Step Inside the Workroom of Jemima Flendt

Jemima Flendt is one of Homespuns 2017 Block of the Month designers and we’ve invited ourselves into her home and studio, to see just how Jemima manipulated her homes’ architectural plans to wangle herself a dream workroom!

A Family Tradition

Jemima Flendt comes from a creative lot, going back generations. Now, she’s now passing her skills and knowledge of sewing and quilting onto her daughters – just as tradition dictates.

“My grandmother used to teach me to crochet, and Mum was always stitching at her sewing machine. I’ve grown up loving all things fabric, textiles, buttons, ribbons and embellishments,” says Jemima. “My own two girls are now very much involved in their own crafting and stitching passions. They’re often in my sewing room, confidently using their own sewing machine. So there we are, the three of us, all creating in the same room.”

Check out Jemima Flendt”s Amity’s Garden Cot Quilt and Cushion Set!

The Dream Home

Jemima, her husband and their two daughters chose to build their dream home on the foothill fringes of Perth, right where urban sprawl meets hobby farming. “The way we designed it is just perfect for our family. I’ve got my dream kitchen and a large sewing room – so I love it. While it’s fairly residential, there are still lots paddocks, animals and beautiful rolling hills in the background.”

The only victim in this idyll, however, is the guest room. The room has since been snaffled up by the avid stitcher – along with her trappings of sewing machines, equipment and fabric stash. It’s now also Jemima’s ideal work space. Quilts hang on the walls, along with art prints to inspire her and charming shots of colour in the form of threads and buttons.

As she also says, “The colours reflect my love of things that are bright, modern and feminine. It’s a cheery place to spend as much time as I do in there. I sew in there for so much of my day that I’ve turned it into a place I love creating in.”

Like every other designer in the world, Jemima still craves extra storage. But she has used available space to the max, with lots of shelving stacked with colour-categorised trims and accessories.

Create a fun, modern quilt with Jemima’s Oceans Stars Quilt!

It’s Decorating Time!

And she utilised wall space to make her quilt display a rotating exhibition. “As the number of quilts I made grew, I was fast running out of couches to decorate,” she says. “So I asked Hubby if he’d help me install curtain rails along the wall to hang my quilts. I’m now able to change the quilts as often as I like – almost like a gallery. I love being able to alter the quilts and artworks to reflect my current loves and moods.”

Jemima’s furnishings are a perfect blend of aesthetics and practicality. Sentimental objects, such as her grandmother’s glass bowls and cotton reels, sit comfortably beside no-nonsense hard-workers, like her Ikea furniture and Horn sewing cabinet. “It’s adjustable, so that the sewing machine will go down to be level for when I am machine quilting!” she says.

Jemima’s Road to Passion

Personally, Jemima has always had stitching, quilting and crafting right at her very core. But professionally, it was a two-step process: first, she worked as primary-school teacher before retraining and graduating for a second time as a home-economics teacher. “I love how intermingled all my hobbies, passions and work are. Teaching has given me so many skills that I can pass on to quilters and sewers – from being able to write patterns to, hopefully, inspiring people to create.”

This is more than just an office for Jemima – it’s a privately creative space that calls to her at all hours, every day. “I’m not very good at keeping business hours – I’m a bit of a sewaholic. It really is my passion, and I love creating, so, more often than not, I’m in there sewing. The line between business hours and personal sewing can become quite blurred for me, but that is how I love it. And I certainly feel that you love and enjoy sewing and quilting more if you’re working around the things you like. As I spend so much time in my sewing room, it definitely has to be a place filled with the colours, furnishings and fabrics I love.”

Create Jemima Flendt’s classic Every Which Way Flying Geese Quilt!

Find out more about Jemima Flendt:

Website: www.tiedwitharibbon.com

Instagram: @tiedwitharibbon