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 need ideas of how to arrange my stuff without it being a cluttered mess.
I’m taking the spare bedroom and creating a new studio … so it’s a lovely blank slate, waiting for me to fill it. I miss not having a dedicated space so I can just step in and create for however many minutes or hours I have at the time.
My space is everywhere i can find usable space.. some here.. some there.. and it does not work. My hope is to someday have a space..so everything is in one space. It has to be better.
My space is spread out over two rooms…I’m always going back and forth looking for something.
( I get my steps in)..I just need to figure out how to downsize and organize to fit in only one dedicated room….help needed.
BOY HOWDY to I need this book!! I keep trying to get organised and it seems it never happens! I have read many books on the subject, but nothing sticks!!
I am constantly arranging. I have the fortunate situation of being in two places, but COVID has change my primary location and now my primary sewing supplies are elsewhere. Have to rethink a lot of it, but I am working on it. It is a constant problem. Love to learn new tips for this!
I have way to many hobbies and only one small room to keep my treasures in. There is only room to walk the L shaped path that has happened. At my age I need to start weeding it out.
I’m lucky to have a large well-lit space for my studio, but it really lacks in storage. Also I have too much stuff. 😉 I’m always looking for ideas to better manage my space.
This book is right on time! I just moved into a new house this week and am trying to figure out the best way to set up my space.
I have a decent sized, dedicated studio for all my creative “stuff”. I am having difficulty organizing my “wet” area (I paint) and my sewing/cutting area, my knitting supplies, and all the mixed media and scrapbooking items. I have LOTS. Things are separated but the room doesn’t FEEL comfortable. And I have trouble getting rid of anything because “I might need it” or “I might start doing that again.” Sounds as if your book might be of some help!
I moved in December and my sewing space went from an entire family room to a bedroom. I like my space but it feels cramped. I look forward to new ideas.
My sewing room is always a mess and could use a major reorganization. Any and all ideas would be beneficial!
My large room is getting a little crowded. I’m also just interested in organizing ideas.
I will be building my space by adding on a room, size to be determined. I want lots of natural light. So far, that’s all. Any ideas would be helpful.
Just moved into a new house and I’m fortunate enough to have use of a large bedroom for my sewing studio. Moving cross country will help you purge things you don’t love anymore, that’s for sure. I’m trying to figure out the best layout and keep it clean, calm, and uncluttered.
Have a tiny sewing room. Need to reorganize my fabrics and UFOs so I can see them more easily since I have piles of boxes in front of cabinets, and when I need something from the cabinets I need to move pile of boxes first.
When we moved three years ago to our retirement house, I gained a lovely sewing studio with a big walk-in closet. My fabric is organized pretty well but I would improve the room with better flooring- vinyl plank instead of carpeting. It would be so much easier to clean and roll my chair around on.
I have a basement I work in and it is so unorganized. I sure could use ideas
It is always a challenge to stay organized. Could use your tips. Carolyn
I’d like to find a better way to incorporate my many fat quarters into my sewing room so I can see what I have and use them.
I love the fact that I even have a creative space seperate from the day to day.
I just moved my creative space into a larger bedroom. What a difference! I also had a friend come over we sorted my stash by color. So thankful for that as I have made three stash quilts in quarantine so far!
I am trying to organize my stash, patterns, machines, and notions into a more orderly fashion. I want to be able to find things in their logical “home” rather than just wherever they are handy to store.
I have a small second bedroom that I would like to get organized as a craft room. I can’t afford to buy all matching work areas and shelving but have plenty to work with: a dresser, bookcase, and cupboard. I’ve also set up a work station in my living room where the lighting is better and I can also turn on the tv if I want some ‘noise’. But some ideas on how to put it all together would be most welcome!
I share my small space with our office. It could be ideal as I have a large closet on one wall and 3 large pantry cabinets on another, Everythung is full. I’ve downsized twice in the last 6 years but still am in chaos. Difficult to work in the room. This might be a book for me!!! I sure do need help.
My space is a small room and it is shared with the office space. Can’t do much about that. I have a huge closet and 3 large pantry type cabinets. Full. Everything is full. I’ve downsized twice in the last 6 years and still I have so much stuff. It is difficult to be creative in chaos. This just might a book for me!!!
My mom passed away in December and I have boxes and boxes of stuff from her house taking up space in my sewing room. I should organized but would rather just play.
My sewing room is an ever evolving area. Part of my personality is when my thoughts are chaotic I reorganize. I walk in and think what if I move this over here. Which usually leads to moving that over there. Or I open a drawer and empty it and straighten. I just feel more at peace when I do this. But I have noticed as I hav gotten older I occasionally forget where I moved something. When I find it I put it where I originally thought to look for it !
I have a shared space. Our den is my quilting quarters and the home of our computer. It is a small room. As a consequence, I have stash tubs in several other closets.
Looks like a great guide to organization – hope I’m a winner.
I have a small sewing room and could use to rethink shelving & storage. I would like to do an ironing station and do away with the ironing board.
Well, right now I”m in a fifth wheel rv. I have one pullout designated for sewing, and other crafts. I would love to find a way to add more storage to it however. Everything quickly becomes to cluttered when I have to pull out all the supplies in such a small space.
I need a system to organize my fabric. I have lots and don’t even remember what all I have. It’s precuts, fat quarters, yardage and chunks which are partially used. Batting is the same. Thanks for the possibility of help.
I would like to have a better system to arrange my fabric. I love scrappy quilts but spend too much time searching for my favrics.
My sewing space is also in a repurposed guest bedroom. As a collector of vintage sewing machines I find it difficult to have room for five machines and still have room to sew in my sewing space. Most of my fabric is in bins in the basement.
I have a small sewing room – more like a closet. I would love more ideas on fabric and project organization and how to keep my cutting table cleared off!
I can’t quite get my space “organized”. I would love some ideas on how to maximize my space!
More storage space would be nice.
But I love my sewing space (spare bedroom) and am lucky to have it.
I have a wonderfully large sewing space (enclosed two-car garage) but definitely need more storage space in it. I’m looking forward to the day we start a remodel on our house so those ideas can become reality. Cam waitto see the ideas in this book!
I am moving in a few weeks and would love some new organization ideas for when the boxes are unpacked so that my new quilt room can be much more organized than the old one was.
I have some space in my finished basement. I would love to have a cutting table at the proper height instead of using the ping pong table. I like seeing how others organize their fabric and where they place things in their work circle like multiple sewing machines, ironing station, and more.
My sewing room is also my guest room. I need help figuring out how to organize my sewing stuff so my guests could have a closet and not have to see or work around all my quilting paraphernalia!
I love my space, a dedicated sewing room is fabulous. I just wish I was better organized
I love organizing ideas and would like to make my sewing space sleeker and more organized. I am especially interested to see what the stroke survivor did, as I too suffered a stroke a couple years ago! Have struggled with the new limitations. Thank you for the opportunity to win!
My sewing space is in the basement. No windows. A little damp. But I can spread out my projects there! Maybe this book will inspire my husband and I to improve the roads.
I feel my space is large enough, just not arranged well. Ideas would be helpful! Looking forward to this wonderful opportunity to see other creative spaces!
I think of myself as organized, but once a project starts, things seem to go everywhere! Looking forward to reading Lily’s suggestions.
My stuff is higgledy-piggledy in more than one room in my house and I can’t always find what I want. I would love an organized space.
I have a smallish bedroom for my craft area. I do a lot of repurposing to organize it.
New ideas for reorganizing my sewing room would great look forward to seeing new budget wise ideas. Thank you
I’m happy to have a dedicated space even though it is in the basement. I’d love a studio with natural light.