Saturday 16 April 2011

Inside My Studio

Update 19th April 2011

Thank you everyone for commenting on this post. It's nice to know that someone understands my chaos and creative mess. For years I felt guilty about not having a 'Showroom Studio'...you know the kind...and I always wished I'd had the inclination to create that kind of photogenic space.

I'm really fortunate to have such a great DH and a supportive family, and as for the mess - I've decided that that's just the debris creativity comes from.


Time for my yearly studio pics update.

I had grand ideas about sorting this mess out before Easter, but have now accepted that this won’t be happening.

I have actually reached the point where I have had to pause WIPs because there’s just no room to carry on with them.

A good Spring Clean for me is when I can see my table top surface again.


It’s a great design table and I have a lot of things going on there. I think this is actually my biggest dilemma, at any time I have at least 3 or 4 projects out, demanding attention. I long for the day when I whittle my UFOs and WIPs to 1 single project and breeze around my studio without walking into, over or on something.

 This is my Hearts Desire Chair, before that it was my Red Delicious Chair.
Really, it's the Current BOM Chair. It Seats the Box that holds all the fabrics I will be using.


That shelf behind me was actually custom made for the Design Table.
It is so crammed full of work that I have been considering some kind of File System





You can’t tell that this is actually a large room (it’s a full size living room) with windows along one side. Great for daylight, but something of a storage loss (that’s what I tell my family anyway.)

Those are my shelves on the wall, full of journals, notebooks and sketchings.



Sometimes you don’t know how much you have, and it takes a photo to realize that you don’t really need a new 3 tiered box of Derwent’s,  anyway, where would I fit them in order to make best use of them?



That's my chair by the window, I crochet there whilst looking over the birds or the Camellia bush. Mostly I read in this spot. It looks cozy but it doesn't get used much. Well, not that much, it is a working room afterall!

To be completely honest, even I am a little shocked with how much stuff I have and how out of control it looks! Is it any wonder both my DDs are keen on minimalism??




Luckily this room's completely at the back of my house so we don’t have to walk through it, or even acknowledge it.

My grown up DDs have dreams of building me a shed to move all the stuff into there…whilst I have dreams of them both moving out so I can take over their rooms….just kidding!

Beneath the Design Table is where I store a lot of my fabric stash.







 There's a machine under there! I think it's an overlocker!



Sometimes I like to listen / watch out of the corner of my eye/  to The Quilt Show when I'm working. When I'm seriously working, I don't like the distraction, but when I am tidying up or sorting out it's a welcome relief.
Yes, this room’s a mess, but it’s my mess and I know where everything is…and also, it saves the house. Imagine all this (important!) stuff being dispersed throughout a house?? I'm so lucky that my family are tolerant and in fact, supportive of this chaos.

23 comments:

  1. Yeah, a woman after my own heart and habit. That room is YOUR room, it's where YOU create (and sometimes complete masterpieces) if it's like my room, it's also where I am happy, content and fulfilled. Don't beat yourself up about it, I'd love to come a visiting just the way it is.
    happy hugs
    Miche'le

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  2. Thanks for sharing Esther. It is always intersting to see other quilter's work space.

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  3. I have been accused of taking over the whole house. I have a room for sewing, but I have a disabled husband and he sits in the living room so I do a lot of hand work while sitting in the living room. I looked today and the small table by my chair is full to over flowing. If you know where everything is then you are organized. Be Happy Chris

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  4. Oh Esther - what an amazing room! It speaks to me of abundance, generosity, creativity, enjoyment - it is just wonderful!!

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  5. Just love your room and if you know where everything is then its not disorganized at all. I have some bags of fabric under my table and seem to have a frog make its home somewhere in there lately, where it came from is a puzzle to me.

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  6. You have no idea what a mess truly is. My sewing room is 22 foot long which sounds not too bad but it's only nine foot wide and I have as much 'stuff' as you.
    Because of you, and dear friend it's all your fault, I have a six foot banquet table set up behind a sofa in the sitting room, smothered with 30s fabrics and paper patterns laid out on the sideboard. It's been like this for weeks now....
    He must love me, why else would he put up with it?

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  7. Thank you!! I appreciate that you aren't afraid to show your sewing room, and now I don't feel so bad about my table in my living room that has my sewing machine and a little fabric on it.. an ironing board with my WIP draped over it.. (and an iron).. WHEEEEEEEW! I think mine is an eyesore.. and I am constantly thinking.. I have to fix that.. but now I can relax a little.

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  8. Your room is real, not tidied and dead just to take a photo. It is full of inspiration and the source of wonderful quilts. I love it. My corner looks like yours but it is in the living room, not so good as I can't hide it. Oh well.

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  9. Hi Esther, I am so glad that you have shown your place of inspiration and work.....its nice to know that I am not the only one with lots of stuff! And it may seem disorganized to others but as long as you know where everything is.....that is all that matters.....you cannot contain creativeness!

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  10. A great room, supose you have everything you need for quilting in there......

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  11. Oh Thank goodness....I thought I was alone in my chaos!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

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  12. I, too, liked looking into your work room. My space is a lot like yours and just today I had to clean off the cutting table so I could square up a quilt in preparation for the binding. But I know it will disappear again when I get the fabrics out to work on Heart's Desire Blocks 2 & 3, again.

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  13. Great room! You have a serious stash going there. I'll have to show my DH so he'll be happy with my smaller one.......grin.

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  14. Thanks for sharing, its nice to see how other people use their space. I found it really really hard to stay tidy until we had the BIR fitted with proper shelves and draws. I still have WIP and UFO's in boxes but they are easily hidden in the wardrobe and it helps me focus on not adding to them - because I dont want to run out of space! Working chaos is good though, I only tidy up when a) visitors are coming to stay(sewing/spare bedroom) b)when I have finished a project and want to start a new one c) when I really really think I have LOST soemthing important! Happy quilting Sue SA.

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  15. Thanks for your honesty, Esther. I see so many pictures of people's sewing rooms on the internet that I am sure can't ever really be used, as they are so neat and "organised" that they seem to have nothing in them but acres of empty space.

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  16. how wonderful to get a peek into your workspace........personally I think it's FABULOUS!

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  17. How honest of you to show your room. Don't worry about the mess, the truth is as soon as you tidy a room and start a new project, you are back to square one!

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  18. Fabulous Esther. A cavern filled to the brim with treasures.

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  19. Love it love it love it. It was so nice of you to share your fabulous room with us. I just want to delve in and see what hidden treasures I can find.

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  20. Creative minds are rarely neat! I'm glad to see you create a mess too. I've often thought if I worked on one thing at a time, it would be easy to know where things are. But that just wouldn't suit me!

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  21. Es un caos,especial que muchas quisieramos poder tener el espacio, para tener ese caos un saludo.

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  22. I'm showing my son your studio. He thinks I have mental problems and that I have become a hoarder. Now I can show him that I am only a quilter and that is how we live and create!! I love your studio. Thank you for all the joy and learning and masterpieces you give to us from that room!!

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  23. Thank you, so glad to see a room that is used and full. I have a room like this too and it is also the lounge room with a fantastic large window which doesn't get direct sunlight but has heaps of light.
    The only thing I see/hear different to you and I is that you create heaps more then I do and have probably more of an idea of where everything is. I just lose things in mine all the time, but as everyone says it is MY creative mess and I can close the doors and no one else has to look at it. Thanks for sharing. Lyn

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