Quilt Crazie: Tuesday Tip

Last Thursday was the first day of SPRING! Finally, the weather man is predicting some warmer temps in the future and I have the Spring cleaning bug. I am going to sort through my old magazines and send the ones I no longer wish to keep to the guild for our next show. We (the guild) sell used magazines at our bi-annual quilt show to raise additional money. Its nice that once a month, I can take the magazines that I no longer want and pass them on to the guild for the future quilt show.

I have been trying to work on organization. I have really enjoyed seeing views of others' sewing studios on Quiltville Open Studio on Facebook. Its inspirational to me. I know that I will never have the perfect sewing studio, but I certainly have come along way, baby! I started sewing at the dining room table and had to put it all away or push it aside. Now I have basically the whole basement.

The basement has its challenges. First, I had to deal with possible flooding. So we put in a basement system with two sump pumps. Next I made room for two longarms (oops, how'd that happen—a story for another day). I have storage under the longarms: Sterilite drawers, tubs and piles. Yep, admit it—we all have piles.

So my Tip for Tuesday don't look at your room as a whole and feel overwhelmed. Break it down one area at a time. I like to work in 15 to 30 minute increments to sort, clean, put away and organize. You could make a list of what you want to accomplish and choose one thing to work on at a time. I am making a dent in clearing a path. See I admit that over the winter, my sewing area has become piles of stuff everywhere.

First, I worked in cleaning off my main work area, also known as the work triangle. I straightened up my sewing table where my sewing machine sits. Then cleaned and organized around my ironing space and then uncovered the cutting table. My cutting table should have a sign, WARNING AVALANCE AREA! Hehehe......My cutting table is my collection area or dumping ground.

My mother-in-law has been bringing me Rubbermaid or Sterlite containers. I have been putting my current projects in those and labeling them. That has made it really easy to grab a project and go. I find these containers are stacking nicely under my longarm or under my ironing board. Not all the containers match but they are stacking nice and are all clear so I can see into the containers. The labels remind me what project is in the box.

Next stack of boxes waiting to be washed and dried.

When buying Sterilite drawers for storage. Buy individual drawers that stack. Avoid buying drawers units that have multiple drawers. They will sag from the weight of the fabrics and become hard to open. Also, if you have individual drawer units, you can pull a whole unit out to take to a retreat.