Epson Photo: My Work Space

Lately I have been thinking about how people create. What kind of space they are working in? I have seen a bit of your work space when I read your blogs, but that is all. It would be nice to see more of your work spaces. For this reason I would like to share with you my work space. I will call it work space because some people do not have a work room/sewing room. I know because I did not have a sewing room for a long time. I used to sew at the corner of our bedroom for many years. I used our bed as a cutting table and I produced many nice quilts there. I feel that you do not have to have a so called work room/sewing room to make quilts. If you want to do it, you can do it anywhere. You can make do. Please come in and let me share with you my work space. I would also like to invite you to share your work space with us too.

Welcome to my work space. This is a door into my work space I put a door rug at the entrance. This is an Iranian rug I picked up from an Iranian boat vendor in Abu Dhabi. It was hand woven with hand dyed wool. It reminded me of patchwork when I bought it. It is perfect as a door mat.

This is the only full wall I have in here. My 'Whirly World' quilt stays there all the time. Below the quilt is the wall unit where I store all my projects, boxes, and bits and pieces you can see on top. I can tell you I am not a messy person, but I love stuff as most quilters would.

On the right-hand side as you enter the room I hang this hand woven Iraqi rug. I bought this rug from an Global village in Dubai in 2001. I loved it so much I could not resist. It is designed as a floor runner, but it looks great on the wall too. If you wander what is the green and yellow robe hanging next to the rug, it is called 'Sally'. It is used for pulling a church bell. I used to be a bell ringer (campanologist). I rung bells 2-3 times a week for 4 years. One day I just stopped going to bell ringing. Every time I think about it I am still upset over it. Bell ringing is the only hobby that I was not able to share with a friend. For this reason I decided to stop even though I love actual bell ringing itself. Anyway, I have the 'Sally' to remind me that I was once a campanologist!

A peek into my fabric stash. There is a double fitted wardrobe in the room and it is filled with my fabric. I have too much fabric including those I hand dyed and over dyed myself. I have not bought any fabrics for a long time now. I try to make do with what I have for all the recent projects I have started. I also try to make 'green quilts' so whatever I have here should do me and if I need any more I will get either from used clothing or second hand fabric.

This is my sewing machine table. Both cutting table and sewing table were my children's school desks. I put them together back to back when I had a bigger room, but now that I only have a small room I decided to set them apart to give me space in between the two desks. My Jenome sewing machine is 2o years old. I bought it from John Lewis department store in London in 1991. It has been a good machine for me. I also have a Singer Featherweight sewing machine which I like using as well. Unfortunately, I do not have room to have both of them out.

The cutting table with small ironing board at one end. The table sits by the window where I get plenty of light from the window while I am cutting. Out side of the window is a small front garden facing the street.

This was once a book case, but now it is everything case. I have my baskets in there plus the mixed media supplies of paints, pens and papers etc. Believe it or not, I know exactly where everything is on it!

I found this wooden ladder at the side of the road waiting to be collected on hard rubbish day. It was perfect for a quilt display rack. Because this room does not have a lot of wall space, I have to use all space available to display my quilts and crafts. It is working well so far, but I would have liked a room twice as big as this one.

This Iranian rug is in between the sewing table and the cutting table. At the end of the rug there is the wall unit with all my projects (UFOs) boxes and other craft supplies. This carpet is on the only floor space between my two desks.

Generally this is what my work room looks like. The sewing table sits right the middle of the room with the sewing machine facing the cutting table and window. It is a very bright room. The window you can see ahead is a sliding door opening to the front balcony. There is an outdoor table set there if I want to sit out.

This is our living area where we watch television, listening to music, reading and entertaining and also where I do my hand work too. I do all my crafts work here including basket weaving, bookmaking and stitching. I take over the two seatter sofa set and accumulate all my bits and pieces I need for the project I am working on at the time.

The large coffee table takes quite a lot of the room between the television and the sofas so I place a small cutting mat there mainly for cutting my papers for book making. I also have a laptop when I need to work on my blog and watch the television at the same time. I do have another computer in the office where I share with DH.