I work with a little, ok maybe more then a little mess, but seem to know where my things are.

I would take a picture and show you all how neat I am NOT, but I think I lost my camera in there......

I also cover my area with a towel so the cats don't get into everything!!

I'm like most, I'm messy while sewing, but neat as a pin about the clean-up afterwards. I like a tidy sewing/quilting room when it's not in use. 8-)

I'm fanatic about making sure threads go in the basket and very careful about pins because of my cats. But I usually have tons of fabric and scraps laying around that I constantly have to move. And I can never seem to find the things I need when I need them. Where did those darn scissors go anyhow?

I guess I'm a neatnik, 'cause I have to have order or I just can't function. The room has to be orderly when I start, and during the project, and then cleaned after the project. At the end of each day I would put everything like scissors, cutter, etc., back in it's place. In case its a while before I get back to it, I won't have to search it all out again.

I'm like a lot of you, start out neat and turn it into a total mess. I have a pastic container for scraps and a trash can beside me but the floor still gets covered with threads, pins and bits of cloth. When my machine starts telling me it's not happy I usually quit sewing and clean both it and the room.

Kind of hard to be neat and quilt! I usually miss the garbage can when I toss fabric waste and threads I've trimmed. Not to worry....I can clean it all up after the quilt is finished!
PS I went to the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook, OR today....highly recommend this for your Oregonians in the NW part of the state! 300 local quilters purchase an old school. It's used for display, quilting, and weaving. :lol:

is that a trick question? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I try to keep things neat, as I sew in the living room, so everything is put away at the end of the day, and all my thread clippings go right in my little sewing table bag, that a lady on the board sent me, BUT while I am sewing, it does kinda look like a wind storm went throw my living room. God bless.

I organized a while back and couldn't find a pattern for several weeks. I can find things better when unorganized (messy). I do have a coffee filter for the threads and little scraps so they don't end up on the floor. I've learned to put away pincushions when I leave or the kitties carry them downstairs. I sew on the kitchen table and cut on the dining room table. No nice sewing room like some of you. Mine was taken over by computers and printers.

I am a really messy quilter. I usually have a bunch of projects going at one time and I have piles of stuff everywhere. It is really bad right now because I only have a small corner of the bedroom set up as my sewing area so it looks a lot worse because itseems like there is more mess than there really is. I worry about cleaning up when I finish something but lately it seems like I start many more projects than I get finished but everytime I find a really unique pattern that I like, I have to start on it right away. Oh how I wish for a real sewiing room so that I can organize all my boxes and boxes of fabric.

Non - sewers and neat freaks often comment on how "dirty" my house is, when it is only material and cotton thread on the floor.I live my life to suit myself, and not the occasional visitor.If they don't like it, they don't have to come -then I can have a good time getting on with my sewing, or sharing a cup of coffee with a good friend who doesn't mind drinking from clean cups when there is a bit of thread on the floor...




'

I try to keep it neat. I like a clean house and when my family was younger I would totally stress if anything was out of place. Now that it is just my DH, myself and our dogs I am not quite so anal about cleaning. I only vacuum 3 times a week and dust the same. Mopping gets done maybe once a month. Bathrooms cleaned every other week. I remember my MOm telling me that after she was gone she wanted to be remembered as a good Christian woman not because her house was spotless. Also, as I get older I realize that life is too short to "sweat the small stuff".

Wow Nancy with a name such as fancy nancy i would think you would be diffrent than most of us and be a neat freak. Cann't help but make a mess. I do seem to pick up my threads at the end of the session and throw them away but I think that is about it. I think I only pick them up because I don't want them all over my project.

After I get thru for the day I kind of pick up,but not that neat so I'll forget where I can't find things again. Takes a day just to find everything, by that time your so tired it then becomes a wrap for the day.

me too!, I am glad to know I am not the only one

I am very neat everywhere except my sewing room My friends often say I am often their inspiration to clean house but the other day one came over and I was in the sewing room and my husband sent her in and she was completely disallusioned I anm very messy when I am creating

When my work table gets too cluttered to use my rotery cutter I stop and put things away so I cut right and so I don't loose pieces or misplace my equipment. Between projects, I usually put things away before getting new items out.

The featured frig magnet at my house states, "Dull women have immaculate houses."

it's all about the priority of concentration!

I don't function well with clutter. The rest of the house relects this pretty well. There's a lot of dust, but who's looking at that?

I have right much space in my workroom, so I can go longer without actually having to clean up in there. Threads on the floor, dust, I never notice those, but when I get too many project remnants about in too many piles, (these are very neat piles, mind you), I start putting things away.

