Stitches23

Gemm - I know what ya mean. Nothing is worse than knowing you have something (anything) and not being able to find it when you need it or having to spend 1/2 a day looking for it. Maybe these smaller containers will help me with staying organized or at least being able to shop my fabric more efficiently. It's definitely been a good thing because this process is allowing me to go back through all my fabric, evaluate what I have, and conjure up ideas of all the quilts I want to make with what I have.

Gemm

Stitches23 - I think you have hit on one of the best reasons to organize! While it's nice to have everything looking spic and span at the end of the process, the best part is being able to touch/pet/look at all of your fabric and dream big! :-D

petthefabric

Love your comments. Fabric storage is still an issue here. Now it’s in bug proof bins in the garage. First I must move the car. At the end must ask hubby to lift the boxes back in place. Can’t spend more money now, but think smaller boxes might help.

WMUTeach

I have tried organizing fabric in a number of ways but they were too much work to keep in order. Along with some of you, I settled on sorting by color and using the smaller clear bins (larger than a shoe box but smaller than the big storage bins.
It works for me. I sort by color, fold and sometimes press pieces. I then stand the bin on its end on the shelf. I stack the fabric in the bins so I can see what is in there. I think it was a hint from Karen Brown (Just Get it Done Quilts) that inspired me to stack the fabric allowing me to see what I have in that color way without having to take out every piece to find what is on the bottom. Oh, I keep the lids tucked away in a far away part of my double closet. Most colors have more than one bin and from time to time I will empty a bin, (Yeah! ) Then I pop on the lid and use the small bin as a project box. .

The only color I have in a huge green bin is white/cream. I haven't space yet in my closet to move those pieces to a pair of smaller bins. In the past 6 almost seven years I have eliminated 6 or seven of the big bins and life is so much better. Easier to see what I have, see what I have on hand and then put it to use.

I know it has been mentioned in the past, but it really helps with the depth of fabric to purge what you don't like and what you know you will never put into a project. Donate, donate, donate. It lifts a burden and makes space for what you really want to make use of in your projects.

Julienm1

I spent the best part of yesterday reclaiming my sewing room. The chaos really got out of control. I ended up creating several, I mean SEVERAL, PIGs (project in grocery bags only I used zip lock bags). Goal is to finish one PIG a week for Project Linus. I think these projects have been "lost" long enough to stimulate the creative process to get these done.

Oh, I even cleared off 95% of the stuff on my cutting table! However, working on the most recent PIG caused me to dump more fabrc on it...part of the creative process...right?

Next month will reoganize the fabric on the shelves...maybe...lol

Gemm

Oh WMU, this is my dream! I have lots of scraps in many colours, but my neutrals are a wee bit sparse, and because I don't generally plan my quilts ahead of time, I find it hard to know what to buy and how much (I can't really afford to buy or store by the bolt). Happily, there are a lot of scrap-happy quilters here on the forum and I'm gleaning so many wonderful ideas for how to "make do." Doesn't stop me from coveting a larger store of whites/creams, though!

Lol - I tried to do this. I had a small bag of fabrics I was hoping to find another home for but then I found an old quilt top (I mentioned in some other threads) and pulled most of those fabrics out to make a backing! At least they will no longer be taking up storage space, right? One day maybe I will cure this hoarding habit...

Julie, you're absolutely right! :-D Way to go to get so much sorting done, too!

quiltsfor

I was at a stopping point today (still waiting on a machine quilting ruler to finish up my borders) and I noticed that there was just so much stuff on the floor of my quilting room and dust on my open shelves. No wonder my allergies are acting up. My tea cup collection and open shelves needed major dusting. With the supplies/containers I have on the floor, it makes it hard to get up the dust bunnies and all the snips of fabric and threads with a vacuum. I decided that it was time to give my tea cup collection on good dusting and put them in a storage bins so I could use the shelves to get most of what is under my tables up off of the floor.

What a job, I have over 100 cups and saucers in my tea cup collection, plus a half of dozen or so of tea related nick knacks. I packed them away and hubby took the bins to the attic. Then, I spent the rest of the morning dusting and organizing my plastic containers on the shelves. I have small ones for different sizes of leftover precuts and quilting notions. I couldn't believe the amount of all of the piles of dust bunnies and clusters of bits and pieces of thread and dog ears, that had collected around everything on the floor. It was actually satisfying to watch them all disappear into the vacuum.

My tea cups had been pretty all set out, but I'm really liking it better with having most everything off of the floor, but a few oversized containers under one of my tables. Dear Hubby said he needed to make me some glass enclosed tea cup cabinets in my office, so that I could display them again. A nice woodworking project for him this winter!

Then, I spent the rest of the afternoon, organizing the fabric and instructions for my next quilt. A busy day, but it was nice to get so much done!

Gemm

Quiltsfor - sounds like you had a really successful cleaning/organizing session! Way to go! And lucky you to have a hubby who is such a cheerleader for your interests :-)

Stitches23

I just about have all my fabric sorted by color and in smaller containers. This process has been so helpful in seeing what I have and I have more than I thought in certain color ways. Another unexpected benefit has been that will all the sales on fabrics right now (Black Friday deals), I can look at my fabric containers and know I don't need any more of that color or I need some of that color.

rryder

sounds like you made some serious progress, quilts for- and you're going to get some dust free display cabinets for your teacups out of the deal!

I need to get motivated to tidy up and process the scraps left over from my last few quilts. They're currently occupying the comfy chair in my studio so I can't sit there and ponder my next project....

Rob