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.