I have had a sewing/crafting room since forever.  Even as a little girl I've been a collector of lace bits, spools, fabric, yarn, beads, shells, glitter, you name it, I have collected it, organized it and sometimes even found uses for it!  I've just given my sewing room a good cleaning up and clearing out plus a fresh coat of paint.  Since I LOVE to see other crafty places, I've been wanting to share my space with you.

I am crazy mad for my little space and LOVE any time I spend in here.  I find calm in my room, and for sanity's sake I give this room a different lower standard of clean control than the rest of the house.  I am not so crazy as to think I can keep my sewing room neat at all times, but it's almost always sorta clean and sorta organized.  I love the freedom to be messy in here, then close the door and walk away. Now with that said, please step inside and poke around, and today I consider it about as tidy as it gets.


The color is Benjamin Moore's Sweet Butter, makes me feel like I'm inside a squash blossom, bright and cheery, sunny and warm.

Step into the room and you are right in front of my main work space.  About 12 years ago I employed a teenage friend of my son to put up laminate cabinets. These cabinets and the black and white vinyl stick on tiles were close-outs from Home Depot, super cheap but have held up well.


There's plenty of storage in the cupboards.  Boxes and bins of buttons, glues, glitters, shells, stamps, feathers, beads, patterns, trims, and all kinds of fun stuff.


If you can think of something that might be in a crafty place, 'tis here, tidily organized.


Below are two heavy-duty solid oak chests salvaged from a store downtown that was remodeling. We topped them with a piece of Formica which is the perfect indestructible surface for my endeavors.  The large swing arm lamp is great, I pull it around to any angle and get excellent light for detail work. 


I've covered up the units with some soft black pin-stripe linen shirting.  I attached curtain rods to the top of the units, just under the Formica top.


 The curtains are really easy to flip up or push aside to access the down under.

Linen pinstripe fabric was half price at Joann's Fabrics.

So what is down under?  Behind the curtains you'll find a big basket of fabric stash, a shelf for oversized paper, quilt stencils, paper cutter, and a bin of acrylic paints.  It also holds my space heater that is needed for the winter months.  This little room can be so cold! 


The DVR on this TV has the best stuff saved on it...Masterpiece Theater, Fashion Police, old movies from the 40s.  It's a great TV to watch.


But what is behind that curtain below?  OK, here it is, get ready for the big stash reveal.

These drawers are huge!

I know I should have warned you, right?  Mine is bigger than yours, I just know it, I'm not proud of that.  Four big drawers hold 1) fingering and lace, 2) dk weight, 3) worsted and 4) aran and bulky.

In these drawers are some projects that need to be started, like this nice yarn purchased early this year for Veera's stripe study shawl, I would love to get cracking on this.

Pretty Hand Maiden fingering weight yarn.

Oh there's plenty more new projects in the waiting, but most is left over odd bits of finished projects waiting for that day when I make the large scrappy afghan, scrappy adult and baby surprise jackets galore and who knows what else.  The yarn is the only bit of knitting supplies that is stored in here.  My books and needles and other knitting notions are in the family room where I seem to do more of my knitting, a little more social, ya' know?  I posted about that here.

Another tall cupboard with more boxes of trims and laces, needlepoint supplies, stickers, pipe cleaners, paper dresdens, doilies....


My favorite organizer is this DMC thread case.  I bought it 35 years ago when I worked at a needlepoint shop.  It holds my floss so nicely.


Next is the closet.  The room is so tiny that I had to take the door off, it couldn't fully open with the large sewing table in the way.


Behind the curtains are big, deep shelves that contain more shocking examples of the hoarder in me: designer fabric samples I've collected,  the remains of a business I used to have and can't seem to let go of,  patterns, files, pillow forms, unfinished projects, paper, etc.


The big sewing table is from Ikea as is the notions drawer next to it.  Each drawer is labeled for quick access.  Another swing arm lamp, I need good light!


The only window faces north and looks onto the quiet street, not much to see but our big pretty magnolia.


My sewing machine is a trusty Viking.  This table usually has a project on it, but it's been tidied it up because I knew you were coming!


To the right is this bookcase rescued from a book store in town that was going out of business about 25 years ago (does any Los Altan remember the Book Nest on Main?)  It's also oak and super sturdy.


Crayons are in this vintage doll wagon.


All my craft books are housed here, over 40 years worth.  Most haven't been opened in years, I use the internet now.  Still, I just can't get rid of them.  Anyone interested in re-learning the cool craft of macrame?  I love my dollies, dressed in cute little knits.  I've blogged about these little dears here.


I needed a tiny but comfy chair for this little space and found this at Restoration Hardware.   The wool blanket is used even in the summer, did I say this room is cold?  A tiny chest of drawers holds handy little items and is topped with another essential reading lamp.


