What are we organizing today 2020
 

Happy New Year Everyone! Today we are closing out the 2019 thread and starting the new year with our new thread. Who is as surprised as me that it’s already 2020?

For newbies to this thread: jump right in with any organization tips you want to share, feel free to post pictures of your organization projects, offer supportive comments, etc. We’re a friendly bunch.

Today My organization goal is simple- I’m going to find 5 books that I am willing to part with and will donate them to the little free library across the street.

What are you organizing today?

Rob

I'm hoping to get into my sewing room for half an hour today and tidy away some of the things which have been left out from finishing off my Christmas projects. Going forward to 2020 my aim is to tidy as I go.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for starting this new thread Rryder! I really love your idea about the books and will have to borrow it, thank you for sharing that! Today my goal is to finish sorting and ruler folding the rest of Batiks that are 1 yard + and put into totes I will then go through my FQ bundles again and add to the sell box. So far I did an additional 6 bins of Batiks from my 1/2 yard collections and I’m just down to miscellaneous yardage.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing and gaining useful information along the way.

I am going to find all pieces of fabric big enough for backing and keep them separately so that I don't cut them up accidentally, as that would send me shopping and I would certainly buy more than I need!

Getting the last fabrics out of my stash to do the Merry Mayhem quilt today

Not organizing, but hope to get some sewing in today. I've started working on the triangles I sorted last year at this time.

Thanks for the new thread, Rob.

So far I organized the papers on my desk and the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Not sewing related but it's a start.
Happy New Year to all of you.

I straightened up last week before starting a quilt I cut pieces for a couple of weeks ago. Tried to organize remainder of scraps.

Today I just finished making blocks for above quilt.

Happy New Year Rob and everyone else.

Happy New Year, Rob! (and everyone)
Today wasn't too much fun. We put the tree outside, put away all the decorations. The house looks
bare and is way too quiet with all the kids gone. I got the regular things back out but really had to push
myself. I'm still in the holiday spirit I guess lol.
Got to see my granddaughter on the Echo our son bought us. That is going to be a lot of fun! Right now
she's too young and just sort of stares at us. But we will all get used to it.
Back to my BH mystery.

When I arrived at my FL condo, I dumped everything along my dining room wall. Today, I set up the sewing machine table and sewing machine. I stored away the batting and knitting in a closet. Looks lots better, but I still need to sort the fabric/scraps.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YM...w2560-h1440-no

Happy New Year, everyone! This year, I would like to accomplish two or three organizarional goals.
1). Keep up my project planner, and continue to kit up quilts as I oick out pattern and fabrics for each.
2) Make an inventory of what is where in each house. Just before we left NC, 8 found a very useful cache of backing sized fabrics, which I had totally forgotten.
3]. Try to find a better way to store rulers.
If those are solved, find something to store my scrap bins in.

Thanks Rob for starting this year's thread.

Non-sewing day for me too. I did put away my Christmas decorations and folded clothes. I guess that's organization. :)

Thank you for the new thread Rob. Happy New Year to you and all the rest of you. I really need to cut up some scraps from the last project I completed. I walked into my studio and turned around and walked out. Guess I need to find some inspiration to get going again!

Sorting thru charms
 

Today I’m going to be putting the charms I’ve purchased in the last month with the pattern I’ve printed n will get to sewing in the morning after I check the board that is. My youngest was home over the holiday n helped straighten up my studio. So I’m fired up n ready machine all threaded n cleaned off. Off to bed to get some zzzz’s

Yes Rob, thank you. This is one of my favorite threads to follow. It is hard to believe we’re into a new decade and that I’ve been a member of this board going on ten years...where does the time go.

New Year’s Day has always lent itself to tidying my sewing space but since I had planned to participate in the Merry Mayhem mystery, I actually started a couple of days early. So far, I have gone through my FQs and 1/2 yard cuts and put them in order by color and made a pile to donate of the fabrics I know I won’t use. I have also written out my list of quilting/sewing goals for 2020 and yesterday, before the Mayhem mystery started, I did a thorough vacuum and dusting of my sewing room. I can’t wait to read about everyone’s successes and ideas in the coming year.

I had previously brought scraps to my FL condo and went back north in May leaving them all here. When packing to come back at Christmas, I'd forgotten how much I'd left here and brought more... Wouldn't want to run out of things to do LOL Wellllll, turns out I could stay here for years and not run out of things to sew with LOL Yesterday I set up the sewing machine on a table another quilter was getting rid of. Then I started sorting the scraps to iron and be able to cut on the Accuquilt GO. Here is the before pic;

Wow! Good luck!

