Creating my Dream Craft Room - The Mood Board

In the next month I am about to move out of my current location and move everything back home and I'm super excited about re-creating my craft room at home. I genuinely believe you have to be surrounded by prettiness in order to create it! Inspiring surroundings feed the imagination and help you in your creative process of making beautiful things.

I am going to go with a pastel colour scheme with a touch of rustic - that's if I can resist getting out the paints!! This is a great palette for me I'm not a big fan of bright colours I find the pastels calming and they allow me to think & breathe when I'm surrounded by them!

Lovely pastel pinks, blues, teals, greys are just perfect!

It's not all about the colour palette though it has to be practical too. My craft room at home is tiny really - a spare single bedroom so I am going to have to be economic with my space and look for the best storage solutions so that it doesn't look like a cluttered mess!! More importantly that the messy bits can be hidden away and the pretty bits are what are on show. 

I already have some gorgeous Tilda Tins, a couple of their ribbon holders and other Tilda storage pieces so I'll definitely be including them. The colours work perfectly for what I want and I will be able to hide things away perfectly. I'll need to address some issues though - like how to have SO MANY ribbons at hand without looking a disgraceful tangle of satin - I love the idea from Torie Jayne  (love her book 'Craft Show & Sell' by the way you have to read it if you attend craft fairs and sell your items : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Craft-Show-Sell-Torie-Jayne/dp/1782210423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438613304&sr=1-1&keywords=craft+show+and+sell) of using dolly pegs and think that could work for me then I can keep them all in a nice pretty basket and be able to see them at first glance.

As I have a small craft room space I need to look at the walls and how I can use them effectively I'm not sure I'll get as close as this but I definitely love the look ..........

What I do have available though are a pair of these gorgeous rustic heart shelves which I am thinking could look great filled with all my button tubs above my sewing table -  they will be at hand and will look pretty too.

To complete the rustic addition to the room I have some wicker baskets, hampers and trunks that I hope I will have room to squeeze in somewhere! 

This should cover all the essentials, I will need to source some pretty containers for everyday objects - let's face it you can't go to all this trouble trying to create a dream craft room and then just plonk your pens & scissors in just any old containers now can you?!?! 

One thing's for sure my gorgeous Tilda Sewing Box will be on my sewing table!

So there you have it this is the mood board that I will use to keep me focused and create a beautiful place to work as I move everything back home. If you are about to create or even re-create your craft room space I would recommend getting yourself all over the internet and creating your own mood board before you start. We'll see how close I get to this when I assemble the real thing & of course it wouldn't be a proper craft room without some pretty bunting so I'll just need to whip some of that up in my chosen colour palette - pretty pastels! 

Sarah X

The Tilda Apple Bloom Quilt - Stage 2 - Sewing Log Cabin Blocks!

So after all the preparation carried out in stage 1 it's finally time to get out the sewing machine! yay! Again this stage also needs to be quite methodical I'm finding as again when it comes to the next stages further down the line I'm pretty certain I'll be rewarded for careful and as precise sewing as I am able to do now. 

One step at a time - BLOCK 1 - First I've taken 1 piece of each strip for the log cabin from my carefully pre- labelled sections (I am  now feeling quite smug that I'm a virgo and therefore my prep & organisation is coming in to its own!). Next following the guide from the pattern starting with pieces A & B I have sewn these together making sure the fabrics are the right way up to follow the fabric designs. Making sure I open the seams at the back each time I sew another piece of fabric in to place I have continued alphabetically (see pic) adding sections C & D.

Each time as the Log Cabin BLOCK gets bigger I have opened the seams at the back to make sure when they are pressed and ironed at the end they will sit perfectly flat ready for quilting later. 

Although the Log Cabin design looks fiddly and a little complicated to look at, I've found it's actually a fairly straight forward pattern to follow as long as you line each piece up as you go along and make sure the seams are open at the back when adding the next piece. I was constantly checking back with the pattern and making sure the fabrics were all facing the right direction etc. Once all the pieces are sewn together it's time to get the iron out (that's if you're naughty like me and not been doing them as you go along!). I started by ironing the back opening all the seams and ironing them completely flat before turning the complete BLOCK over to iron the front ... and here it is my first LOG CABIN BLOCK completed. It's a great sense of achievement to know I've been able to master this having cut SO much fabric out for this quilt! 

I have to say I'm loving how all the fabrics work together but then when working with Tilda especially from one of their ranges you always know everything is going to tone in so well! Here's a quick peep at the boring bit - the back with all the seams sitting nice and flat.

So the quilt pattern I've chosen to use has 2 different BLOCKS repeated 8 times, so on to BLOCK 2 and the same process again starting from the centre.

Each BLOCK has 13 pieces so it's a bit of a repetitive process adding one piece at a time, making sure the fabric design is the right way round and ensuring the seams have all been opened at the back each time before adding another piece. The end result is worth it though! Here's BLOCK 2 completed.

In total there are 16 BLOCKS to sew to make up the quilt pattern I have chosen ... and I've now managed to make 5, three of BLOCK 1 and two of BLOCK 2. By adding the blocks in to a photo collage you can see how my quilt is starting to take shape ........ only 11 more of these to go!!

Obviously mine will be straight!! LOL these pics look all wonky it's just the angle they were taken at I promise they are nice and straight! I'll keep updating this Stage until all 16 are complete so you can see where I am up to. But so far so good, all is well in my new world of quilting and I'm still smiling .......... for now! 

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It's the 24th June and feeling pretty accomplished today as I have finished all the 'log cabin' Blocks for my quilt! eeek !! The quilt effectively now looks like this (obviously not joined together or quilted yet! but all blocks in place ready the the next stage!)

The next step will be getting ready for Stage 3 - the SASHING - so I think I have something like 33 off white pieces to cut out and a similar amount of the little squares to make the corners of each block! 

Will try and get some cut out at the weekend and one block done so you can see if time permits!

Hope you're enjoying progress I know things are going to start getting trickier from hereon in! 

Sarah X