people I am so tired from doing that yesterday! guess I am more weaker than I thought! the sewing room is coming into shape anyway! and I do have one tub started, looks good, yes I did put a sticker on mine. "christmas pieces, anyway to start. and thank you for the welcomes

pmomquilter...I have had mine sorted like you are doing for quite some time--especially the small pieces. I am now in a cutting mood. I'm working on a Burgoyne surrounded quilt along that's here on the QB. It was so nice to go to my "red" bin and start cutting fabric for the quilt. Once you have it organized you will enjoy it. The biggest thing is it is an ongoing process as you use and add fabric. Some times I have too many projects going on...imagine that. Keep up the good work!

I think I'll do a before and after photo today, spur me on, no cheating and having a little lie down
Anyone want to do the same?
The walls and shelving won't change but the flat survaces need some real attention before Bonnie Hunters mystery starts.

You can do this! One flat surface area at a time. Take a picture every 15 minutes. I do that when I really need motivation to stay on task. Move fast. Don't overthink. When you find yourself just moving stuff without a place, take a break. It'll happen. Just 15 minutes at a time to victory!

zozee, yes 15 minutes at a time!I have accomplished a lot these past few days! today(Sunday) I do feel it, still recuperating, so I guess today is R&R, take it easy day!!

took me four hours to get the cutting surface satisfactory. I had a box of scraps to cut down took some of the time, I'm always happy to see my own precuts in their boxes, like having a full pantry.

As I run across red or black scraps I cut them into 1.5", they will eventually become a word quilt of some kind. Had enough to separate them into to their own color boxes, that was exciting. Obviously I am excited easily. I guess quilters would understand.

I am a firm believer that clutter can't be organized, so as I've run across clutter in that category, I've put it in a basket and will eventually offer it here in exchange for scraps.

Today, the sewing table!

finished, and I stitched a bag full of black and white 1/2 sq triangle blocks to celebrate!

Looks great, Kalama! And a nice reward...
Me..I took a nap...now I can go quilt.

Is that a little tv lurking there? cool!

Looks great Kalama!

Rob

that is my Ipad, I like to watch things like Bonnie Hunters quiltcam.
I AM sewing today, cleaning up components of a scrappy pile. I could never decide what to do with them, something extra, brilliant, amazing. So I'm just sewing them together :) that is the point I think.

Way to go, Kalama! It really does a lot of mental stamina to keep making decisions about what goes where, why to keep, where to donate, what to trash, what would work better here, etc. i am only good for about 90 minutes of that at a time. But lije you, I get easily excited over baby steps of progress! And really excited when I see a LOT of it! The before snd after shots are very mitivational. Kudoes!!

Creating order out of chaos.
 

There is a saying: "You manage what you measure". Well I haven't been keeping track of my accumulating fabric hoard until now.

I've been trying to refold all my 1 yard & larger pieces onto comic book boards (up to 6 yds) or bolts (over 6 yards). I'm folding under 1 yard pieces the same way I fold fat quarters. I've used almost 100 boards and haven't made much of a dent in my stash. Baby steps!

I've never measured my stash so am doing so now, labeling each as I refold. I'm pretty surprised so far. I didn't think my stash was more than about 150 yards maybe 200 at most. I am WAY off in my guesstimate. By a factor of 6 or 7, maybe more. Yikes! I need to sew more than I need to shop (Ha! except for many more comic book boards). : )

I know many of the members have dozens and dozens of times this amount - refolding all that would be daunting!

This is just a small sample of my progress. These two shelves currently hold 240 yards! I won't be organizing them on this shelf as it is too small for the boards to stand (only 9" when I need over 10"). It is over 85 boards (most 2 or more yards up to 6) & 48 half yard pieces. I really wouldn't have guessed it was that much in such a small space - hence my surprise. : )

Wish me luck! I'm looking forward to getting all my fabric measured & re-shelved.

Looking good, Notwendy.

Your comments are exactly why I haven't invested in comic boards. Fabric accumulation over the years sneaks up on you and then wow, "What am I going to do with all this?" Now trying to make sense of it all and cutting my sewing time short while doing so.

NotWendy: Congratulations on your progress!

I go though streaks of sorting by size and color. Sometimes I cut the strips to a certain size.

Right now, I am in a 'use up those 5" squares that were cut by the church group probably 7 years ago' stage. One side of my 6 foot banquet table is covered with the squares. LOL!