My goal is to finally get everything off the floor in my sewing room. I have already destashed and reorganized all my cuts of fabric larger than a fat quarter and they are all folded and nice on the shelves. I found a place downstairs for the AccuQuilt and the dies (and cleaned up and organized the laundry room.) I have put most WIPs in their own box. I also made a list of WIPs as I find them! :) I still need to organize the FQs - and I have no idea where I will put them as the shelves are pretty full. I guess there are worse problems!!

I have started sorting my 10 inch, 5 inch, and 2 1/2 inch scrap cuts by color per Bonnie Hunter's advice.

Happy New year and now the 9th day of Christmas. A good day to start organizing the Grace Frame in the other room and figure out what I am doing wrong right now. I must get that room organized within the next few days. Things are getting out of control. I am not even sure how this has happened??? I have already started on things this morning and have been making great progress. I will get it organized in the next couple days and then again tackle the sewing studio.

Happy New Year, y'all!

I started out so well last year - I had most of my yardage on comic book boards and had measured it all too boot. Yay!

Then all I had to do was keep it up!

Narrator: She did not keep it up.

Ha! Things went to heck towards the end of the year and right now I am dealing with approximately 6-10 projects intermingled in a pile of stuff I move from place to place when I need to do anything. Sigh.

Back onto the horse for 2020. : )

I have found cd storage works very well for FQs - Ikea carries one that is over 6 feet high and can be put together in sets. I've also found nice ones via Craigslist and at various resale shops. They also don't take up much floor space. I have over 100 yds worth of FQs (yikes! maybe I should use some one day?) and this keeps them organized and still visible.

After washing layers of dust off of it yesterday, today, I will be reassembling a vintage rolltop desk that I got from the basement of my parent's house. It will be my new work surface for all things creative and replace the simple table I had. I hope to make good use of the drawer space as well.

And you can just drop the rolltop down and cover the creative "mess"!

Happy New Years, Organizers! Thank you, Rob, for starting the new thread.

My 2020 goal is to cut scraps as soon as quilts are completed. This is what I did over New Years...I had 3-4 quilt scraps piled up so it felt great to get those done. I, also, need to tackle a couple of small totes of scraps I stored scraps in when I first started quilting....before I learned to cut them up in the sizes I wanted to keep handy.

non-related to quilting:. I need to reframe family pictures, sell or give away old frames, and print updated pictures of family members... I am woefully behind in adding new members to my family picture wall..

Good luck, everyone!,

Lol...This is so true....Since moving, I started using my roll top for my computer/office work and sold our computer desk. Just roll that puppy down and file later. Lol...

I love that feature and had one once. I just didn't like facing the wall... my desk faces out into the room. I've yet to master keeping it neat.

QuiltnNan- Yay- the picture showed up. looks like you’ve got plenty of scraps to keep you busy! Thanks for working so hard to get the pic situation sorted.


for this month, I'm focussing on baby steps rather than setting huge organizing goals. One or two things a day seems like a doable commitment and helps prevent getting overwhelmed!

So, yesterday I spent some time updating my studio notebook- I listed all my UFOs (that I know of) and then made up my January to do page. While doing that I realized that a couple of WIPs that had been languishing on the guest bed had in fact languished for nearly a year without any progress being made. They are now listed as UFOs and today I am going to pack them up and put them in the box with my other UFOs. That will clear off the guest bed and help declutter my mind since I will not be distracted by seeing them every time I walk into my studio.

My other goal for today is to clean up the craftermath left from finishing DGD’s 21st birthday quilt. this should be easy! It involves cleaning and putting away 1 die and tossing scraps into my scrap basket.

That’s my baby steps for today- but they will make a big difference in my space.

are you working on baby steps or big stuff?

Rob








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Yes, Rob. I had been trying different 'copy and paste' methods and they just weren't working. So I gave in and used the Attachment method. Thanks

Rob...I did the big stuff when I packed to move. I highly recommend moving every 5 years...lolololol.... My hope is to stay organized....so I'm making baby steps every day to keep organized and clutter free. I have more sewing space so I'm a bit worried I'll fill every nook and cranny...

