Gemm

Not really a success story here, but an observation/insight that I have recently discovered... having to pack up fabrics and the rest of your materials in a hurry means that a) you can't find _anything_ until you have looked in the last possible place (and sometimes not even then!) and b) getting projects done (or even started) takes way, way longer than it should.

I'm working on a project but keep having to interrupt it to look for a ruler or a piece of fabric or a stitch ripper (I ended up going out and buying another one of these to add to the five I still haven't found) and am realizing that my quilting life would probably be significantly improved/made easier if I just bit the bullet and got everything reorganized again. :-) I need to shorten my non-quilting to-do list, but am hoping to be back here pretty soon to find more inspiration and ideas and celebrate progress.

Thanks for being here to rant to/reflect with! :-)

WMUTeach

Chin up Gemm. It took a long time to create you stash of fabric, projects and materials. It will take time to get it all back in an order that will work for you. Recognizing that you need to reassess your work area is HUGE . For my two cents, I would suggest that you dive into what you use the most and keep just that limited amount in order and close at hand.so you can tackle some of your projects and experience the joy of creating what makes you happy.

My experience has been than when I try to organize the whole room that I get bogged down and discouraged. For me, I go space by space a little at a time and that seems to satisfy me. Over time, my space though not perfect like in magazines or online, but I can find my favorite rulers and the little scissors that I adore. I am pleased with my progress and it looks and feels better than a few months ago.

Lena1952

I totally agree with you - small bites at a time or I get overwhelmed. I find it helps me to set a timer for 30 minutes. The timer does two things: it helps to keep me focused and not get side tracked and it gives me an end point so if I really need to be doing something else I can get back to it but also feel like I've accomplished a goal in my happy place aka sewing space:-) Or since your stash is in several boxes, you could set a goal of getting through 1-2 boxes a day before moving on to an area that requires more of your time. You might be surprised how much you can get done in a 30 minute time frame. Good luck

Gemm

Thanks for the encouragement, WMU and Lena. My biggest issue is that when I picked up quilting again after a 20-year hiatus, we were in a pandemic so I turned our dining room into my sewing space. Now that we're carefully opening our house to visitors again, I can't really have my stuff "out and about" like I did when we were living in lockdown. I love the idea of having a sewing room, but am fully aware that the fact that I don't is the only reason I'm not currently drowning in fabric!

I like the ideas you have shared and while I have worked with similar strategies (only keep at hand what you need and have small goals), I've slipped a bit and let things get out of hand. I think my goal for today is going to be to find at least one of my other stitch rippers and to try to tidy up the bits I run into while I search. :-)

Happy Friday!

MaryKa

Well, my stashes are very UNorganized as most of my fabric is still in cardboard boxes and everytime I go to get a supply section for a new project, I get glared at by my 2 boys (cats) as they think I'm very rude for digging thru their bed and messing all the comfy spots up. Sometimes they don't come to sleep beside me for 2 day--except when I feed them their cat cookies--salmon flavor if you please.

Second reason--I live in an apartment and they don't build them for us quilters. NO storage in any room except the kitchen cabinets and I am not able to reach those so it's back to cardboard boxes for me (and looks of disquist from my boys).

WMUTeach

MaryKa, your silliness makes me smile. My condo was once a two bedroom apartment, so my storage is limited too and I understand. On the other hand I can use the second bedroom is my sewing room. My kitty uses my sewing room as an observation deck for the marsh out back, a hotel with multiple soft sleeping spaces and a hideout when wanting to worry me. Cats have an extraordinary ability to hide in plain sight. Enjoy what ever space you have and create warm, snuggly blessings for others while you do your organizing.

Oh, just thought of this. One of my quilting friends uses the large but not to deep under-the bed containers for her stash storage. She labels the bin by type of fabric (backing, batik, fat-quarters, etc.) for easier access to what she wants.Just a thought.

rryder

Welcome here, MaryKa! If you've got room for some drawer units, I've found that the cheap plastic three drawer units from Target work great for my stash. Sterilite also makes some that are sold at Walmart and are the same size as the ones at Target. The last time I bought some they were around $10 per unit. I use the narrower ones, not the wide ones because I find the weight of the fabric makes it easier to open the narrow units' drawers. I buy comic book boards from Amazon and cut them so that they will fit in lengthwise, then I wrap my fabric around them and stand them on their long sides. That way when I open the drawers I can see at a glance what I've got. I can fit 20-30 yards of fabric per drawer doing it this way. My drawer units fit under my cutting table which is pushed up against a wall to save space. If you don't put the wheels on them, you can stack them 2 high (6 drawers).

Rob.

Julienm1

Finally bit the bullet and jumped into my batting scraps...soft landing...lol Spent the past 2 hours trimming and fusing. Now I have 2 full size batts and more huge chunks to make another batt. I use cheap fusible interfacing from Joanns and trim down to 1" strips. Such a good feeling. Now to organizing some of my fabric...tomorrow...maybe!

WMUTeach

I have been on a UFO completion mission and I need a little break from quilting and binding. So, today I am going to dig into the some of the remaining UFO tops, measure the fabric for the backing, cut the batting and bundle them up for my next quilt work day when I can layer them. Organizing on a small scale. Then back to quilting and binding.

rryder

I've been tidying up around the studio and organizing my paper and scrap paper storage. In doing so, I emptied out a bunch of small containers and filled one small, but slightly bigger than the others with all the scraps that I've been saving for collage. Not only is it visually more appealing in my studio, but it also takes up way less space than the 5 smaller containers I'd used before. Tested it this morning and found that it is just as easy to find what I want in this container as it was to look through a bunch of smaller containers...

Don't know if this would be a helpful discovery for anyone else, but thought I'd post it just in case LOL!

Rob