Inside my She-Shed

There can't be a woman anywhere who doesn't fancy the idea of a She-Shed. A little place to escape from the whir of the washing machine and the unrelenting calls of "Mummy!"

Well mine is finally starting to take shape! Over the last few weeks as I've caught up on sewing projects, I've also begun to sort out the cabin in the garden, transforming it from it's first life as a sleeping space during our building works, into it's new role as my studio. 

There's still a long way to go before it looks anything like the pictures of perfect sewing rooms that you see in magazines. (I probably need to iron all my fat quarters and stack them perfectly just to begin with) but already it's a place I love to retreat to if I can steal a couple of hours while Theo is at nursery.

Part of its beauty is that because it's detached from the house, none of the day to day house clutter invades my sewing space and likewise my sewing doesn't take over the living space.

At the moment it is being used solely for quilting, but longterm I also want to have a photography backdrop on one wall which can be rolled up and down when needed. The cabin faces south and the light in it is lovely, even at this time of the year.

Many of the things inside are bits I had acquired over the years which have traveled through a few countries to get here, but I also bought a few bits just for this space.

The pine table my sewing machine is on came from eBay. It was very cheap because it was far too low for practical use. We raised it up by several inches to make it useable again and when I have actually got round to painting the feet, I'll explain the whole process we did.  It was actually very easy and salvaged an otherwise lovely but unusable table.

This magnetic noticeboard came from Canada and is called an Everyday Display. It is supposed to be used for scrapbook pages (oh yes, I used to be a scrapbooker!) but has lots of photos and magnets on it at the moment. The smaller magnets are from Picstick who are currently doing a 25% off deal for readers of this blog if you use the code 'MAYB25' until November 5th.

My sister (the antiques hunter!) bought me the Dr Pepper tray last Christmas. The various quilts on the walls are either made by me or by other lovely quilters as part of swaps on Flickr. The one in the photo above was made by Liz.

This sweetheart display cabinet was given to me by the dotcomgiftshop and is brilliant for storing precious bits and pieces that Theo is not supposed to get his hands on.

Amongst the things on the shelves are a collection of champagne corks marking various significant points in our lives (from four countries) a very old toy truck marked up as British Forces Broadcasting (my former employers) the "&" sign from the table plan at our wedding (The C and J have vanished!) and a pin cushion made for me as part of a swap.

If you could have a She-Shed what would use it for? Many of these outside buildings have been turned into artist studios or libraries.One person even has an extra large one with a swimming pool in it!