So off we go to the top floor of the HenHouse. The Munchkin kindly made me a sign for my door...
Ss you could not have failed to notice, I already have my beloved Den where most of my crafting takes place. However, once I became rather obsessed with quilting and started to make a lot of quilts (I think it is now over one hundred), I realised that my old arthritic bones were not going allow me to keep crawling round on the hard wooden floors to baste my quilts. So I started to think about getting a sizeable table and decided that a table tennis table would be just the ticket. Massive and relatively cheap! I shoe horned this into a guest bedroom and popped up there just when I needed to baste and quilt. It was a Godsend. After a while, I decided that we could do without the guest room and I suppose I sort of took the room over as my own. I packed the furniture off to a charity which then gives it to homeless people getting their first council property and the rest, as they say, is history.
Enter zone number two of my mini empire!
It is dominated by that massive table. Pretty it ain't but practical it certainly is. This is quite a big room, good job as the table is 5 feet wide and 9 feet long. It is otherwise quite cute really, with it's fireplace, built-in tongue and groove cupboards and a sloping ceiling along one side. This would have been a servants' room back in the heyday of this house, it is noticeable how much less elaborate the features are as you progress up the house.
Over in the corner, I have a rather fetching old kitchen cupboard which I bought from some favourite sellers on Bridport's street market. Inside, it has its original red gingham sticky-backed plastic lining the shelves.
On top, my lovely working vintage machine was a £15 bargain from the same street market and is accompanied by other bits and bobs of the vintage variety which I have picked up on my travels. The cute spools mini quilt is a Camille Roskelly design.
Over on the other side, I have my desk and all its useful books, notions and so on. The vintage typewriter was £3 from a car boot sale whilst in contrast, the desk, shelves and chair are modern from Ikea. My beloved Mac lamp was an Ebay purchase (splurge!) The rather pretty rose print curtains are also vintage and came from a now closed-down shop in Dulwich for £10, or was it £15, I cannot remember.
This felt fox was made using a pattern in Mollie Makes magazine. I love the spines on the vintage books.
My much loved Sylko cotton reel drawers are in pride of place.
This blanket was my first ever crochet project.
Next to my desk, I have a set of Ikea shelves which houses all sorts of things including backing fabrics, quilt batting, magazines and lots of little crafty makes, many made on workshops with Julie Arkell.
I store some quilts on top.
The focal point of the room is the little fireplace which I've highlighted with a pretty green paint (a mix of various shades). It is home to some more handmade papier mache and stitchy creatures and some fab old vintage sewing bits 'n' bobs.
So finally, the last wall looks likes this.
There's my favourite quilt alongside a makeshift old quilt ladder.
The quite splendid vintage kitchen cabinet came from Ebay. Not my best purchase, we travelled to Hampshire and back to collect it only to find it was in pretty awful condition. Thanks to Mr HenHouse and his patience, it has now been restored to its former glory and most importantly, is home to all sorts of lovely goodies.
In the top, I keep a lot of my vintage haberdashery finds which are a particular weakness of mine.
I lined this section with pretty Liberty print wrapping paper which can be seen when the glass doors are shut. The drawer is home to some vintage millinery flowers and my prized hand painted belt buckles. The middle cupboard has tins of yet more vintage haberdashery and also some of my vintage felt collection (I think I can now call it a collection!) In the bottom is my motley pile of old shirts and sheeting fabrics which I've been amassing for a few years now.
Anyway, now to the news. Are you sitting comfortably? On Sunday, I finally had reason to pile up all those quilts...
...take out all my beloved felty needlecases...
...and get packing!
And otherwise turning the HenHouse into cardboard city!
Not just my quilting room but my Den too. Yikes!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm pleased to share with you that the time has finally come for us to realise our dream and perform our very own escape to the country. In just over a week's time, the whole of the HenHouse will be packed into quite a lot of vans and moved many miles away to our beloved West Country.
So my friends, I hope this goes some way to explain my continued sporadic posting recently, there has been an awful lot going on for the last six months, and to let you know that it's going to be a little while until I shall be back here again. It's so long old HenHouse and hello new. Next time, there will be a new HenHouse, a new Den and all sorts of exciting stuff to look forward to. We are ready. Well, we will be when all those boxes are filled!
Cherio X
P.S. Please make sure you link back properly to any repinned/posted pictures. Thank you.