Studio

It's always interesting to see where artists work and what inspires them, so I thought I'd share some photos of my workspace. I'm lucky to have a spare bedroom upstairs in my house so I can have space that's all mine. I can be as messy as I like (and I am) and just close the door at the end of the day. The room is about 15 feet square and has a nice-sized closet where I keep finished pillows and storage bins filled with buttons, trims, and patterns.

I bought some funky window shades with stripes and polkadots (what a surprise that I'd choose that design!) and painted the walls a bright cantaloupy-orange to match. The room can be kind of dark when it's not sunny so this brightened it up a lot. When the sun does shine, it really glows. It's one of those colors that just makes you happy when you look at it.

My sewing table is next to a window that looks out on the back yard. I have my funny Anne Taintor calender on the wall and a cool picture of my Mom (who, back in the day, was no slouch at sewing herself). On the right you can just glimpse a section of the quilt top that I bought last fall at a nearby antique mall (full of incredible 1940s fabrics). It's really huge and takes up the whole wall!



I have a drawing table in the corner that I use as a desk of sorts. My computer space is downstairs off the living room, so this area is more for doing paperwork, designing, and updating the notebooks I keep for inspiration.



I store fabric on shelves along one wall and in an old armoire, mostly grouped by color. I really try to stay organized but my careful system gets messed up when I'm busy. When it gets bad enough that I can't find things any more, I spend a day cleaning and reorganizing. This may look neat at the moment but you're not seeing the pile of fabric on the floor!



When I'm working, my two cats love to hang out with me. I sometimes call them my studio assistants, but they really do no work at all. When they're not busy knocking buttons off my work table or playing with spools of thread they're asleep in the vintage crib I bought to display baby things at craft shows. Maybe someday I'll get it away from them so I can do just that :)