Storage and Quilting Studio Overhaul Part 2

I have been working on some aspect of this overhaul for the last two weeks.  I'm tired and I'm getting a little cranky.  It's a huge task to pack up all of your stash and then to refold it so that it looks pretty.  I keep visioning how the final product will look and how organized I will be; that's what keeping me going.  In the meantime, my entire house has been disrupted with the emptying out of my storage area.  The items I removed are in the garage, kitchen, dining room, and bed room.  Because we were painting yesterday and today, some of my rolling carts were put on my deck overnight.  I will be bringing them in after I make this promised post.

This photo is of my main working area for sorting out items and refolding my fabric stash.  So far, I have refolded seven moving boxes; I have seven more in the garage.  On the middle shelf, I will store yellows, oranges, and pinks.  The mini bolts are two stacks deep. The stacks on top were improperly stored and are waiting to be put in their new homes.

In the kitchen sink storage cabinet, I'm storing reds, blues, and greens.  I added a shelf to make the stacks smaller so they'd be less likely to topple.This is the left side.  The fabrics are two stacks deep on the bottom and one on top.  I wanted to be able to get light from the room to enter and I didn't want to have the opportunity to bump my head on the shelf so I opted for a half shelf that we stabilized very well.

Left side of the kitchen sink storage cabinet.

 I have also refolded my background and patriotic fabrics.  The backgrounds are on the three shelves and the patriotic fabrics are in the red bin on top.  (I've removed the extra mini bolt to be stored with my one-half yard or less patriotic fabrics because I didn't like it being crammed.)  I also have some books on the right side of the shelving; I'm not sure if these will stay here or move elsewhere.  I just sorted them to get them out of the way.   All the other bins are empty, awaiting fabrics and tools/notions.

To the right is my office.  I have added slots for sorting my "to-dos", bills, guild info, flyers, etc.  Now when new mail comes in, I can not only put it away, but sort it too.  I'm still working on this area as I plan to put a bulletin board on the wall.  At the same time, I'm logging my quilt tops and their statuses (that's the pile on the floor.)

I'm using a curio to store all quilt tops, sorting by WIP.  The top shelf holds tops ready to be quilted with backs already made; the 2nd shelf holds tops ready to be quilted but need backs made; the third shelf holds tops needing borders.  In the bottom of the curio (not shown) I store quilts I'm quilting and those that have backs and batting.  I added some more items today that's not in the photo...I will post final photos when I'm finished with the project.  You can say, "I'm long arm machine ready!"

This is the storage room that has made the rest of my house unlivable.  I painted it a neutral color as eventually I want to make this a sitting/TV room.  The color is darker than the paint card so I'm not sure I like it, but I didn't have money to purchase another color.  I'm adding a futon to this room that's neutral in color so hopefully it will look fine.  I will have to temporarily store quilting stuff in here too as I don't have time to purge/sort/organize all the items.  I will put back most of the items and deal with that part later as I have to have a livable home by the Christmas holidays. This photo is the facing wall as you enter.

Wall to the right of entrance

Entrance wall; the left wall is almost entirely a closet.

I plan to come back with final photos.  I have too many things to do to get this in order, but I'm determined!

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

Reorganizing, Moda Sampler Shuffle, and Scrap Quilting Club November 2015

November was a very busy month.  It started with my group hosting our annual line dance party.  It was filled with activities the first weekend in the month.  It was fun hosting the event, but I'm sure glad the planning and preparing is over.

My husband received layoff papers earlier this month from his machinist job.  This is the third time in his career.  We were preparing for him to retire next year so it isn't too stressful, just a curve ball being thrown.  This reaffirms my decision to keep moving along with the professional side of my quilting business.

I'm in the process of moving items between two rooms in my home.  It's going to be a long and tedious process as I have outgrown my quilting area, especially since I retired and need office space, instead of just working from my laptop.  Since I have to move all my fabrics, I'm downsizing my older scraps (because I'm tired of looking at them and need new materials for motivation), redefining my new size of scraps I will be keeping if I don't cut it immediately, and refolding any yardage over 1/2 yard.  In the photo below, here is my green fabrics that I started with.  I now have the red and blue groups sorted.  While refolding the fabrics, I also pulled fabrics that I don't "love" anymore and am using them for quilt backs.  I have already made ten quilt backs from this group.  If I remember, I will take photos as I work to share this process.

In addition to reorganizing, I have started the Moda Sampler Shuffle.  You actually get the links from any online quilt shop.  However, the block patterns are only available for two weeks and then the links are disabled.  Three blocks are assigned each week.  Here are my blocks 1 through 12 on my design wall.

