Organizing & More Organizing

I started organizing my sewing space last year, or was it year before last? It’s kind of hard to remember. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that organizing is a never-ending process! I will admit that I’m beginning to be able to find/use items with less Hide & Seek. There are still items on my ‘I can’t find’ list – A book of Christmas Blocks (I found the receipt, so I KNOW I bought it), and the feet/attachment box for one of my machines.

July 2019 I added shelves to hold fabric & supplies

As I use fabric (or sort fabric looking for something) I continue to adjust the piles/shelves of yardage – by color, novelty, batiks, backing, and any other category that comes to mind. I’ve re-sorted my Fat Quarters into 4 boxes, and have another box of miscellaneous precuts: Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, FQ Bundles & Layer Cakes. I have one whole shelf full of 3-yard Bundles perfect for Fabric Cafe patterns.

Still organizing yardage

I’m locating Un-Finished Objects (UFOs) and trying to keep my Works in Progress (WIPs) in a manageable state. Not super happy, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Organizing my Works in Progress (WIPs). Here are 4 of my 5 Current Projects – WIPs. Far left & Top Far Right – Scrap Dance Pachanga (my agenda for tomorrow is to finish cutting the Brights, so I have them spread out ready to cut). Top/Middle – My Hometown (Fall Fabric). Bottom/Middle – Hand Pieced QAL. Bottom/Right – 9 Patch Rows. Not Shown – 12″ x 12″ plastic box – Quilt of Valor Mystery A12

WIPs – Works in Progress Organization – A Container for Everything and Everything in a Container.

So, for my continuing organizing, I have added two steps to my organization – Scrap Organization & Daily Small Steps.

Scrap Organization

I have a lot of scraps. What I’ve done in the past is to take leftover fabric from a quilt top and put it into a Ziploc Bag. This has resulted in boxes & boxes of bags of different fabric in different sizes which is difficult to find what I have or want to use.

Again, like anything else, this looks to be a huge project. So I’m breaking it down into smaller steps. I saw a hint on a Facebook Group I follow (don’t ask me which one, I don’t remember – Senior Moment). This tip was to cut the sides of a cereal box creating a container that can hold 2-1/2″ strips. I’ll find other boxes I can recycle into different sizes. At this point, I’m just adding strips/rectangles/squares all in the same box, and will probably divide by color or something. Organization begins one step at a time.

Scrap Organization – Repurposing Cereal & other boxes for storing Scraps.

My husband needs to seriously eat more cereal. I currently have 2 trays from a cereal box. One has 2-1/2″ strips, the other has strips less than 2-1/2″ (mostly 1-1/2″ – 2-1/4″). The smaller box is from a 2 lb container of Velveeta (top is too flimsy). It has smaller pieces roughly 2-1/2″ x 2-5″. I’ve been adding to these as I cut/trim my Current Projects. I need to find some more boxes for strips 3-1/2″ and 4-5″ wide. I’m looking for a plastic box that will hold these trays. My thoughts/plans are to manage the scraps going forward and to tackle my existing boxes of scraps as I have time. Baby Steps.

Daily Small Steps

American Patchwork & Quilting’s UFO Challenge on Facebook has added to the Challenge. Each month a UFO project is selected from my list to work on or finish for that month. But this year, there is a monthly Organization Challenge. In January it was to organize our UFOs – that is a work in progress as I find them. In February it was to create storage for our rulers and templates. While not perfect, my rulers are reasonably organized. Now my patterns, that’s another story and a project for some day.

This month our challenge is 31 Days to an Organized Sewing Space. Looking at the first seven days, it seems that each day may take 5-30 minutes. I think I can manage that.

Day 2 (03/02/2021) was to Clean You Cutting Mat. Your Cutting Mat needs some loving to keep serving you for a long time. If there are straggling threads on your Mat, use a gum eraser to gently rub the threads away or run a sticky roller to grab loose thread to prevent them from being ground into the mat. . OmniGrid gives suggestions for Caring for Your Mat. The National Quilter’s Circles shares a video and instructions to “moisturize” your Cutting Mat by putting it in your tub with a mixture of cool water, white vinegar & kitchen soap. Giving it a bath is hard for me. I just add a bit of white vinegar to a spray bottle & fill with cool/lukewarm water. I spray the mat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then, using a microfiber cloth, I wipe it dry.

Giving my Cutting Mat a bit of Love – Spray bottle with vinegar water and soft microfiber cloth

Today – Day 3 – the task is to change your machine needle and rotary cutter blade. I recently changed my needle and I’ve been notified I will be receiving some tops to make for Fabric Cafe. I like to start these tops with fresh supplies, so I will change my needle and rotary blade before starting these store samples.

Do you have any organizing tips? I’m always open to learning something new! Share your tips with me and I’ll try to add them to my blog.

Happy Stitching!

Quilt Mouse

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