I can't seem to get any enthusiam for quilting. This is the sad state of my sewing area. There are fabrics for six quilts in these pictures. The fabric on the chair was all just washed and dried. It is for the Piecemaker's 2003 Calendar Quilt.

Great sewing area Kitty! What kind of machine is that? Looks like mine!

ok do you know what you just did? you challenged yourself. By posting for all to see now you HAVE to finish something. TADA! you did it! inspiration again! no problem we will keep asking well how is that chair quilt going?? bookmarking this so I can pester you on a regular basis (right after you book mark me to finish my Dec quilt that is not getting any more finished either).

Have some friends come over, bring their irons and have an ironing party! Have lots of chocolate, cookies, etc. You'll feel better when that is done.

OK, kiddo. Get yourself motivated... straighten up the area, then get the iron out. First things first....a little wine, a little music. You'll have it ready for your next project in a jiff!!! :thumbup: :wink: :lol:

You Are a brave soul! I won't post a pic of mine....unless I clean it first..LOL!

Just re fold your stash, other is normal :-D

OK...here is solution: Box it all up and send it to me!

you are not suffering a lack of enthusiasm. you are simply "between projects". there's a subconscious process going on ... your brain is gathering, sorting, and cooking up some creative juice. ;-)

pick up one piece of fabric; fold it neatly for storage. if that doesn't trigger the instinct to grab and fold the rest, then just wait to fold another one tomorrow. one a day is better than none a day.

who cares whether the studio gets straightened first or the urge to quilt again comes first? either way you're doing something that will make you feel good. ;-)

Oh geeze I can so relate to your dilema! I am up to my eyeballs in mittens and have postponed quilting for a bit. I do love to iron so it is too bad we don't live closer, I'd do the ironing in a split second!!! I am not organized by nature I really have to work at it. And it is such a struggle for me to know where everything is. The other day my husband said he hadn't seen my Ginger snips he bought me years ago and went over to my tiny snap purse and pulled out 2 pair he had given me. He nearly passed out. I was thrilled to know where they were, it made me feel so good. Really and truely he was shocked to pieces I went right to them. :lol:

Chin up you'll get through it just relax! :-D

Overwhelmed! It happens to all of us. My personal solution is baskets. I would get six pretty baskets out and put each project in it's own little space. Stack those baskets up in a corner. Instant organization. Now, only one basket at a time comes out to be worked on. If anyone should look into the sewing room they think that you're really organized too!
I never iron until I'm ready to use the fabric. Ironing is not my favorite occupation so it's iron as I go. Leaves less time for the fabric to "re-wrinkle"!!

Looks like mine at times, when I have all kinds of stuff going on.

I'd suggest to at least fold the fabric and stack it. I spent the better day of yesterday cleaning off half of my sewing table. It's only 2x4 feet - so you can imagine. It feels so much better already.

Just don't get the chocolate and cookie crmbs on the fabric! But, maybe if that happens, you'd have designed a new fabric line :wink: !

I like your idea! I have fabric for several prjects, but still in the bags from the shops I purchased the fabric in! I need to get them out where I will SEE the stuff and get going on all the things I want to do!

You are brave! And you have challenged us all, at least those of us who could give your sewing room a run for its money. I am constantly challenged with the dilemma of clean up or just sew! I do practice the mantra "ten things away and then you can play!" But my true weekly cure most months of the year is my sewing space is where my charity group Comfort Quilters works. I love the ladies I sew with so much and they motivate me to be organized and ready for our next meeting.

Just stack all the fabrics you aren't going to use and get started so you can go on to the next. Your room would be to overwhelming as it is.

It'll come back to you. After frantic sewing before Christmas to finish the quilts DD wanted to give as gifts I didn't want to ever sew again. Here it is the 11th and I'm ready to go again. Just give yourself some time.

It just shows you've been busy. :thumbup:

Did someone say cookies? Where, when, I'll be there and gladly help press all that fabric! :lol:

I can't seem to get enthused either. At least, you have some projects going on.

I'd crank up some Lynard Skynard, shut the world out, and just do it!

No wonder you aren't inspired to sew!

