Where have I been?

I have been doing a lot of sorting, re-organizing and purging lately because I am in the process of creating a main floor studio. You see, I have always had a work space in the basement and I suppose I am simply tired of being below grade, and especially working under florescent lights....feeling the need for some natural day light. Being in the same house for 40 years also means that there was a LOT to do to be able to make this happen. Not moving occasionally means that one can become complacent, allowing "stuff" to accumulate...way too much stuff. While I am far from being done with this undertaking, I have made enough progress that I now have a room on the main floor dedicated to my creative needs ( because this room is fairly small everything needs to do double duty.) I will keep an area downstairs to store many of my supplies and bring them up depending on what I feel like working on at the time.
So once I had the room empty and a fresh coat of paint applied, I needed to figure out how to make the most of this small space. I am also a big believer in trying to use what I have on hand without tossing perfectly good (but old) furniture. I used my iPad and the app Concepts to figure out exactly how everything would fit before I committed to anything.
The app allows me to input/draw the dimensions of the room, fixtures, cupboards, furnishings and so on letting me see the amount of space it all takes up....allowing me to know how much clearance I have between objects and so on. So ....with a plan in place I was all set to put the room together

I have a lot more work to do to get this room completely functional but I am well on my way. I thought I would share a few photos of how its coming together

I already had that big desk.....built in 1967, it is one SOLID piece of furniture and will do double duty for sure. My husband installed the cupboards and built a simple but very sturdy unit that holds my machines when not in use, those drawer units as well as other supplies.

there is a closet in the room and a spot for my dress form

the desk is 60" x 30" with large drawers and pull outs.....so it will be my cutting, pressing, painting/drawing/sewing surface.

Because I have been spending so much time on this, I have done little in the way of stitching, I am however, still keeping up with The 100 Day Project on Instagram and have used the drawing a day as my creative outlet. You can find me here or click the button on my side bar

I did create something right here in my new room though!. A "rest" for my iPad. I draw almost exclusively on my iPad these days (generally with it on my lap in front of the TV) but that can lead to a sore neck, I wanted to have my iPad sit at just the right (for me) angle when I am seated at my desk so this is what I did.
I began by making a tube with a piece of muslin cut at 7" x 12.5"  which I stitched across the bottom and up one side leaving the top open. I used sand (found it at the dollar store) as the filler because I do want it to have some weight but also be somewhat flexible. I filled the tube to roughly 1.75" from the top then whipped stitched it closed. (this left a bit of space for the sand to shift giving it flexibility) Next, I simply took a bunch of scraps cut into strips and sewed them together.....this was trimmed to 7.75" x 13"

The pieced fabric was also then stitched into a "tube" that the sand filled one could be slipped into

after being stitched closed it was ready for use.

 Now I simply place it under my iPad and it elevates the screen to a comfortable height.

back to sorting and deciding what needs to come live in this room. (those cupboards and drawers have not yet been filled)