Settling In

My studio in the house is finally officially finished. Or as finished as is possible anyway. I have learned that you can't ever call a room finished. Its a more organic process. The room is painted and clean, with a good amount of storage and basic furniture that does it's job. The curtain (my first curtain!) is up and most of my craft supplies have settled in. I'm still waiting for the rest of my toys to find a nook to colonise, but some Blythe dolls are already here. I'd ideally like to keep this room just for me and my crafts, so I'm trying to be careful in curating which of my collections will be living in here. 

I have been working in the new room for about one week. I stitched my curtains in here. Lots more room for sewing than the bedroom and the light is much better. I've also been sitting on the floor, hand quieting my sister's quilt. The table has been in three different positions this week. I originally planned to have it along the wall opposite the Expedits. But then it seemed much more sensible to put it in the window. The third position involves the table facing the window, but in the centre of the room, so I have room to use the floor in front of the window for my photos. I'll probably leave it in this position for now. The current table is still my granny's old kitchen table. It's on it's last legs so I hope to get a sturdier wooden dining table style table in future. And I'm now thinking that having wheels on said table wouldn't be a bad idea.

The curtains. Last year I made a quilt top using almost the entire collection of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile, along with a few Liberty tana lawn squares. I was a beautiful piece of rainbow fabric, but too small for a bed quilt. I was beginning to worry about making too many small quilts. I love this fabric collection so much that I wanted to enjoy it everyday. I wondered if it would be possible to make it work as a curtain, something I'd never tried before and had a bit of a fear of. It always looked like a very technical and precise procedure when my mum would make curtains. So I made mine up as I went along. My patchwork piece measured about 70" square, plenty big enough for the studio window. I made some hanging tabs, I sandwiched them in securely between the top and the lining (an Ikea cotton sheet) and top stitched the top seam. Then I tacked around the remaining three sides and folded and stitched a double hem. I'm really happy with how they turned out and would love to make more patchwork curtains in future :)

I'm waiting for the light to be it's brightest outside so I can get a better shot of the 'stained glass' effect. I keep missing it :( Still to be done... more drawstring bags to hang on my newly painted peg rail, somewhere to keep my threads, and a latch for the door.