retiredteacher09

Great organizing happening along with great ideas on going through bookmarks, etc.

Last month, I was out of town for 10 nights dog/house sitting and took along a variety of sewing projects. I grabbed my 3.5” squares and strips at the last minute. I covered the large dining room table with them while I was sorting by color. 🤭 . When I got home, I decided I should sew some tops for my church group. 2 tops later- 600 squares, lots of narrower WOF strips that I cut into 2.5” strips for sashing, plus fabric for the border used. Wahoo! I pulled more squares for a future quilt top and the rest fit into a large shoebox. I’m happy!

Organization does pay off! 😉. (I was organized as a teacher but not so much at home.)

rryder

Had a lot of fun at the workshop on Saturday and was too exhausted yesterday to do any organizing! But it looks like y'all did enough to make up for what I didn't LOL.

Today I'm going to try to find 5 more books to part with and cut a bunch more wedges for the workshop I'm taking at MAQF in Feb/March. Also going to ponder my list of things to declutter and decide which category to tackle next. The knitting/crochet/weaving one was the easiest because I had so many tool duplicates and yarn I no longer want to use. The others will be more challenging.

Keep it up everyone! Your decluttering/organizing stories, tips, etc. are motivation for us all.

Rob

WMUTeach

I stopped by JoAnn Fabric today and bought three more project boxes to organize my long term quilt projects. It will keep the pieces and directions in their own place and not scattered and piled on my work table. On sale and I had gift cards to put to use. Yeah!

rryder

Way to go WMUTeach- I've been using project boxes for a while now and it really helps control the chaos since I like to work on more than one project at a time.

I know I said I was going to look for 5 more books yesterday, but I was having an indecisive moment when it came to parting with books. So, I tackled a corner of my closet where I'd stashed a bunch of wired fabric ribbon that was given to me by someone who got it from a florist shop that was going to throw it away. It's nice ribbon, and all is on spools, some are still unopened. I'd planned on pulling the wires out and using the fabric in some scrap quilts, but it's been sitting there for 5 years, so time to go. It's as least 30 large spools of wide ribbon. All went into a box that has been sealed up and put with the other things I'm putting in my studio yard sale. So I'm counting that as a win, even though I didn't find any books to part with LOL! And, as I'm sitting here typing this, I think I see a couple of books that I'm ready to part with. Will let you know if it happens.

How's everyone doing with their New Year's organizing?

Rob

rryder

Hey everyone, yesterday I found 5 books to donate and today I found 5 more. That's 15 out of my house so far this year!

I'm going to spend the rest of my organizing time this morning doing some more fabric cutting to get ready for a workshop I'm taking at MAQF- that's eating up a lot of my scraps YAY!

I'm trying to find a way to corral my batting scraps until I'm ready to use them. So far, I've made frankenbatting out of the larger scraps and will use those for art quilts, but these are piling up in my studio faster than I can use them.. I've been keeping small bits of batting to use for pillow stuffing- I'm working on getting enough for a bench cushion. I've been cutting these into small bits and putting them in a large ziplock bag, but since I need a lot more for the bench cushion than what the bag will hold, I'm looking for a more efficient way to store them. Right now the bag is a pain because it wants to fall off of whatever thing I put it on. I'm thinking maybe I'll continue filling ziplock bags, but store the bags in a box until I've got enough. That will keep the batting bits dust free. The problem is where to put the box???? And how to store the excess frankenbatting?

What do y'all do with your batting scraps and if you save them, how do you store them?

Rob

tallchick

Rob: For batting scraps, I have a gal whose mom works at a nursing home that takes my batting and fabric scraps for craft projects for the residents.

Wonderful progress everyone! My organizing has been more in my kitchen by purging old spices and replacing with new fresh ones that I will use and the same goes for condiments in the fridge! No more big bottles of dressing (will stick with homemade when needed) catsup, mustard etc, smaller bottles only!

carolaug

As I was organizing my old 2 in square scraps, I decided to make craft materials out of them for my craft group to make something from them. I used the 19 x 15 thicker fusible sheets and placed the raw edge fabric/overlapped and ironed. I will also sew the top of them so that they will not have any issues with them coming off. I will also sew a few large pieces together for the backing. They can make fabric boxes, eye glass cases. If you use lighter fusible they could be used for anything. I did a few of them and the more I did decided to just donate the rest of the squares. I already made a bag with some yesterday. I sorta did the same. I put raw edge squares on interfacing - I then took several rolls of fabric ribbon and sewed them on all of the raw edges and made a bag for my remote. I found sew on snap and sewed that on. I am ready to donate the rest of the squares. Woohoo. nice to see more things made and out of my sewing room.

Sandygirl

Been quilting UFOs on my long arm. Many were pieced 10 years ago. I bought my LA almost 2 years ago. I am more confident in quilting on it with better results. My goal is to make charity quilts and work on kits that I have accumulated in the last 5-6 years.
So glad to see the activity on this forum.

happy 2024!
Sandy

paddingtonbear

Thank you for this thread. You’ve encouraged me to organise my fabric stash. I have hundreds of 2 inch squares (not 2.5 inches) required for a quilt I was going to make but decided I just didn’t like the pattern. I’ve learnt not to cut all my fabric until I’ve made a definite decision.

so, I’ve already got plastic boxes but what I did was colour code the boxes and colour code the little squares and put them in zip lock bags in a box stacked vertically. Then I adjusted my shelves to fit the boxes.

The pile of fabric on the drawers is to be given away. I still have 2 more boxes of scraps to colour code but I also have 2 empty boxes so I figure I’ve achieved something!

I have difficulty separating red, pink, purple, yellow and orange.

paddingtonbear

Rob, I put small but useful pieces of batting in a box and actually used some on the weekend for a computer bag I’m making. I label large pieces of batting with the type of batting and size and roll them up in large plastic bags with another label on the outside. Rolled, they sit snuggly together on a shelf. The aim is to never (again) buy what I already have!