More organizing!

I stopped at Goodwill on the way home from church today, just to check on more flannel shirts for the back of my Celtic Solstice.

While I was there I took a quick detour through the furniture section and found the perfect shelf to start unloading boxes and displaying my fabrics!

It is the perfect size to fit at the end of the bed and still have room to open the door!!  Instead of working on Celtic Solstice or finishing up customer work, I spent the afternoon unloading 6 boxes of fabric from the under-stairs closet and refolding to fit the cabinet.  This is some (maybe most) of the remaining yardage I collected when I worked at the LQS.  I got paid in fabrics and would "buy" 1 or 3 yds of coordinating fabrics I liked,  with no idea of what I was going to make.   I also have some pattern/fabric kits I put together for retirement work!

As you can see, my 90" roll of batting is too long to fit on the bed.  I thought about getting a heavy weight umbrella stand and standing the roll upright,  but the ceiling isn't high enough.  My daughter will eventually be "adopting" the bed to use for her youngest... so I must come up with a new method for storing and using these big rolls.

I've got some re-arranging to do and will continue my hunt for appropriately sized cabinets to store my collection of scraps and Goodwill shirts.

What I've been up to lately....

During the last few weeks I have been working on my Orca Bay quilt , in small increments of time (like 15 minutes).  I think I have 4 more seams to sew and I will be done with all of the Step 6 Ohio Stars. It is amazing how much can be accomplished in those short spurts of work!

I am hoping to complete the next two steps and have this quilt assembled by the end of October.... even better if I can get it quilted too!

I did complete and quilt my version of Bonnie Hunter's Florabunda!   I started piecing the blocks July 2012! and I was so happy to have all the blocks completed, I quickly stitched them together without referring back to the pattern.  Once the blocks were all stitched together and the borders added I realized that all the blocks were oriented in the same direction instead of alternating every other block!  UGH!  Well, it still looked good to me so I let it be.  It has a nice soft rose colored flannel backing and binding and will be nice and cozy to snuggle under.

But now, the fall cleaning bug has bitten me, and I am working my way through the house... deep cleaning... room by room.  The kitchen and two bedrooms are done... except for the new curtains that need to be made. 

Next room to tackle is the dining room/office!  I must sort through all the papers and stuff that have accumulated on the table and find a way to get more organized.  I feel the the purchase of a nice wooden cabinet with shelves and doors that can be closed to hide the clutter will be necessary in the near future.



 

Organization 102

The rooms have been emptied and rearranged, and while not completely organized I am happy with the results so far.

 
My quilting studio is now formed by a wall of shelves and boxes of fabrics and scraps.  As customers walk into the room there is a table to lay their tops on where we can measure and discuss work to be done. The boxes are labeled with content or fabric color.  I love that there is more open floor space for me to maneuver as I quilt along.

 The sewing studio is reorganized too.  Along the back wall of the room is a table with baskets of UFOs that need to be finished.... yes that pile is way too high!...but it was even higher last year, so I am making slow progress getting things done.  Next to that table it is my new pressing table that my husband made as a Christmas gift with some batting scraps in those pink crates underneath.  Right now it is piled high with fabrics that I am in the process of  preparing for three different quilt classes I will be attending in August.  The spare bed on the right wall serves as a "table" for my roll of batting with the extra roll stored standing on the floor in the corner.  At the bottom of the bed is the spare dresser in which I am organizing and sorting my fat quarters and storing my Dear Jane kits with work in progress.