Once that space is sorted, organised and clean, you will be enthused all over again. My room gets messy during a project, but I make sure it's all tidied at the end of it - including cleaning the machine & changing the needle. So next time inspiration hits, everything is good to go.

I think you need a system, some rules for yourself and less projects happening at once. You can do it - and once you are organised, you'll be whizzing out projects faster than you can collect them!

I would love to come and help you, as I love to organize but Texas is a long way from North Dakota, although I wouldn't mind some warm sunshine this time of year! I absolutely love your windows, as my sewing area is in the basement. Just go to it and you will love the results!

Skynard is good, but I think I work a little better to BeeGees. :-D

Just pick a number, and then decide that's how many pieces of fabric that you will press, fold and put away for one day, and then add five to that number and that is how many you will handle the next and work at it like that and one day they will all be pressed, folded and put away. Good luck with that.

I took the pictures of "before" but haven't posted yet, I am afraid that after posting them, it still won't be enough of an incentive to start organizing and cleaning... some day!

I have that saying on my craft room door
"A Creative Mess Is Better Than Tidy Idleness"

I think we all get overwhelmed at some point or other. I try to make a habit of cleaning and stacking my sewing room each morning, before I get started but that is a rule often broken.
I don't know what kind of storage area you have but I have found hanging my fabric on hangers in the closet, by color, keeps me organized and inspired each time I open the doors. If the pieces aren't big enough to hang over the hanger, skirt hangers and binder clips come in very handy and keep everything wrinkle-free, too.
On the other side of the closet, I have all my ribbons and accessories strung on packing twine, fastened with cup hooks so I can just run off a length when I need it. The doors close, thank goodness, so when I am not so "dutiful" as to clean up after myself, no one knows but me!

It is a Viking D1. I really enjoy sewing, quilting, and using the embrodiery feature. Have had it since 2003, when I got a fabulous deal on it and the cabinet. I was still working at the time.

You can pester me all you like. I have gotten the fish cut out of the ocean quilt. Working on the mermaid now.

A glass of wine and I wouldn't care about quilting. But, I do like music while working back there. I like an oldies station that plays music from the 1940's to the present. I can't get my classical station with the radio back there.

The pics are just my little sewing area. I have a well organized supply room, separate from my sewing area in the sunroom. One wall is mostly fabric, neatly folded and arranged by type, Christmas, backings, flannels, fleece, garment fabric, batiks, fabrics for landscapes, and the rest by color. I have at least 9 plastic containers, each one filled with everything I need for a project.

I did get the cabinet and table cleared. And am in the process of washing the rest of the fabric I bought.

Most of the time I can go right to what I need. Except those times I spend hours or days looking for something and it's right under my nose and I didn't see it.

Yep! Cleaning up sure helps. Just had too much other stuff going on at the time.

Believe it or not! I am actually going to use each of those fabrics in what I'm working on. I am the type who needs to see all the fabric together while I'm working on landscape quilts.

But, I did get them nicely stacked. Aren't you proud of me?

Thanks, that is my problem. All that trying to get everything done for Christmas. The Kimono Rose quilt I call "Geisha Garden" almost did me in. And DH started chemo in December. So with all that going on plus holiday stuff, I'm beat. Starting to pull out of it now.

Nope, that wouldn't work for me.

I really do have a system that works for me. A 9x11 ft room holds all my supplies and fabrics, unless I'm currently using them. I used to have my machine in there also, but got to feeling isolated so I moved it to the sunroom. More light there also. By the end of this week everything should organized AGAIN!

Maybe 2010 will be better all around. 2009 was a bad year for us. Mother was ill from Jan to July, DH had three surgeries and started chemo, stepson moved in, plus concerned for my country. But on the home front things look better. DH is tolerating chemo very well, knock on wood and praise God. Mother is healthy at age 92. Stepson still here though, going back to school and working on getting back his life, just retired from the Navy.

So maybe I can finish those four quilts I need to make for family which will complete my goal. Then things for me to play with.

But, Becca, think how warm you would be here. Hey, we're up in the high 50's today. Yes, I love being in the room with all the windows. I tend to get SADs in the winter if it is gray for too many days. I do need the sunshine.