Notwendy--good for you! I love the look of all those happy, neatly folded fabrics. ANd I agree--you need to sew more and shop less! I'm curious, what is your reason for measuring every bit of it.

I cannot believe the accumulated mail, paperwork etc in 5 months! and of course, I need one piece of mail that is needed for something! so today organize, or throw away the mountain of paperwork, wow,5 months!!! unbelievable!
I do plan to sort more fabric and patterns, oh yeah patterns also need to get those sorted too. so my project for the day is clean up the paperwork, and fabric and patterns , yeah maybe that genealogy stuff too. well looks like I am going to be busy again...

I love the way notwendy has her stach. oh yeah, I am doing those tubs that someone mentioned, very nice, looks organized.

oh ladies one question. scraps from other projects, do you cut them up into the squares." bad me" I was thinking of throwing them away, but I am trying to do differently.

Thanks everyone. I will post more pictures as I progress. I'm also going to attempt putting them in color order. Not an easy task - as you can see I go for bright, multi-colored fabrics (I'm such a Magpie).

Zozee - the reason I am measuring (not scraps or things already in progress) is to give me an idea of how much fabric I actually have squirreled away in various places. Visually I wouldn't have ever thought just those two rows would add up to so much. It is an eye-opener that I really should shop my stash and stop buying fabric just to own it because it is pretty.

I also have a nice Ikea cabinet awaiting my newly folded fabrics - no more drawers where it is out of sight and out of mind. Now I'll know if I am using more than I'm buying. I'm not quite ready to join the fabric moratorium but wanted to at least have a reference point. : )

Notwendy, you will find that how easy it will be to shop the stash as well as the shop because you will know what you have and what you need.

on a different note, I cleaned out all my 'what did I bookmark this for?' computer book marks yesterday. I only ever used 4-5 in each category :)

Psycho, I'd be happy to take a priority box of scraps and reimburse the shipping. I quit buying fabric in 2001 and have lots of holes in my color stacks now.

Kudos to you kalamaquilts for using up stash and leftovers...wow 2001! I know I sew with fabrics that old, but add some new ones into my collection.

well I finished that project yesterday, a mountain of papers, mail etc. and I found that important paper I need! the genealogy, even that was a mess, I aphetized and put in neat folders, I haven't put in the file cabinet as yet, need to do some research today, but as I finish "one" folder it will go where it belongs. my attention span is not a good thing, do one thing then put it down and go to another project, just like I do with crochet&sewing, what a mess! but I see light in my tunnel! so I prioritize, a to do, list if you will. color coded material? I got too much to do that, I got my Christmas stuff in one spot does that count?? and yes, I also need to get into those computer bookmarks, some I haven't touched in years. thats another thing I need to start doing. and a lot is useless stuff.

Today decided to clean off the cutting table...I was cutting elsewhere because I couldn't find the top! It is now cleared of miscellaneous items and ready for cutting...misc items are put away, too. Also cleaned off the ironing table...not as big of a job as it was done a short time ago. What is it about horizontal spaces that beg to be a drop off zone? A couple of weeks ago I bought some small wire baskets and hung them on the wall above those two spaces. I've used 2 Command wall hooks (.5 # size) to hang the baskets. I really like them and the hooks are holding up well. Now time to go back and make use of the cleaned off spaces!

Since I could not find my bonus buddy ruler ( about 5 inches long ) since I put in a new sewing cabinet, I went to the LQS to find another one. I think I found one even better. It's an Omnigrid that is one inch by 6 inches. I've already made all the half square triangles for Allietare, but the new mystery probably has some use for it.

Battle Axe, I have a 1x6 that I have in my apron pocket at work and use it all the time. It's the handiest for marking the diagonal when joining strips of binding (a common task for me) or the diagonal to make HST's from squares.

Yesterday I managed to organize all my trims by color. I bought some clear 5.5” x 4” x 3” bins and lids that fit into an old revolving cd tower. It holds 20 of the bins with room above each to stack a smaller container if needed. I still have one three drawer sterlite unit that holds the larger quantities that are on large reels and spools, but it feels good to have all the smaller bits organized by color for quick and easy access. I found gorgeous bits and pieces in useable sizes that I’d forgotten I had.