Behind is the built in ironing board.  What a great invention.  (You can see how I've used every INCH of space!)


Well, we have completely circled around my little room and are at the end of our tour.  Thank you so much for coming by!

Edited to add:  This post was shared in a blog party over at It's Overflowing with Creativity and a linky party at No Minimalist Here and Naps on the Porch.

A bit of a catch up post with lots of bits I've been doing and thinking about.


First is my living room fabric.  SO EXCITED!  Monday was spent in the city at the Design Center with my decorator.  About half way though the long day I saw this medallion fabric and did a complete 180 (I had been thinking popsicle colors)  and knew I had to have it for my wing chairs.  In case you can't really tell from the photo, the greeny color is like an acidy bile-ish citrusy straw.  Sounds yummy, right?  It is!  I'm hoping we can do the walls in that color.  The other fabrics were chosen for the sofas, pillows and dining room chairs.  Don't know exactly where everything will go but thinking the sofas will be the solid Michael S. Smith linen in smoke, a deep charcoaly, smoky navy, just gorgeous.  The other fabrics are some equally gorgeous Rose Tarlow linens and that fabulous medallion fabric is from Plumwich, hand blocked on thick nubby linen.  I know I am throwing around these designer names as though I am totally familiar with them, but I had never heard of these talented people until a few days ago.   Thank heavens for a designer who can pull all this off, I would be lost on my own.  This is very exciting for me.  What do you think?????

Say goodbye to old sewing room color, baby blue is being replaced by Sweet Butter.  The painters are in there now and there's no turning back.  I have spent a lot of time last week going through the years of crafty stuff and have been proud of all the editing I've been able to accomplish.  I know I haven't shared this room with you yet so after a coat of paint and a good clutter cleansing, it should be a good time to give you a tour.  It won't surprise you if I told you I love every minute I get to be in here.


Next up is this sweet Tiny Tea Leaves made for my little granddaughter who will be 11 this week.  This is a fun knit, my third one so I must really love it.  Knit up with 4 skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage worsted in color Georgia O'Keefe, a teal green.  (Yarn color names and nail polish color names, aren't they the best?)  The wool is machine washable, and please don't tell me what they have to do to it to make it that way, probably the worst chemical process imaginable.


The skeins even though from the same dye-lot are inconsistent in color, frustrating.  I hate to alternate skeins so don't think this yarn will work for me again.  I know Annie won't mind or even notice.  She loves green and looks beautiful in it.  Ravelry link here.


It's pumpkin time again.  How about some velvet pumpkins?  I saw this beautiful set-up in Alabasta, a little shop downtown.  If you want to make them, there are tutorials all over the web, this one is the prettiest.  I think the key is to use real silk velvet, not rayon and also use real pumpkin stems, not twigs.  And to have TONS of them.


Thank you for all your kind well wishes for my husband's recovery from his surgery.  He is doing very well, and this Friday he will be 4 weeks out.

Love my blog-time, thank you for reading.

I'm so happy to be making a post today, I have been missing blogging so much, I'm going to try and catch up!   I have a few FOs that I'll be posting in the next few days.

First to show is the Cranberry Capelet by Baby Cocktails.  Thea is so great, go check out her Ravelry design page, she has many must-make projects!  I need to make that Irish Coffee pronto.

I love cables, one of my favorites is the big whale bone cable that runs up the front and back of this cape.  These days I'm thinking capes are pretty practical, especially capelets that allow your arms to be free and allow movement such as getting into your purse and putting food and drink into your mouth, and knitting too!   Yarn used was Cascade Yarns Venezia Worsted.  70% Merino and 30% Silk, lovely and good value.  Recommend highly, both the well written pattern and the luscious soft yarn.
I've been fairly productive knitting wise even though we had such a very busy September, and phewie, I'm glad September is gone.  Last month my husband had a hip replacement, long wanted and successful, but that first week home is very, very difficult.  He has bounced back well now and does almost everything with his trusty cane and can't wait to be out on the links and back driving his Corvette in November.  The best thing is he's back to about 95% of his cheery self.

I love that a few Joseph's Coat roses are hanging on!

We also finished our remodel, and maybe not so large as far as remodels go, it caused large messes.  That these two things happened at the same time was not the best timing and still don't know how it exactly happened that way.  Not good.
We also celebrated two birthdays and had one of our largest harvests EVER of tomatoes, pears, apples, and beans.  Normally harvest time is a cause for celebration, but this year it was just all so overwhelming.  Plus I had the flu and felt crummy for two weeks.  So for us, we hope for October to be a month of healing, cleaning up and grateful that some of the things we had been putting off are now done and behind us.

Looking forward to a happy autumn with the yummy soups and casseroles in the kitchen, cozy fires, long evenings busy with yarny stuff and the holidays ahead!