Farmhouse 'studio'
Since moving out to our old farmhouse, I’ve taken over half of the living room to set up my workspace. It hasn’t been the most convenient place to have a quilt studio but my choices were rather slim. In an old farmhouse such as ours the rooms can be quite small and we only have two bedrooms upstairs. But the real deciding factor had alot to do with electricity – each bedroom has a pullcord ceiling fixture and only one outlet plug which just doesn’t accomodate sewing machines, irons, and lamps, ect. Besides, the southern exposure of the living room provides an incredible amount of cheerful light, especially during those long prairie winters.
Now don’t let this photograph fool you into believing that I keep a neatly organized workspace. I do have a background in interior design and therefore know how to stage an area for pictures. What you don’t see in this photograph is the great pile of unfinished projects, sketchbooks lying open-faced, and baskets of fabric scraps covering every possible horizontal surface in the rest of the room. What you do see in this photo is a fully functioning quilt studio with two work tables, one for sewing and the other for cutting, and a pressing center situated in between, featuring my Nana’s old wooden ironing board. I inherited the ironing board back in 2004 and had my Dad bring it back from Scotland after Nana’s funeral. It’s one of my treasures.
Mounted on the wall above the tables there are two primitive painted cupboards that function as great storage in my makeshift studio, holding bins of beads, pots of paints, and canning jars filled with found objects. I felt as though I’d scored BIG on the lottery when we found these old cupboards stored in the barn on our property, and suspect that they were the original kitchen cupboards in our farmhouse when it was built back in 1913. The fact that they were painted in that wonderful old green was an absolute bonus – I can’t seem to get enough of that colour!
Other supplies that are must-haves in my sewing room, such as my fabric stash and the bookcases seen in my city studio, are just out of view but still accessable. There are, however, plenty of supplies that are still packed in boxes because of limited space. And doesn’t it seem as though the thing that you need right now to perfectly complete your most recent project, is the thing you just know is packed away in one of those boxes way at the bottom of the stack, way at the back of the storage unit, totally unattainable behind those discarded old kitchen appliances. I get the feeling I may never see those supplies again…