Rob

My mind. LOL

I am about a week behind! so need to go back into my sewing room and organize things in some semblance of"sanity".priortize, I am planning to sew a couple of mug rugs too, so that's going to help to remove some scraps. maybe I can get a table topper in there too. so that's 3 projects I want to do today,

projects. I do have the yarn in a crate, it's organized, the patterns still need some work too. I just keep saving those patterns that I find online, be it crochet, sewing quilting, cooking. so today is my weeding out these from my bookmarks on my computer.

also one more, this may sound off the wall, but you said what are we/I going to do today. well, I am still stuck on genealogy/family tree. there's so much info/misinfo as well. I could start on that too. I said start. maybe for each of these, a time limit? like 20 minutes for the mug rugs, and 20 minutes for the recipes and 20 minutes for genealogy. so that's my projects for today.

and one thing I did forget. study a scripture, & read Gods word, been slack on that too.

Yesterday I managed to put away all the spools of thread that were cluttering up my small cutting table. Now I want to go through my art and quilting books to see if there are some I am willing to part with. Those will go on eBay.

My big organizing goal is to get my jeweler’s bench cleared off so it can actually be used. I will probably have to resort to putting everything that is currently on it into a big box. I can put then go through that and decide what belongs on the jewelerks bench and what belongs elsewhere.

I think that’s enough organizing to carry me through to the weekend.:D And I should still have time to get some quilt making in!

Rob

Good job, Rob! Sometimes putting everything in a box helps me as long as I do go through it. :)

yes, going through it is the key. But then again, I could just put a date on it and if it’s not been gone through in a year thatkd be a good incentive to get rid of what’s in it :p

Good idea, Rob. :)

I have been organizing some fabric by going through the small plastic drawers in carts with rolling wheels. I moved the fabric from one spot to another but I now have 2 rolling carts with empty drawers! Wahoo! I am not sure what I am going to do with the carts but I will be keeping them for now. I did move them out of my sewing room but, unfortunately, I moved another 3 drawer cabinet in their place. Oh, well. LOL!

I have been doing a bit of organizing. I started taking 2 hours a week and sort old "Threads" magazines and taking out the articles I want to keep and tossing the rest. I've cleared out a section in one of my cabinets that I can't put other things in. I also cleaned out a closet and tossed a lot of shoes I'll never wear again which left me with 2 plastic holders with 4 drawers the slide out in each one. So I found a place for those and I'm putting stuff in them and labelling it so I know where things are. I finished the Christmas presents that need to be mailed today so tomorrow, I'm going to look in the closet and see if I have stuff in there on the floor and move some of the machine cases that are under the table in there if it's open. That will free up some under table space and get some stuff out of the walking path in the room.

Good work Connie and Patrice!

my next goal is to organize all the papers that have gotten piled on the various horizontal surfaces in my office. Oh, and I need to finish clearing off the guest bed and the floor around it since we have company coming for Thanksgiving. I also need to clear out some stuff thatks in the upstairs hallway....it never ends:shock:


Rob

Every time I see something on this board that I want to make, I print it off and put it in a three ring notebook labeled "Quilt Fun". It's my bucket list. I now have two full binders with wonderful projects.
What's on your bucket list?

I had hoped to sew this weekend, but rearranging and organizing in my sewing area needs to happen first. I need space for my ‘new to me’ Horizon 12000. It is only a few years old and the LQS machine guy checked it over. It sat in the same spot in the LQS around a month and I decided if it was still there on Saturday, I would get it. I only bought it a few days early. :). Now I can use my other Janome just for piecing and the 12000 can be set up to embroider and quilt.

So probably no Black Friday shopping for me. I need to get the sewing room in order!

Oh ret teach..you going to love having this new machine..creativity awaits you!

Bucket list...quilts in EQ waiting to be sewn, many of them miniatures. Oh the possibilities!

Retiredtach - Congrats on the new machine!

No organizing for me today, out-of-town guests. I might get time to list a couple more things on ebay or find something to trash, donate or sell....

Rob

Yes, I have my horizon 12000 still in my living room on top of my dingo cabinet that I need to get moved out into my sewing studio. My daughter was here from Wyoming and boy did she and her sister from Minot get totes hauled in for me to go thru and decide what to do with a lot of it. I have 3-4 large totes for the ladies that quilt at the church in Kenmare. They also make dresses for little girls in Africa so I’ll gdt rid of a lot of fabric that “what was I thinking” when I bought it. I’ll see if I can post pictures. I have changed the stuff on shelves and filled that wonderful big cabinet that I had wheels put under b4 it was unloaded out of pickup

I will go out and take new pictures in the morning