WIWOW- July 27, 2011

Hi everyone:


Warning: this is a lengthy post!


Well, as I mentioned yesterday, I've just returned from vacation in Montana. I managed to visit 3 quilt shops, thanks to suggestions from Facebook.  Not bad for being away for only 6 days! Of course I did manage to pick up some items - translation - too much! Now I have to find somewhere to house my new purchases. If you read my post yesterday, you know that I'm rearranging the storage in my quilt studio so that it will be better organized and will make it, hopefully, easier for me to find the items I need when I need them.


So, today what I'm working on is storage and organization. I always hesitate to rearrange my studio since I usually know where things are and, even if it isn't the most organized solution, it seems to work for me. Recently, however, I've been reading some organizational books, such as "Unstuff Your Life" by Andrew J. Mellen (thanks to Mark Lipinski's Creative Mojo radio show), where he suggests that everything should have a place and like should be with like. Okay, so I guess storing threads in four different places isn't really the most efficient storage solution.  I'm going to try to follow Mr. Mellen's suggestions - to the best of my ability - and rearrange my studio in the hopes that I won't spend hours looking for that fabric that I know is in here somewhere.


I first purchased some storage towers and plastic boxes from Wal-Mart. I then moved out the boxes and bags of fabric in my sauna/fabric storage room to see what I had - a lot! Once I saw what I actually had, I could make some decisions as to where the fabric should be stored. I also gathered all my thread together to decide where it could be stored more efficiently. I managed to get the thread in one storage tower under my long-arm frame. That was quite easy. The fabric was another matter. 

Thread now in one storage tower - and labelled!

Smaller spools of thread sorted into separate containers by thread type 

I'll admit that I don't fold my fabric so it fits very well in my cupboards (see the photo below). It was getting to the point where I couldn't tell what I had and it wasn't fitting very well in the cupboards. I've decided to start folding my fabric so it's all the same size width and length and this will help me to see what I actually have in my stash. While it may take me awhile to fold my existing stash, I vow to fold all new purchases before they are put away. So far, I have been able to keep this promise. (Guess I didn't buy as much as I thought I had!). It will take me some time to fold my existing stash, but I think I can accomplish this while watching tv at night.

These definitely need tidying up.
Notice the fabric inspector to the right.

These fabrics will be going in the storage towers in the sauna.

I put the two new plastic storage towers in the sauna (an existing smaller tower contains my fat quarters and Christmas fabrics) and put some kits in the bottom two drawers. Daiwabo fabrics are in another drawer and I will be putting my novelty fabrics in the remaining drawers. I'm not sure if I'll have room left for any of my other fabrics, but this will free up some cupboards in my quilting studio area, which will be great. I still have some kits in boxes and plastic storage bins, but these are marked, so that's not a problem. 

Here's what I've accomplished so far. I think things are looking better already and I love how the fabric looks when it is all folded up. It certainly makes it easier to see what I have. 

Before...

And after! Kits are in the 2 drawers to the left and folded fabric is in the middle drawer on the right. Still have to sort out some of the fabric in the bottom right drawer. Lots of room left for novelty fabrics.

There's even visible floor space!

No more thread and lots of room for some notions.

The only problem I still have is with the thread storage. I need a way to keep the large cones upright, rather than rolling around in the drawer. Perhaps one of the thread storage stands with pegs on them that you usually hang on the wall might work in the drawer to keep these cones upright. 

A lot of "drunken" thread cones!

If you have a suggestion as to how I can store my thread cones in this drawer, I would love to hear it - as well as any other storage tips.

Quilt Studio Redux

Hi everyone:


I'm back from a quick vacation to Montana to visit with an old friend. My family and I had a great time and the weather was perfect. We hated to come back to reality, but have wonderful memories - and lots of photos - to remind us of our trip.


Speaking of reality, remember how I showed you some pictures of my quilt studio awhile ago? Well, some people have suggested that these photos don't accurately reflect the normal state of my quilting space. They have implied that I may have tidied up the studio prior to photography. They have even questioned why I didn't open up cupboards to show you my fabric and notion storage, implying that it might be a jumbled mess. Such insinuations and allegations! Unfortunately, they are partially true. 


My studio does look somewhat more disorganized when I'm actually working on a project. I do, however, tidy up after working to some extent. My storage space is another story. It definitely needs to be tidied up and this will hopefully occur sometime this summer.


So, just to show you that I'm not hiding anything, here is what my cupboards and storage spaces actually look like. 

Fabric storage under the cutting table - sorted by colour, can't you tell? 

Charlie loves to check out my fabric storage.

Plastic storage towers under my long-arm table for thread and other odds and ends.

Thread storage for cones of thread.

What evil - or quilt supplies - lurks behind this door?
Even the Shadow wouldn't be able to guess this one!

Yikes! I didn't really think things were this disorganized.

Fabrics and kits and fat quarters (in the storage tower), oh my!

Kits are stored in the large plastic bins.

And yes, they are labelled! Teeka keeps a close guard on them.

This space above my sewing area doesn't look too bad, does it?

After seeing the photographic proof of the jumbled storage in my studio, I decided to take action. After a visit to Wal-Mart to purchase some plastic storage towers, I am now ready to tackle this project. 


Check back tomorrow to see how I'm doing. If you have any storage tips, I'd sure like to hear them. 

Ooops!

Hi everyone:


Yes, it happens to everyone, sometimes you make mistakes. And when you make mistakes, you have to rectify them as quickly as possible. 

Today I received an email from one of my customers advising that one of the templates for my Hoot-mon! pattern was missing when she purchased her pattern. I quickly checked on this and discovered that she was indeed correct and one page was missing from this pattern. I was, of course, upset that this occurred, but sent her out the missing page immediately and thanked her for letting me know about this. I was very grateful that she had advised me about this as I had not been notified about this before and certainly didn't want my future customers to be missing part of the pattern. So, if you have purchased my Hoot-mon! pattern, please email me and I'll be happy to send you out the missing page.

And, continuing along the line of ooops!, I've decided to withdraw my Harry Potter Inspired Stitchery Set from sale. Although it is my daughter's original work, there has been some discussion of the possibility of copyright infringement by using the name "Harry Potter". I certainly don't want to enter this realm at all, so I won't be offering this little set for sale. I will be posting it on my website if you would like to download it for free. 


I'd like to thank Sarah for all her hard work that she put into both designing and making the samples for this, simply because of her love of all things Potter. I appreciate her maturity and understanding as to why I won't be selling this pattern. She has been inspired by J.K. Rowling's success with the Harry Potter series and I know that she'll be just as successful an author herself when she's all grown up. Thanks, Boo-boo, I love you!

Hope you're having a non-ooops! day :)