she grows up, firstly as a play mat, a blanket to sit on for trips to the park in the sunshine…later as a snuggly cover for trips in the car, or even as a quilt for her bed.

If you do one thing this year make something as a gift for someone special. I can assure you that you will feel a real sense of achievement when you learn something new and see the joy in people’s faces when they open something handmade and stitched with love.

...In the next few days I’ll update you on how I made the quilt in a bit more detail.

Make your own spice rack labels

I spent many months looking for a new spice rack for our little kitchen. We have a kitchen with limited surface and cupboard space so finding the right option was important. Mr C is a bit of a dab hand in the kitchen and cooks the most fabulous meals, normally requiring a variety of herbs and spices. He mainly uses fresh herbs for cooking, hence the types of herbs planted in the garden last week, and a variety of spices. I knew we needed a spice rack with plain jars, as the pre-labelled, pre-filled jars just weren’t going to be suitable and the contents would go to waste.

After searching we found this lovely spice rack with cream jars from Garden Trading that fitted our needs perfectly! I love having clear jars to store food, you are able to see what you have at a glance and they look great too. To add a final touch, I decided to make my own spice rack labels using brown card, blue stamping ink and clear alphabet stamps. It didn't take me long…

I started by stamping the spice name onto brown card that I had in my paper stash. When I had finished I cut out the wording leaving a space at the end so I could punch a hole ready for the thread. I reused the brown twine that came with the jars to tie the label to the jar.

The good thing about having these jars is if we change the spices, as the seasons change and as we find new favourite recipes, all I need to do is whip up a few new labels!

Quilted Sewing Machine Cover

On Friday I managed to get stuck in and complete a quilting project that I had started at the beginning of March. The project I had in mind was small to help me gain a bit of confidence and try out some basic quilting techniques. Since buying my own sewing machine I knew that it wasn't long before I needed to pass my Mum’s Frister Rossmann sewing machine back to her. With my parents visiting over Easter I had a deadline to meet. I knew I wanted to get the machine serviced before giving it back but also I wanted to make a special thank you present using my new machine. I decided to make a new sewing machine cover as the current soft cover for the sewing machine was starting to fall to bits.

In a post I wrote in March, Quilting and patchwork update, you may have spotted that I had started to put together some 9 square patches using blue fabrics, these were going to be the basis of the cover and I had ambitions of elaborately quilting it! Well time got the better of me and I managed to add a few more patchwork pieces to the collection so I had enough to complete the cover. On Friday I pieced the patchwork squares together with a blue border, or sashing using the technical term! I tried to square off the sections of fabric as I went to make sure all the edges were neat. I added in the blue backing (the same as the sashing) and cut a piece of wadding to to fit.

In the end as I didn't have lots of time to practice some different quilting techniques so I just did a simple 'quilt in the ditch' of the four rectangular sections. I was quite shocked at what I had managed to achieve for my first attempt! Here it is laid out in full, I just used a rectangle shape that would match the height (to cover both sides of the sewing machine) and length of the sewing machine.

You can see a bit of the 'in the ditch' quilting I did and see the pink piggy in the fabric I used. Plus some lovely blue ribbon to secure the cover onto the sewing machine.

Here is the front of the cover....when you put the wrong sides together and tie the bows it almost looks like a cushion cover...

Here is the cover on the machine from the front.

and a side view too...can you see the pink piggy?

To make it a bit of a surprise I packaged up the cover in brown paper and ribbon and gave it to my Mum.

A simple parcel that contained my first quilting project!

I pleased to say that my Mum was overjoyed at the surprise present and impressed with my first attempt at quilting.

I was really proud of what I had managed in a short time frame and I enjoyed seeing the project come together. With a bit of careful planning, and a lot more practice, I hope that I can one day make a larger scale quilt project. But for now maybe I'll try the basics and make sampler quilt pieces so I can practice different quilting styles.