Along the left wall of the room is my sewing table and chair.  I've discovered that I need to buy one of those plastic or wooden things for the floor as my chair will not roll on the carpet.  I've got a couple of  folding tray tables and my handquilting hoop and stand with the quilt I will eventually finish for me!  Now that it is set up and constantly staring at me I will be able to view and decide how to quilt the next block.  The last item along that wall is my cutting table... it is constructed with saw horse legs purchased from Lowes and my old butcher-block kitchen table. Yes, there is a pile of projects to be cut stacked here too, and I will get them all done eventually!   On the window sill above the table are my Civil War fabrics and some of my collection books

Lastly is the closet.  It is crammed full with two large tubs of various yarns and knitting projects, another two large tubs of fabrics and patterns for dresses and jackets that I planned on making, another large tub of kitchen towels and yarns and yet another full of colored plastic bags to be cut and crochet into waterbottle holders or entry-way rugs to help stop dirt and leaves from being tracked all over the house!  Not sure how it got knocked off, but I'll have to get hubby to put that one door back on it's tracks this weekend.

There are still more boxes to sort through, organize, and label, but at least now I can move my elbows while working and not have to worry about knocking something over.  I am so lucky to be able to expand into and take over two rooms... one for hobby and one for busniess!

organization 101

If you are like me and trying to get your sewing studio organized... again.  Check out Pat Sloan's posts on getting organized.  Lots of helpful hints.

http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/02/02/organization-101-pat-sloan/

My first step will be to empty both work areas.... my quilt studio on the left and my sewing studio on the right.

Thank goodness for strong young son's wiling to work for food!
LOL!

Organizing...again

Eighteen months ago when my new Nolting quilter arrived I cleaned out my portion of the basement, moving everything into the family room. I now had a clean quilting area in which to work, but a disaster in the family room.  So began one of my ongoing attempt to get organized.


Within a couple of months of setting up the quilter, I was going to need to get at the gas fireplace hiding in the brickface wall behind all those boxes in the family room.  I began going through the boxes and organizing some items.  All my unstarted kits got boxed up and stored in the bottom of the coat closet. My cutting table and two folding tables and my folding ironing board got put back in my quilting workroom.  My bins with completed for-sale work is stacked under the cutting table.  Some of my UFO projects were placed into trays and stacked on one table with my sewing machine in hopes that being able to see them daily would incite me to work on them and clear some working space. (Yes.. I have completed several of those projects this past year.)   I color-sorted and boxed my scraps and miscellaneous projects and piled them on top of and under the second table or hid them in closets and corners around the house, wherever there was a space. So I was back to a crowded quilting/sewing space again... and I had to go searching in boxes all over the house to locate any one specific item or project.(sigh)

A few months ago my daughter moved out and I decided to set up her room as a sewing studio and keep my current space as a quilting studio. I had to keep her large dresser and the spare bed but the almost empty room had possibilities.



I set up shelving for my boxes of color-sorted scraps, my goodwill shirt collection and boxes of miscellaneous fabrics.  You can't see the closet but it is full of yarn related projects and supplies in one half and fabrics and clothing patterns in the other half.  One roll of batting lays on the bed ready to be cut and the other is standing next to the dresser by the doorway.  I am in the process of gathering and pressing all my fat quarters and sorting them in the dresser drawers for easier access.

My Civil War fabrics and some books are up there on the windowsill in those pink crates, and under my brand new pressing table (Christmas gift from my husband)  are some boxes of batting scraps.  I still have boxes with "kits" in a coat closet and books and other misc fabric in the understairs closet.  Due to my most recent attempt to organize there is a a minefield of assorted boxes of stuff I'm trying to sort and organize on the floor that I have to step around whenever I go in there. Having boxes and labels is good , but  I hate not being able to see my fabrics at a glance.   And... yes, there is my hoop and the top I have been (not) handquilting for me.  If I set it up I might actually be able to work and complete it!

Now that I'm a bit more sorted and organized, I'm thinking about rearranging everything, once again.  I'd like to put my cutting and sewing tables here in the studio with my pressing table.  If I could leave my current projects set out and walk in and just sit and work I might get more done!

I would like to  invest in some nice cubicle shelves to display my fabrics and kits so I can see and use what I have before purchasing more!  The current shelves and an extra folding table could be set up in the the quilting workroom to define my space.  I'd have a nice clear table to consult with customers and maybe organize paperwork somehow to make bookeeping and taxes easier to deal with.  I guess the goal is to look more professional.