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Come behind the scenes at The Last Piece for a #CraftRoomTour and see Sarah's studio aka The Cubby Houst.
Its all my own. Having worked off the kitchen bench and out of a very small room in the house for 20 years, it's incredible to have this place that belongs to me.
Tell us about your space
The studio is a free standing cabin in our back garden. It is 4m x 5m. It's my studio and my office, as well as my play room and somewhere to hide and watch Netflix if the boys are watching a horror movie! It belongs to me, but if you're nice to me you can come and have a cup of tea :) The studio houses my knitting, tapestry, beading and embroidery projects, but mostly there will be quilting made and designed here, and all my fabric design and book and pattern writing will be done here too.
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
We painted the wood walls with a lime wash paint, so you can still see the wood grain through the paint. There are big windows on two walls so it has beautiful light. All my favourite things are here, including my pin cushion collection and small prints and quilts that I've been collecting for just this moment! There is a lovely light blue chair to hand stitch in. I did the floor myself by using Mod Podge to fix photocopies of my quilts and templates from my patterns to the floor, and then we had it professionally fixed with varnish.
How do you keep organized?
The front of the IKEA bench top that runs almost the full length of the studio has wooden crates in it, and each crate houses a WIP. That way all the fabric, sketches, notes, templates and tools I'm using for that project are in the same place and can't go astray. All the fabric is stored by colour, and there is a bay in the cupboard for each craft - knitting, tapestry, embroidery. Each seperate project has a drawstring project bag that keeps everything clean and together.
Any tips & tricks for organising supplies?
Putting everything back where it goes is the hardest and most important thing to start organised! However you choose to organise your supplies, you have to stick with it afterwards or the mess will just creep back.
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
My collection of soft toys and pincushions are some of my favourite things. My current favourite stitching possession is my thread pooping unicorn from Deborah at Fish Museum and Circus. There are things in the studio that belonged to my late mother that are special to me, and lots of gifts from stitch friends that I use every day. The favourite thing on display that I made myself is my Honeycomb quilt from my book Little Quilts.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I am very methodical about things I'm writing - each pattern or book has a document box that stores the relevant information in it after the quilt has moved out of it's project box. Theres nothing worse than going to write the pattern and finding that all your method and measurements have disappeared. I don't write the pattern and then make the quilt - my quilts evolve very organically into whatever they are going to be, but I make notes about each thing I do as I go. That way I know how much fabric I used, or why something worked one way but not another.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I get a lot of inspiration from music and lyrics. Also from art and design books. I have a big library of books on antique quilts, and quilt and textile history that I refer to a lot.
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
Once we finish the garden outside my new studio, I don't think I'll have to make wishes! It will be exactly how I always dreamed it would be :)
Whose craft room would you love to explore? Send us a message!
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