Today I’m excited to tell you about a fabulous new book, from my friend Lilo Bowman.
Lilo Bowman
Love Your Creative Space: A Visual Guide to Creating an Inspiring & Organized Studio Without Breaking the Bank is Lilo’s new title from C&T Publishing. It’s full of ideas, solutions, and creative ways to set aside and love your personal space for making.
Click here to buy Love Your Creative Space on Amazon.
So backing up a little, I first met Lilo when I was a guest on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. She’s used to working behind the scenes as a producer for the show but now I’m excited for her to be the star of the show with her new book and blog tour.
Click here to see the trailer for my Quilt Show episode.
Lilo helped keep me organized and ready to roll on filming day!
Love Your Creative Space is divided into My Stuff (we all have it!), My Space (tiny or large) and My System. It addresses the common needs of needlecrafters, but also covers many less common topics.
For example, how do you stay organized when you head out for a class or a retreat? How can or should your space be altered when life itself changes because of a move, an illness or just getting older? There are many ideas and suggestions, along with questions to help you analyze your own stuff, space and system.
I especially enjoyed the gallery of artist studios. One space has been adapted for its owner’s special needs after a stroke left her with partial paralysis. One space is especially compact. A third artist requires both dry and wet work spaces!
If you work in more than one medium, you’ll find ideas to organize, separate and combine your supplies. The book’s photography might even inspire you to try something new!
This book recognizes that budgets for creative spaces come in all sizes, and Lilo gives helpful advice for saving, economizing and reimagining or repurposing. It’s clear that she wants makers to love and enjoy their spaces regardless of the size or financial constraints. That’s a win!
It’s a Giveaway!
This week’s blog tour includes a giveaway of the ebook Love Your Creative Space: A Visual Guide to Creating an Inspiring & Organized Studio Without Breaking the Bank. For your chance to win, leave a comment here by Tuesday, June 30. Tell me what kind of space you’d like to plan, or how you’d improve your current space.
There are other great stops on the blog tour. I hope you’ll follow these folks and check out their posts for more insight into Love Your Creative Space by Lilo Bowman.
The Love Your Creative Space Blog Tour:
Friday, June 26:
Monday, June 29:
Tuesday, June 30:
Be sure to follow the entire tour for much more inspiration around creative spaces large and small!
Christa Quilts 
I am using a third bedroom for sewing, quilting, and rug hooking. So much fabric, both cotton and wool. I would add a dedicated sewing table where my machine sits level with the table top. And I want this table to also have storage. I was happy to see you talk about quilting in smallish places. Not all of us have a large, place for everything room.
I’ve been remodeling my sewing space and have found that the built in shelves are too deep so I’m thinking of taking them out. But before I do I have to figure out what to do with the space and how to utilize it better. I’ve already added some cabinets to the room so looking forward to seeing what others have done with their spaces.
I have a beautiful creative space which presents unique challenges with only about 10 Feet of vertical wall space. I need help organizing my stuff and developing systems to keep it organized.
Just in the process of combining papercrafts with quilting. Would love some tips on how to combine effectively!!! 💕
My sewing space is just a 6’ table in my bedroom. I’d love to have a she shed dedicated to my sewing stuff!
I have a dedicated sewing space which I really like. I need to work on corralling scraps and strips. They are not well organized.
A sewing space of any kind would be a blessing. I have a home of my own, but come August I will have lived two years mostly at my parents, they are both 90 and need help. My Mother’s sewing machine is wedged between the pantry cabinets, another large cabinet and a small buffet. Not much room! At my little house I have space but no storage area or plan. I need a plan to get organized, I hope to find some ideas from this series!
The biggest thing I need to do, is downsize my stash. I have been finishing up old projects, which helps. About a year ago I reorganized my stash in banker boxes. While I loved seeing my fabric, I have bad dust allergies. So, when I would use my fabric, I would get congested. Having the banker boxes organized has helped, but now I also see I have too much stuff for my space. This book looks like it could offer some help!
I have a smaller space but Love it. Organization is still a work in progress! : )
I’d like to turn my small space into a work space only. This for me would mean a different space for storage freeing up floor space.
I do have a dedicated sewing room (third bedroom re-purposed), but I would love it if it was twice as big. Then I would be able to organize my collections and still have room to set up a couple of stations without having to stand on one foot with one hand behind my back. LOL.
I would love some organizational ideas….
I would like a new cutting/sewing table….like the one pictured on the cover of Lily’s book….love it!!
I would love some tips for safely storing my fabric to keep it from getting damaged by the sun, but so that I can also still easily see what I have.
I have lots of fabric storage but could use ideas for storing WIPS and scraps so they’re accessible but not out on the floor.
I would love to see more ideas on utilizing my space better. I have a dedicated room but know it could be organized better.
You may have figured this out already but I left the Quilt Pattern Designers team on Facebook recently. I’m trying to simplify my life and I thought the conversation was inappropriate and I just didn’t want that drama. I will miss your posts. And thank you. Carol Wilson Stearns
For now, I sew in my living room and keep my quilting and sewing supplies in the guest room closets. I’d love to get a special table for my machine and move it to the guest room. Right now there is no room due to working from home. Maybe when I retire.
I do have a dedicated room for my sewing space but it’s small and packed. Things are organized but hard to get to when I need something.
How can I make my fabric and supplies more accessible?
I’d finish my planned ironing station and get rid of the non-quilty thongs in the big walk in closet and figure out how to use that space more effectively to organize charity quilting donations separate from my personal stash. I would also start with a clean slate in the room my adult son is about to vacate and organize all the genealogy materials I’m acquiring from my mother now that she’s in Memory Care.