What interests me is this. My fabric piles all consist of fabric pieces that came off my shelves at one time or another. What's left from these projects would theoretically be less than the amount of fabric than I had to begin with.

So why is it that the fabric never fits back onto the shelves? The only explanation I can come up with is that my fabric is breeding.

A good thing, yes? I do hope I like the babies.

Looks lke I fit right in with the majority of you and so I will be brave and add on a view of part of my sewing room. I have shelves on two walls with fabric and genealogy books that don't show in picture. I probably have more fabric than I can ever use but I am trying. I aim for the waste basket when I am sewing but mostly if they end up on the floor they stay there until project is finished. Thn I pick them all up and vacumn. It is so nice to have a place just for sewing that I don't mind that my space is small..it works for me. I have a chunk of W & N stapled onto the closet (which is filled with bins of scraps)door and I use that for my design board. Really helps at times. I am happy with my stuffed shelves but know that I really need to tidy them up someday. Ok..don't say I didn't warn you.

I also am messy . I always put everything away when I'm done with a project. I don't even empty the trash.!!

I'm a neat freak!

I DO empty my trash. When the trashcans get about half full. And I clean out the cat box in there regularly. Do I get neatness points for that? LOL

I am a very conflicted person.. my downstairs (kitchen bath, dining room, family room) are a neat as a pin.. I even go so far as to clean up the kitchen before I sit down to eat.. I will wash the knife I've used before I eat whatever I cut with it..

But.. then there is the basement where the bulk of my sewing things are, plus a number or machines and surger.. That's a disaster.. and I have my embroidery machine on the first floor in what's supposed to be a formal living room. Now that room is a mess as well.. My conclusion: I am an extremely neat person, it's the sewing that's that messy by nature!

When I start losing things in my sewing room (sometimes within a 2/3 foot area) it's time to clean up. Usually only a few days before the next pickup of clutter. Don't know how it happens so fast!

i must be a genius times 2 as my sewing room is a total & complete mess. somehow i make it to the cutting table sewing machine & ironing table. i want to straighten it up but it just seems impossible. aha now that i've said that a little voice said just start in one corner. maybe i perform magic

I have found that a long strip of masking tape-stuck ends down and sticky side up- right on the edge of my sewing table helps with the thread issue...some. Otherwise, my sewing area is a disaster zone!

I don't have a sewing room at the moment so need to keep everything neat and cleaned away at all times. Can get a bit messy during my sewing moments but then at the end of the day it is all cleaned up again.

Am really hanging out to get my sewing room but the house comes first so will be awhile yet. :-)

Maybe1day

Clean when I start a project trashed when I am finished.

Reading all of the above makes me feel so much better. I didn't realise there was anyone else who made a sewing mess like I do.

I'm messy and unorganized! I was so excited when hubby said I could use this 6x8 room for my sewing room. Then it had to double as an office. Now it has to also store my sons carpet cleaning supplies. If you stand in the middle of the room, you can touch everything in the room its so packed! Anyways....my quilting spread to the kitchen so I could use the table to cut on. Now with this GFG quilt I've dragged it into the living room too so I can handstitch and watch tv! One of these days it will end up in my bedroom too! lol

Sounds just like me!

Wow! That's really impressive!

All I usually do is pick up as much of the thread as I can because it chokes my vacuum cleaner. Then I run the magnetic pin cushion over the carpet to get pins where they belong. I cut and pin in another area of the house (dining area) so I pick uo all that stuff after I'm done there.

i started this thread and i am so glad to know that so so many of you out there are also messy quilters. the reason i originally inquired was because i have a friend that quilts and does general sewing. everytime i drop by her house everything is in tip top shape. if she is not working on a project on the machine, her machine actually has a protective cover on it. never have been sure where she keeps all her notions and supplies - only signs that she does any sewing is by her chair in her living room, maybe a pincushion and a small project she works on. she shows me her finished projects so i know she DOES sew, but i am always amazed. the rest of her house is spic and span so maybe she is just a cleaning freak. i must add that she is also a very stressed and not so happy person - always upset about something - maybe she just needs a messier life to keep things in perspective? anyway - thanks to all you sewing slobs out there - i feel so much better and now have proof to show my kids that it is not just me! oh, and i always warn my kids not to go barefoot in my sewing room b/c i am not extracting any pins and needles from their feet!

My sewing room is a wreck as well as the rest of the house. If I move thiongs I will lose everyt thing

stpatmom, thanks for the belly laugh this morning! Your my kind of gal. Has been fun reading about others quilting/sewing environments. Mine changes from time to time, but think I am fairly organized (there are glass doors on my room, so can't close the door and hide things).

scotlass