Quiltingboard Forums - Organized Chaos

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Okay, ladies, this is more than a little scary....I'm still very new to quilting, I don't have a "sewing room," and I just can't imagine collecting this amount of "stash." I took over our dining room when I did my first quilt and that involved about 2 months. I think the whole family was very supportive during that time, but all of us felt back to normal when it was done and I put everything away. I won't show my family what the house could become with a future of quilting ha!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hheelleenn (Post 4732225)

Let's see. . . a pink flamingo,. . ,a lamb. . a frog. . raccoon? (looked like it in a pic) I have a bunny. Do we all have a mascot?

The Flamingo is in honor of a Flamingo @ Ft Worth Zoo. I do not have any idea why but "Maurice" ( I named him/her) has taken to me. He/She runs over to see me every visit! Maurice will stand there & talk to me & follow me as I leave. The Keeper laughs at me & the Flamingo. He says that bird must know me cause Maurice doesnt act like that usually.

OH my, I feel so good now sense reading that there are a LOT of us just have the idea that we want things orginized but don't quite make it. I'm not feeling so guilty now knowing I have friends. LOL

I'm an organizer and what I see when I look at your room is "opportunity" to find glorious fabrics as you sort through them. There have to be fabrics you don't remember so it would be like Christmas morning without spending a penny.

Lucky, lucky lady!

My sewing room is small also, but it is not as cluttered as the one that was posted. How can you find what you need?

I will not admit to any such thing!!!! While my stash is but a thimbleful comPared to so many here. I will add tho , even the cat has begun to avoid my sewing pile. Hmmmmm think it is related? I swear I thought that is what doors were made for... Closing off the chaos. No? Well that's my story. And I'm sticking to it!

I"m playing with the idea of starting an organizing business. If anyone in the North Atlanta area has a sewing/crafting room like this and would like to have it "done" let me know...I'll do it for free in exchange for photos. I mean it...NO CHARGE other than the materials needed to organize. I love doing this stuff! [email protected]

OM-Goodness, I like others have stated could not work in that much chaos...but that is me. What my problem/issue is I make such a mess when I'm being creative. I tend to tidy before I leave the room because I don't stop while I'm busy cutting, sewing, pressing etc. I get frustrated, irritated if I walk back into the room and it's not 'ready to go'....Now don't get me wrong....when I'm in the middle of a project I wouldn't want any visitors to my sewing/craft room!

I did have four huge cabinets and try as I might I never organized the fabrics well. Then I heard of folding fabrics over comic boards. This past summer, I took all the fabric out of the cabinets and folded each and every piece that was over one yard on the comic boards. I purchased 4-100 count packages, from a local comic book shop and used nearly every one.

Now my fabrics are on book shelves and in two cabinets sorted by color, theme. Before the stacks of fabric, no matter how neatly folded, got in front of other stacks and I was running to the fabric store to find fabric when I probably had a fabric in my stash. The amazing thing to me....once organized the fabric cleared two large double door cabinets that my husband now uses! So in essence for me, my stash takes up less room now that it's folded over the comic boards.

When I took out all my fabric I was AMAZED at the fabric I had, that I totally forgotten about! I really enjoyed going through all the fabrics, getting rid of the ones that no longer interested me and getting to handle all my fabrics once again. Now I can 'shop' my stash more efficiently, see at a glance what I have or don't have.

Anything less than one yard is folded in drawers on edge, again I can see at a glance what I have. 5 or 6 yards I use two comic boards folding from opposite directions.

I also buy bolts of my favorite fabrics...like my passion for Benartex Fossil Ferns and those are folded on the cardboard bolts stacked side-by-side on edge on a low closet shelf, again allowing me to see at a glance what I have. The upper shelves are all my craft supplies which are in what they call Magic Drawers (clear plastic interlocking drawers) I purchased those on QVC...what a wonderful system that has been for crafty items.

So for me, personally, I have to have my sewing table completely clear when I'm sewing, because it drives me mad to be moving a quilt and knocking things off on the to floor.

I in no way disparage anyone else in how they operate, whether they be a 'Nellie Neat Nick' or a 'Carrie Chaos'...I fall easily in the very middle of these two examples... :0) "Whatever floats your boat" as my DH says....however, whenever, whatever your Cave is, the time you can steal away to your private "Quilt Cave" and be doing what makes your heart sing...So Be It!

As long as you can find what you are looking for, that's all that matters!

Quote:

Originally Posted by liking quilting (Post 4733619)

Hi Mavis ~ Here's my story....I too started quilting using the dining room table....then the kids were off to school/college I took the smallest of the two bedrooms...then when I 'outgrew' that room I moved the guest bedroom to the smallest and commandeered the bigger of the two rooms....then when we bought our winter home in the desert we/ahem 'I' looked for a house that would provide an adequate sewing room! Then when we moved to Idaho and sold the desert home we had an extra room built 'just for my sewing room'....now six years later we should have made it bigger.

So yes....once the 'bug' hits...there are few if any antidotes! LOL