jbud2

I would help you if I was closer! Think of the treasures you will find! And Grandma will say "I wondered where I put that!" She may resist at first but when she see how good it looks and how easy it is to find fabric in her stash, she will be happy. She might be afraid of what you do find - the duplicates, ufo's, etc - and think that you may think there is something wrong with her. Nothing is wrong - she is a busy, quilting Grandma~! Lover her!!

JoyceHoopes

You've gotten lots of great ideas. If it were me I think I would start with the table then at least one shelving unit so you have somewhere to put the things you organize. For now, maybe just concentrate on getting types of fabrics sorted and folded, you can always sort by color when you have a better idea what you have. Good luck, you have quite a job ahead of you. Joyce in Delaware

Vera39760

I went to visit a lady yesterday who was selling her stash. All four walls had shelves, floor to ceiling. You could tell it use to be organized just from finding small "islands" of folded, like color fabric. Some of it had paper pinned to it with the length. She said she used to be very organized and really didn't know how it got out of control. She seemed happy that one of the ladies with me was folding stuff and putting it with "like" fabrics as we moved stuff to look for other stuff. The three of us bought over 400 yards from her. Most of it is for our church sewing ministry, but I did find quite a bit that I bought for myself.
i would ask Grandma if she has any favorite fabrics and where she wants them. She will know where her favorites are even in the chaos, and talking to her about the things she has made as she shows you and start working will probably have her in there helping you if she is able. How do I know this worked, I have a very helpful grand daughter. it turned an overwhelming job into a wonderful memory.

Sewfine

Oh my! that looks like my stash. No idea where to start. Good luck!

ube quilting

Looks to me like you are going to be sleeping at DGMs house for a while if you want to get it done by August. All the advice above is good. I like the idea of getting lots of wash baskets and just start sorting and get the cottons in order color at the start. As long as the cotton get sorted into color baskets it will be easier to go back to each and start the folding. DGM can do some of the folding if it is ready for her.

Worry about all the other fabric later towards the end of organization.

Use one basket for all the notions as you find them and just store them in that one place.

Use another basket for thread.

Sometimes my room looks a lot like this and I don't think it will be as bad as it looks. The folding may take the longest time.

Please keep posting as you progress. I love to do this kind of work and if I were neighbor I would love to help.
peace

Jo M

Yikes! Maybe your GMa is overwhelmed with the thought of organizing ALL of it at once. Start small...maybe she'd be more comfortable by starting with just one area at a time. Once that's done, I'll bet she will like the results and might be ready to go from there. Good luck! Let us know when you get settled here in Michigan.

Mrs Finch

Keep Works in progress and their pieces/patterns separated from the stash. Lots of good advice above. Try to have some fun with it. Ironing is not fun so skip it. You don't have to have comic book boards - cut one piece of cardboard and use it to fold most of the stuff, just pull the board out after you have folded the fabric.

Quilty-Louise

I hate to admit it myself but MY stash looks much worse.

Wish I had help in getting it under control and sorted.

ccthomas

Those of us "challenged" with "organizational" issues, will be looking for a future post on how you solved this fabric challenge and words of wisdom we all can use. Best of luck here.

lwbuchholz

Being a grand mom myself I can tell you what I did. I found a card template that had places to put information about the fabric and a place to put a small piece of the fabric or sometimes when the pattern was too big to tell me what the fabric was I took a icture or scaned it in and put a picture of the fabric on the card. The cards are about the size of index cards and i punched a hole in a corner and put them on rings. I have a ring for flannel and one for cotton and one for blends and polys. On the cards there was a line that I use to tell where the fabric is. I then took bins and labeled them like "cotton 1" through 5 in my case and poly 1 through as many as I end up with. I can then put on the card which box the fabric is in. There is a place to put the width and length on the card too. I just tested it out when my DIL need fabric. we went through the cards and looked at the samples and she found what she thought she could use then I went to the box and pulled out the fabric. I can take these cards to the fabric shop and match if I need to. I can email you a copy of the template I use for the cards. I print them on card stock. I can send pictures of how I have my boxes too if you want.
Lynda