Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sheesh!!

It has been SO hard to get anything done in the sewing room. Our little baby, Ms. Puff, is very persistent when she wants to be held or walk across the keyboard. It won't last so I am enjoying her. But today I locked her out for a little while to finish these blocks. These house blocks are for Victoria's BASICS home gather. She's collecting blocks to make quilts for the homeless. Check it out, they are quick and easy to make, and fun too! I like the 'Quilts for Sale' sign I put in the window! As soon as I figure out how, I will put the link on my sidebar.
Last weekend I finished putting the binding on my Storm at Sea. It's washed and soft and wrinkly. I believe it is one of my all time favorites.
I did a little tidying up in here today and, seriously, there is just TOO MUCH STUFF!! I am so lucky to have a decent space for sewing and somehow I have made it look like a disaster zone. I have a hardwood floor in here and I am occasionally tempted to paint it a nice bright color or maybe checkerboard or stenciled. That would require emptying the room. Maybe if I did that, I would be able to do an entire overhaul . Hmmm. What do you think? Is it sacrilege to paint a wood floor? (you should know that it isn't in very good shape, and it's dark). And while I'm asking questions, how do you store your fabric? do you keep it out where you can see it? or in boxes, or closets, or cabinets to protect it from sunlight? Do you separate it into colors? or designers? or categories? What do you do with 'outdated' fabrics? Do you save them for charity quilts, or backings, or give them away?
Lot of questions I know. But cmon, I could really use some ideas, and so could my friend, Natalie, who is a new quilter. She got me started thinking about this by asking for ideas for her beginning stash. I am anxiously awaiting your tips and hints and pearls!!

8 comments:

  1. and so am I! thanks! natalie

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  2. I organize my yardage by color and also my FQ's. My scraps I am more nutty about. I sort them by color and they further sort them into one of four different size piles. So for each color I have four boxes......as you can imagine, I have alot of scrap boxes!!! But I love being able to just pull out a box and know I have the right size scraps inside it.

    As for the outdated fabric, you just give it to me. That is what everyone else does and I will add it to my collection......I will esp love it if it is ugly.

    I was going to paint my basement floor until I realize how much work was involved.....and I could be sewing instead......so that idea went out the window!

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  3. Ha! No tips here. I have a feeling my crafty zone is far more disastrous than yours. :) I store most of my fabric in the closet (have one of those nice closet organizing systems with lots of shelves which is awesome!)-- but I have so much now that it has overrun onto the floor... like, ALL over the floor. Sigh... I sometimes hate going in there it is just so bad.

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  4. I sort my fabric by color and have it on bookshelves so I can see it. Small pieces and scraps I put in large totes - one of my ongoing projects is to turn the scraps into strips and or squares and eventually make a scrappy quilt out of them.
    My sister-in-law has a quilt painted on her wood floor in her dinning room - I love it! (But I am with you - is it worth moving everything to do it?)
    I'm with Kathy on the outdated fabric - I love the old stuff, send it my way! Unlike Kathy - I don't like ugly material :-)

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  5. Your little houses are so cute.. especially the fussy cut details....

    My new favorite pattern designer... www.jerikelly.com... will be one of my retreat projects.

    Sounds like Robin should take one of the retreat openings and come with us!

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  6. Love those houses - they look so warm and inviting.
    My fabric is stored mostly by colour and on permanent display - I like to call it a feature as it adds a touch of bright to my space. Scraps are stored in a basket as I mostly use them for making small softies they are not organised.
    Painting the floor will brighten things up - there is a craft store here that has painted floors - just like some child has painted and it always makes me smile.

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  7. LOVE the LITTLE HOUSES!!!!! gotta love the fussy cuts!! ooh! these are going to be so cute these quilts!!

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  8. I love the chickens in your house! So cute.

    And I would still like to trade a half yard of your pink FFA frog princes for a half yard of my Matroyshka dolls. Trade?

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