My Girl Cave

The weather here in Newcastle has been the most perfect expression of a sunny Autumn and it's drawing me constantly into my new light-filled work space. Tim and I have named it the "Girl Cave". When this was his office, he would close the shutters and the extra sheets of curtain fabric so he could work on his computer in the fluorescent light, without the glare on his screen. So when I moved my sewing back home from my shop in town, I kicked him out into our darkest room and claimed the sun for myself.



The move actually meant a complete re-arrange of our whole house, except the kids' room, and I'd love to show you bit by bit, how we're trying to make the most of the sunshine and small space. For now I'll show you my progress with the sewing room.
Until yesterday I still had remnants of Tim's office sprawled above and below my fabric stash and artefacts from the shop dumped by the window from when we had first unloaded the car.

I had cut out dresses, waiting to be sewn, in piles around my feet, making me feel overwhelmed every time I walked in. And my five metre roll of wadding was waiting on my ironing board for me to decide where it would live.

So yesterday a friend came over and we dove in together. I cleared Tim's junk, bought two clear tubs and put my wadding in one and my unfinished shop-related items in the other. It was really hard to put them in a box, up high, with the lid on. It felt like a kind of failure. I kept thinking maybe I could push myself to get them done in the next couple of weeks and then go back to my quilts. But in the end, it was such a freeing thing to put them away for now. I'll have another look at them around September, when I've had a bit more fun with my scraps (which are really calling me!) and maybe do a few craft markets leading up to Christmas. Now is my time to play.

I put all our internetty stuff up high, out of the way of my work bench, neatly slid the shelving into any crevice I could find, and put my threads and pins and a little pile of hand-stitching next to my cutting mat.

Then my friend Emily and I sorted every random box and pile, finding even more collections of scraps. The more I sort my scraps, the more ideas I get to refine my sorting and storing methods. Any ideas are welcome! This morning I made special, set aside piles of pre-cut squares, left over from quilts, strips from binding, and the tiny triangles from making binding, all waiting for the perfect little storage container to come my way.

Then finally, as my reward, with the kids at daycare, I made myself a coffee and attached the binding to two quilts. Then, having realised that I seem to falter in the final seams of a quilt top (when it starts to get big) and put it off till later, I lay this one out on my bed finished sewing this up for Evie.