Destashing and Planning
 

Only sewers and quilters would understand what I am about to say. I kept trying to organize my sewing room, and found myself just moving stuff from pile to pile without really organizing it. I finally realized that I had about triple the amount of stuff that would fit in my small sewing room, as I inherited my mother's sewing room contents, so I had to destash to make room for organizing. I destashed my quilting stash as well as my clothing stash and donated to a local sewer who works with our Linus project and is also a clothing construction teacher in a local high school. It felt good for my precious stashes to be going to someone who could really use them, and I understand that they will be put to good use because many of the girls who take clothing construction cannot afford the fabrics to do their projects. We need to encourage the next generation of sewers, and this is my small way of doing it. Got rid of a bulky ironing board and iron, a sewing cabinet, tons of notions and myriad other things that I inherited from my mother's stash that I had been holding onto since her death...I finally let it go. A weight has been lifted, and I can now get organized and get back to sewing. I also purchased The Quilter's Planner so I can plan and track progress on all of my UFOs, hoping I will complete more in 2020.

Yesterday I vowed to dedicate 30 minutes to my sewing room. Well, as so often happens, 90 minutes later I found my carpet and the surface of my sewing table. Several projects are bagged,(Bonny Hunter Mystery, a baby quilt and the start of a future quilt for a niece) and put in the closet. Scraps are returned to their color bins, large pieces that were out for auditioning..... back to their color bin. Misc. tools, pins and "stuff" back to their places and two UFO's sitting out ready to be finished. Wozzers, did it feel good to make my space a work place rather than an archeological dig site. Now, I can safely begin to work again on new projects and finish what is already started or planned. A new year is such a good thing. Whoo Hoo!

To those of you who are feeling overwhelmed, I found that simply folding up my ironing board cleared space. I understand it's use, but I was using it as a place to just toss stuff rather than putting the "stuff" away. My little ironing board, that old TV Tray, is all that I need for pressing quilt pieces. It was a good first step to clearing out my "diggs".

I'm going to try the 5 book de-stash. Thanks Tallchick.

Teen, I cannot imagine having to pack up my sewing room at this point in time. Lol. Like you, I keep my room organized in small doses (baby steps) by spending about 15-20 minutes each week (usually a Friday) tidying up.

WMUTeach, sounds like you made great strides in the 90 minutes you spent reorganizing your sewing area...congrats. I’m sure it felt good to have it done.

Jbrother....your story is so inspiring. I don't keep a lot of stash but I use to take large pieces of fabric that did not appeal to me to a church group and felt good about them putting to good use. Good to hear you are able to let go of some of mom's stuff. Her legacy will live on through those in need.

WMUteacher... You had me cracking up about the archeological dig site. I got a clear visual of what you accomplished today. Well done!

Jmoore...fingers crossed that you are able to stay on top of your creative space. I'm waaaaay too anal so clean and organized is a psychological necessity. Lol..

I've been sewing pressing and trimming triangles, most are 1 1/2" cut, some 1 3/4"...and then I found some more! I'm sewing light to dark...think along the lines of KT, Jo Morton, or Kim Diehl colors. My plan is to make 10" squares...some with the 1 1/2 (takes 100 per block) and others with 1 3/4 ( takes 64). The way it is looking I will have more 1 3/4 than 1 1/2 HST. This will take a while.....

I've picked out 5 books and one unused program. I"m going to list them on this forum for free, you pay postage and first come first serve. I know we have some Civil War buffs here and one book is a Civil War Quilter's stories.

I've been trying to sort in 15 min bursts. I have a 15minute sandtimer so I use that. I am trying to do 4 x 15 minutes each day beginning to see a little bit of daylight. I've been derailed slightly by sorting and cutting scraps. My sewing group (just friends we meet once a month) are going to make some charity quilts to use up all my scraps. Our local library has asked us to make one for the children's reading area and we are going to make some project Linus quilts also. The one for the library is just going to be 12" squares using 2 1/2" squares all from scrap and then sashed into 4 x 5 square quilt. Reading everyone's experiences is inspiring me to keep going thanks.

Today, Jan 6, 2020 I will be taking down Christmas decorations and trying to make sense of the extra bed room where my Grace frame is. Right now it is getting the morning coffee so I can tackle the job. Will at least have the decorations down today and pop bottles out of the way and on their way to be recycled. I have packed so much in that room that I can barely find the guest bed! Hopefully by tomorrow I will have it is fair order so I can start using things again. Tackling my sewing studio is another thing.
I had company last night for dinner and their 8 year old daughter embarrassed her mother by saying, " boy is this room messy!" This will be next on the list. One day at a time

I finished my quilt top and cut up all my scraps. Typically, I'll try and make a 2nd quilt with the leftovers but there was just not enough large pieces...so I cut them up. I have 2 empty project/art bins.. Woohoo..