Major Fabric Organization
08-28-2011, 03:43 AM
#41
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 250
I think that getting organized is easier than staying organized. I used to put all my scraps of one color in the same container, but I now have a sandwich baggie for each fabric. I found that it was hard to know how much I had of one fabric.
It is my goal to sew up all my fabric before I die. I have sewn a lot, but still have a lot to go. I try to only buy solid color fabric when on sale. It is my goal not to buy any more fabric until this is sewn up.
Good luck with your stash.
It is my goal to sew up all my fabric before I die. I have sewn a lot, but still have a lot to go. I try to only buy solid color fabric when on sale. It is my goal not to buy any more fabric until this is sewn up.
Good luck with your stash.
08-28-2011, 04:17 AM
#42
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Coeur d'Alene, ID
Posts: 755
Originally Posted by sylviak
Originally Posted by Sewlmatesister
I'm doing at the same thing thing at the moment!!! folding all the fabric using the 6x 24 inch ruler system!!!!
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I'm doing that too in my new quilting shed. I think it is going to take a long time. DH asked me if I thought I would get through it by Christmas! LOL! Here are some of the earlier pictures. I'm sorting scraps now and filling the drawers under my ironing board.
furniture yesterday that I'll get in October, and I need a chair
that can go from regular height to counter height. Interesting looking chair....
08-28-2011, 04:27 AM
#43
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Just move back to Chattanooga, TN.
Posts: 2,022
I have my stash and then I have the stuff for known projects or quilts. I have the projects in their own baskets and then the stash is in one box and one shelf. Not a big stash but it needs some organiation. Then I have the stuff I am working with is on the end of table in a pile. I love to see how others are organizing. ( I really need to have spell check.)
08-28-2011, 06:55 AM
#45
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: small town in Oregon
Posts: 1,575
I also have a TON of scraps that need to be cut/sorted. Also, whenever I work on a project, I just toss the
fabric(s) I had out into a large canvas bin - "to be filed"! Just finished a Boomerang swap, making 34 blocks, so have an overflowing bin. I think I am going to hire my neighbor's teenage granddaughter to help with sorting and 'filing' Might even get her on the Accuquilt GO!
fabric(s) I had out into a large canvas bin - "to be filed"! Just finished a Boomerang swap, making 34 blocks, so have an overflowing bin. I think I am going to hire my neighbor's teenage granddaughter to help with sorting and 'filing' Might even get her on the Accuquilt GO!
08-28-2011, 08:50 AM
#46
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: northern California
Posts: 1,098
So many good ideas. I also am trying to get my sewing area in order. It is large so it should be easy, right? wrong! Disorder is disorder and I am ususally in that state.
One caution.... I put similar colored scraps into into two drawers of those stacking drawer units with the clear fronts (from just about any store). One drawer is "squares and rectangles" and the other is just plain scraps that can be pretty small!
I've thought about cutting the small scraps into strips or squares, but can't get myself to do it. This summer I found out why! While 10 year old gd was busy making her first quilt I had 7 and 8 year old gs and gd making "quilt pictures". They each chose a picture (one from a children's picture book about Raven in the Haida culture, and the other from a Dover flower coloring book) and went through my "just plain scraps" drawer and chose colors for each seperate element in their picture. I helped a bit if I thought they'd fallen into a rut, but even then I gave them a choice of several different colors, or followed their idea and gave them a choice of several different shades, prints, batiks or not, of the color they wanted.
When they had their colors chosen we put bonding on the back and they cut out the pieces (I helped on a center cut-out complicated piece) and placed them where they belong and I pressed them down onto a backing (NOT scrap) and they had their picture. A very good prequilting exercise and actually very suiltable for framing!!!!.
So, don't be too quick to cut everything into strips or squares... What if you end up wanting a circle? Or what if your grandkids (or kids) want to..........?
The results were outstanding. The mommies were thrilled. Oh no, I forget to take pictures :-(
One caution.... I put similar colored scraps into into two drawers of those stacking drawer units with the clear fronts (from just about any store). One drawer is "squares and rectangles" and the other is just plain scraps that can be pretty small!
I've thought about cutting the small scraps into strips or squares, but can't get myself to do it. This summer I found out why! While 10 year old gd was busy making her first quilt I had 7 and 8 year old gs and gd making "quilt pictures". They each chose a picture (one from a children's picture book about Raven in the Haida culture, and the other from a Dover flower coloring book) and went through my "just plain scraps" drawer and chose colors for each seperate element in their picture. I helped a bit if I thought they'd fallen into a rut, but even then I gave them a choice of several different colors, or followed their idea and gave them a choice of several different shades, prints, batiks or not, of the color they wanted.
When they had their colors chosen we put bonding on the back and they cut out the pieces (I helped on a center cut-out complicated piece) and placed them where they belong and I pressed them down onto a backing (NOT scrap) and they had their picture. A very good prequilting exercise and actually very suiltable for framing!!!!.
So, don't be too quick to cut everything into strips or squares... What if you end up wanting a circle? Or what if your grandkids (or kids) want to..........?
The results were outstanding. The mommies were thrilled. Oh no, I forget to take pictures :-(
08-28-2011, 08:50 AM
#47
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 570
Hello Bettyboop, After 23 years we are moving house so this is my chance to have a sort out ! I have already made up a big 'donation box' for a lady who mkes things to sell on behalf of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity.Now I will organise my 'stash', not so great,but I am determined to only use what is left to make things over the next year.Moving is proving to be very expensive so I am going back to thrifty mode. you are all so helpful on this site with ideas etc. I'm sure I will get lots of ideas. love Letty.
08-28-2011, 09:18 AM
#48
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: North Texas
Posts: 8,710
Love the organizing. I had friends help me get my room organized and now I just have to keep it up, put fabrics up where they belong as I buy and put everything bac where it belongs. It's a challenged to keep it that way. Thanks for sharing your rooms.
08-28-2011, 10:39 AM
#50
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Cloverdale, Oregon
Posts: 39
I am so encouraged by those of you who have attacked the stash and won. I also appreciate those of you who are sharing the same challenges. Too much fabric, but where is it. I am uncovering treasures that I forgot I had. I am also using a ruler to roll the larger pieces of fabric.
For those of you wondering about "the system." Go to Quiltville.com . Bonnie Hunter has a great system and oodles of projects to use up all those fabric schnibbles. She even inspired me to haunt thrift stores for cotton shirts. I only buy XL or XXL, XXXL . I have a basket next to my chair and I dismantle the shirts while watching the tube. Those are getting cut into strips, squares, etc. The back of a huge man's shirt can yield more than a yard of fabric. I follow the bag sales at our Humane Society Thrift shop. $2.00 per bag and I stuffed 8 shirts in a bag. Good quality cotton. I will stop doing that until I get everything sorted and put away.
For those of you wondering about "the system." Go to Quiltville.com . Bonnie Hunter has a great system and oodles of projects to use up all those fabric schnibbles. She even inspired me to haunt thrift stores for cotton shirts. I only buy XL or XXL, XXXL . I have a basket next to my chair and I dismantle the shirts while watching the tube. Those are getting cut into strips, squares, etc. The back of a huge man's shirt can yield more than a yard of fabric. I follow the bag sales at our Humane Society Thrift shop. $2.00 per bag and I stuffed 8 shirts in a bag. Good quality cotton. I will stop doing that until I get everything sorted and put away.
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