this took me over a year to create

 

My studio has worn many, many hats.

It’s written three books with me, made artwork for exhibits, helped me prep for Quilting Arts TV and DVDs, borne the despair of failures, been the first to know  when I’ve gotten something right. I seem to be in a constant state of love and frustration with this room. Add in my plant jungle and the room was very unusable.

When lockdown began in March 2020 I decided this was the perfect time to take it apart and do something about it. I’ve been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic and that means I’m not commuting which also means I’m not exhausted. Roll out of bed, feed Carter breakfast, grab my coffee and log on to work. I figured this was time I could use to catch up on things.

I underestimated the stress I would feel from everything going on in the world as well as the scale of the project I was undertaking. By the time I realized that this was going to take me more than a weekend to finish (I’m excellent at underestimating how long something actually takes to complete), I had created an epic mess. The chaos became just another mental challenge. I would work on stuff and then get mad at it and ignore it for two weeks. 

Rinse and repeat.

I sort of can’t believe it’s taken as long as it has to get here but I refuse to beat myself up about it. There were a lot of reasons that things got to be the way they were and much of them were out of my control. Only thing that matters now is forging ahead.

The end goal has always been to have a combination room – art making space and plant jungle. I grow most of my plants under artificial lighting and the studio is their home. I debated how much space I wanted to dedicate to art making and in the end, I realized that in the past the studio was less about actual work space and more about a place to keep all my supplies. All of my supplies except for my fabric stash (which I tend to think of as modest) have been neatly organized in the hallway long linen closet. (The linens can live somewhere else.)

The space I’ve set up for art making is about function more than anything. The fabric hung for a design wall is Kaffe Fasset, had it in my stash for years waiting for a wall space big enough to go up. I have an (obnoxious) chair rail that cuts my wall in half so I decided a non rigid design wall would maximize space. Never had one that I couldn’t pin into so we will see how this works for me.

My work table is on wheels, chair is on wheels, and little sewing table is on wheels. Means I can configure things the way works best based on project. Feels like a a-ha breakthrough moment for me. And now I can finally set up my new Bernina!!!!!

I’m not completely done with creating Lynn Land. I’m at the turning point, now, and it means I am making art again. Makes me nervous, giddy, excited, and all the feels in between.