I currently sew in the living room area but am working on clearing out and painting an extra bedroom for my new sewing space. I could use some ideas for organizing!
My space is in my bedroom and a building outside. I quilt in the building and sew in the house at night. I always have a mess. I need to do better storing my sewing stuff better.
I’d love help organizing all my crafting supplies. I have tons of yarn, sewing fabrics for clothes, and quilting fabrics. That’s what happens when you’ve been making things since a child. I’d like to organize so I can see what I have so it gets used.
Storage ideas are always welcome.
my space is half my living room which is adequate but hey more space for more tables…what could be better than that? would be nice if i had room to keep another machine set up, one with walking foot…
I need ideas for a very small space and a huge stash of fabric and yarn.
I have a dedicated room for quilting but I also love wool appliqué. I have collected quite a stash of wool, threads, and embellishments. While I prepare my project in my quilting area I stitch them downstairs at night while watching tv. How do I keep this simple and organized!!!!!!!
Perfect timing for this book. Hubby and I were just talking about redoing my studio. Even though my studio is a ‘temporary’ makeshift space it is my sanctuary. It has done the job for all these years but it is in dire need of a complete overhaul!
I am moving to a condo and will have a chance to rearrange my large work top that is supported by multiple storage cabinets and multiple free standing drawer units. The new space is shaped differently than my current studio so my task is to make it most efficient and user friendly!
I would like to improve my storage of “stuff”-too much, too different, and taking over
I have a small room and find keeping items in order while working on projects to be a real challenge.
I am so tired of hunting for things in my space and of having to be constantly shifting things so that I have room to work. Help me, Lilo!
I seem to be constantly redoing my space. I tried to combine my quilting and knitting space, but my knitting stash now rivals my quilting stash At almost 77 years old, I have to get realistic. I very often go through a “purge” stage. I’ve given away a lot of my “stuff” that I just either wasn’t using or knew I would never use. I rearrange my machines and work surfaces in my space every once in a while. It is perfect for a while and then I move things again.
I have a fairly small space , which I love, and even though I have quite a bit of storage, I still have stuff always laying around. I usually have to straighten before I sew.
Thanks!
I need ideas on how to arrange my “ stuff “ so it doesn’t feel like it’s taking over!
I have a large space but I’m all over the place and struggle with order and finding things. When I can’t figure out where to put things I “pile” it up and the clutter becomes too much.
I want to have more of my supplies out where I can see them yet have it look nice and organized. There are multiple things going on in this room so it is hard to do that.
I would love some ideas about how to better utilize my creative space.
If I could reorganize my space I would first get a better sewing table. Secondly, I would ask my hubby to vacate the room (again) so I could have the entire footprint to work with. Given that won’t happen, the table might be a possibility!
I’m an avid quilter and would love to get my stuff organized! I have a large area but things are here and there. Cabinets would be amazing to protect from the sun and a new sewing table would be at the top of the list as well. Ah, to dream!
It’s still on my wish list to organize my sewing stuff. I can barely stand looking at it. Maybe this will be the year I finally get a better system.
I’m in process of redesigning my space right now! Presently it takes up 3 rooms as I sort everything out…kinda fun discovering things I forgot…and prioritizing projects.
This is the year I’m replacing my many years old piece of plywood on sawhorses work table but with what?
My next improvement needs to be my ironing station. Would like to do away with the traditional ironing board.
Looks like a book full of ideas and dreamy photos to get great ideas for a useful space to make art!
I’d like to improve my space by magically increasing the area by about four.
My issue is” I might be able to use that”. I know I should just let it go. It would sure help to organize my space. It’s not always fun to try and sew with so much stuff on my table. Hopefully at some point I will be able to find away to become more organize. Help…..
I have my sewing space in our basement. There is plenty of space, but it is not very well organized. I have been working on sorting my stash so I can spend more time sewing and less time hunting for what I want to use. I like seeing ideas from others.
Any help I can get with organizing ideas would be a start! I’m always open to new ideas and between sewing, knitting and other mediums, I often feel overwhelmed by my supplies; not such a great feeling to spark creativity!
My sewing space is a 6’ table in my bedroom. I’d love to have a she shed dedicated to my sewing stuff
I have a good size work space, 18×28′ but need to make better use of it. There is no closet so storage is always needing improvement.
Now I use half of the attic in our house. Within a year we pal to move and I will get a dedicated sewingroom. My husband has two right hands, so a book like this will be awesome. I need lots of inspiration!
I’d live thus book to help me plan a better workspace as I’m severely sight impaired. At the moment My workroom is not really geared up for my disability, it’s just squished in a room.
I’m loving your blog posts and looking forward to the next one. Xx
We are remodeling our home, and adding a space the size of a 2-car garage, which will be my studio. Ideas to maximize function would be appreciated.
I’m in the process of trying to get my creative space looking less frustration and more inspiration but it’s a small and strangely shaped place to work with, with lots of sloping ceilings… What I’d love to improve is finding better ways for tool storage to keep things accessible without looking cluttered and disorganised.
I have a small sewing room. Now that our youngest daughter has moved away, I’d like to move my sewing room to her old bedroom. Ideas would be helpful.
I am planning to rearrange my sewing room to try to add a long arm machine. This book may be helpful with that task! Thanks for the opportunity!
I’d love to plan a space large enough to accommodate a 12 foot table for a longarm as it is so tough on my body to quilt my projects on my domestic machine. I do like the quilting process. Thanks for your input and for your participation!