And here are this week's assigned blocks.  I'm using scraps that were out from my previous project so nothing has to match, just getting the blocks completed.

Now, on to the Scrap Quilting Club's show-n-tell.  This was out last meeting of the year and we had a holiday potluck.  This is always a fun event because we do more socializing than sewing in November.  I demonstrated how to make a gift box from two pieces of paper which will come in handy during the holiday season.

This is Connie's year long project.  She worked very hard to get caught up in the last month.

Rita also completed the yearlong project. She changed the border.

Elsie is still working on her yearlong project.  Keep going!

Jennifer completed her yearlong project bus is adding more applique to the border.

Jennifer is also working on baby quilts.

Sarah quilted a quilt top she purchased from a local quilt shop years ago.  Yeah!  One UFO almost completed.  Its for a soon-to-be-born baby.

Kathy is working on coaster sets for Christmas presents.

Kathy is sewing together blocks she won from optional blocks a few years ago.

I can't remember the story behind this quilt, but Kathy did an excellent job piecing the top.

Gwen's quilt is made only with HSTs.  I love the design and that it makes your eyes pop to various secondary designs.

Lee Etta showed this awesome patriotic quilt top made all from scraps.

Lee Etta also show her completed top from Bonnie Hunter's mystery two years ago.

So sorry this picture is sideways...  Laura showed this piece of cloth that she wants to enhance and asked the group for ideas.

Judy made fabric gift tags and gifted each person in attendance with one.  Thanks so much Judy!

This is my yearlong project where I changed the side border to make them longer; I also added cornerstones and the pattern didn't look good coming across the side borders after I changed the size.  I also changed two of the row patterns, row 4 and 8.  I love how bright this quilt is.

The Scrap Quilting Club members!  About seven or eight people were unable to attend the meeting.  I love this group of ladies.  We have so much fun each month while sewing, socializing, and providing advice (sometimes it's unsolicited, but in good faith).

Girls just want to have fun!

-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

Hard Work and No Play

Nothing new here, but I wanted to show what I've been working on since Sunday I didn't have anything on "Design Wall Monday."

I woke up Sunday morning and decided to go to Ikea. Well, it's only 4.5 hours away,what the heck! I was looking for something to store the large Studio dies and I had so many GO! dies that I was running our of storage space.

So my goal for the trip to Ikea was to look for shelving units 15" in depth or larger. I found a 15.75" depth bookcase that was slightly wider and much taller than the one that used to be in the room.  Plus, I would be able to get more items on this unit.  I decided my small/medium GO! dies would be happy here.  The dies are stored on two Ikea DVD storage trays.  I think they are made to be placed in a drawer unit but so far, the dies are still standing!

\

Then I got lucky and found pantry storage. I was really excited until I saw the prices; yikes! 18" shelves with rolling baskets which I wasn't happy with) was $380 and I would need two of them. So, I kept walking and got to the closet storage area. I found a closet unit that had a hanging rod for holding hangers. 
I went to sales representative and asked if I could just get all shelves instead. The depth of these shelves are 22+" and I can cram lots of stuff on them. And I did!

Here is close up photo of the Studio dies and large size GO! dies.  I save recycled paper to use with the dies if I need to adjust layers for perfect cuts.

I have my Studio cutter sitting on a kitchen counter I purchase years ago to make a large ironing surface. I made the surface and used it about 6 months that way.  I collected so much fabric that I starting storing fabric in large plastic bins on it.  When the studio came in December, I clean it off!  That's motivation.  My GO! cutter is hibernating in the basement, waiting for me to lecture or hold a stash busting workshop. I don't need it upstairs anyway because I can use my GO! dies on the Studio cutter with the adapter board.

I store my cut die pieces in these units.  I have one more in my sewing studio that also holds cut units.  Previously, the pieces were not in the trays long enough to justify labeling.  However, since I got the studio, and because it has it's own home, I die cut more now than ever.  I do plan to label these but haven't gotten around to it yet; been way too busy lately.

I realize I haven't gotten the items stored in the shelves properly and that will take some time. This small storage room holds a lot of stuff and it took me 3.5 days just to switch out two storage units. I couldn't leave the stuff out around the house while I got it all organized.

This makes me appreciate the crafters that makes organization look so simple.  Its hard for me because if my areas are clean, I'm not working!

Tea in MO
www.teaquilts.blogspot.com
www.teaquilts.com


-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com