I’ve got out of the habit of going into my workroom – possibly because it’s such a mess. The other day, looking for a particular fabric, I did clear out a bit of stuff that was under the bed, but that bit of tidying is invisible. What you'd see is the great accumulation of stuff on top of the bed – which I’ll spare you the sight of!
Instead, building on the positive, here are some of the things I like about my workroom/studio.
First, I continually enjoy having a whole room for my art materials and fabrics; a place to leave the sewing machine - and ironing board - set up ready to use. It was not always thus, believe me.
Next, trees outside the window. Sure I moan about them cutting out the light – but I’d be upset if they were cut down.
The “airing cupboard” in the corner of the room contains the hot water tank and provides space not only for drying clothes and a bit of untidy storage (including re-usable wrapping paper), but most importantly it houses my collection of white fabric. The white fabric has a place, it’s organised, hurrah!
Another thing with its own place is the magazine collection. I’m trying to hang onto fewer magazines, to let go of more -- but can’t bring myself to part with Fibrearts, Surface Design,even from way back in the 90s. These fall into the “essential reference tool” category.
To reach those high shelves, I have this dandy little solid-wood stool, which my son schlepped back from Ikea on the bus. It’s heavy. He’s strong. I’m grateful.
In the corner beside the sewing machine, the radio. It rarely moves from Radio4. Long may the BBC prosper.
On the wall are two little pictures that mark milestones for my “creative journey”. The swan dates back to the late 80s and is made of just about all the tapestry wool in a mixed skein from a shop called Creativity that used to be in New Oxford Street. I found the design in a cross-stitch book and actually changed it – by putting one small star in the sky. How daring! Below it, the other little picture was started in a workshop at the late lamented Museum of Mankind in 1991 – a wonderful study day which ended with about 14 women who had come to learn about traditional Palestinian costume sitting around, stitching a traditional design. I realised I had to do “more of this” and enrolled on an embroidery course at City Lit, the first of many.
The Victorian shop-fitting holds some of my fabrics, and next to it is the 1930s oak wardrobe that holds more, as well as my book-making supplies. My aim is to have only as much as fits into these cupboards ...
The bookshelf. Which needs sorting to make room for other books scattered around the house. But how many hours of pleasure it holds.
And in the corner, the clock that let me know when it was time to leave for work, in the days when I went to work four days a week - and spent the precious mornings in the workroom, listening to Radio4 till 10am. Now, I’m usually on the computer every morning – because of getting out of the habit of spending the morning in the workroom.
I folded the long sides in half and, from the inside, whipped them together. (At this stage you can add a loop and button, and you have a nice pouch bag -- but we're going a stage further here.)
Turn it inside out, lift up the triangles so you can see the bottom, catch the points of the triangles onto the seam, and take a few stitches at each corner to keep the top edge nice and square.
This will be useful beside the sewing machine or on a desktop.
