Is your Sewing Space "put together"?

long time! I cleaned out

-- and losing the

Kate: I also have wire shelving in closet. (Vinyl coated of course.) It does not fall through. For lengths of about 3/4 yd to about 2 yd, I fold real narrow* and stack so I can see the folded edges. To prevent the stacks from tipping over, I installed 'dividers' about 7" apart on the shelves. My dividers are just a nice white nylon twine that I string up and down; if you peered into the closet from the side, it would look like a twine letter N at each divider.

*How to fold real narrow. Fold fabric selvage to selvage. Lay long 6" ruler at one cut edge and wrap the fabric onto the ruler. I like to turn the other cut under to be tidy. Slide ruler out of the wrap. Fold selvages to fold, so the pack is now about 6" by 11". You can do this with FQ also ... just eliminate that first fold and go right to the wrap. With FQ I usually fold it again so it comes to 6" by 6". Those do NOT go on the shelves.

For very long pieces (2+ yd.) I usually fold twice lengthwise, roll to about 11" by a few inches round; tie with a bit of selvage, marked as to length. Store on wire shelves like wine bottles. Then I know those are appropriate for backing or long borders. HTH.

PAT > I've thought about the wire shelves... do you have any problem with stuff

falling through? I don't

small/medium bins than

Don't know if this is really going to be helpful to you, but I'm proud of what I've been able to do with my new space so I'd like to share it with you (if you feel like reading it all if not just check out the pictures and skip the rest).

Pictures can be found at:

in the obvious folder (just created) Right now I have two walls (about 7 ft. of useable space on each) of my formal dining room functioning as hobby room/office not a dining room for now. I have a bookshelf for all my books and binders of patterns and info. I have a wardrobe cabinet for all my supplies and tools. One door and the hanging side of the wardrobe has some hooks for my rulers, mats, templates and anything else I feel like hanging up. The hanging bar is handy for my embroidery hoops (just slid it right through the hoop then back into place). Since we just moved in and my old home had little space for my hobby stuff (crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, general crafts and of course quilting) I don't have much accumulated stash or tools and everything I had was stored in various types of totes (good thing too, my new area isn't that large and is a very public are of the house). I even had a large tackle box on wheels that had my cross stitch stuff in. After reorganize and purging my cross stitch items, it now houses my quilting/sewing supplies. I can pull it out of my wardrobe and have everything handy. It works well (I got to try it out the other day when I altered some drapes). My machine can either sit in the wardrobe on top of the tackle box or it can sit on my new to me collapsible sewing table. Across the top shelf in the wardrobe is my stash and since I didn't accumulate much it fits well. The other side is shelving that I have all my other things on. One self for my current quilting projects of fabric purchase for a specific project, one for my crochet, and the last one for my cross stitch and embroidery with some general craft supplies. Beside my wardrobe and in the corner is a second small sewing machine table from DH's grandmother that doesn't work well for me or machine as a sewing table so instead it's going to be used as a prep area and a place to keep my pieces I'm working with. In the space between my wardrobe and the sewing table is enough space to store my mini ironing board and my collapsible sewing table if I choose to have it down (other wise it sits along the other wall beside my other table). I can't really use much more of the room because it also functions as the office (uses the reaming 6 ft of usable wall space) and is a major pathway in the home. The basement and second story steps are both located off this room along with the doorways to the kitchen, living room/family room and the master bedroom. I can't really put anything out into the room because of the traffic flow so my work triangle isn't a very good one, but it will work. When the boys are in bed (most of my sewing time occurs after bedtime) I will be able to set my ironing table up to help, but that is about it. It is much improved over my last home -cut on the kitchen table, sew in the master bedroom on a card table, iron in the bathroom and design wall was the bed or the living room floor (I guess I got my exercise though).

The only thing I need to figure out is where to put my design wall- I think a removable one may go above where my machine sits when its up. And I'll hang my eagle quilt there when I'm not using my design wall. Think that will work?? Any ideas on how to make an attractive and flexible hanging system for my quilt and design wall (probably just and old sheet or a flannel backed table cloth).

I have half of my closet in these:

Just the blocks. Got them at Costco. Have moved them to the other house already. They come apart and can be rec> I agree.... floor to ceiling... only way to go! Cuz we can't get enough

floor only! LOL

Right now they are in a file folder. My plan is to 3 hole punch them and put them in a notebook with dividers like: Holiday-Pieced; Holiday - Appliqué; Wall-Hanging, Children's...

Then I"ll take a digital picture of the picture in the pattern -- and create a table of contents with little 1 or 2" square images... So I can quickly locate the quilt I want.

Long process -- which is why right now they are in a folder! LOL

However... making progress on my room. Will be excited to post pictures in the next week or two of the "new and revised" space!

Kate in MI

No kidding! I learned that I have to save the complete magazine, because things that might interest me at the time I get the magazine, doesn't later, and vice versa. I looked in an old, old magazine the other day and saw the most beautiful appliqué -- it didn't give me even a twinge of interest back then. But now.....!

René

(Snip...) Is there a rule of thumb like the kitchen

Well, I just KNEW there was something that caused stuff to just disappear. The Kitchen Triangle.

LOL

René

well, I sort of do have 2 "sewing rooms". I have the smallest two rooms in the house since DH "got" the converted double carport for his "office". But I have stash in many rooms. The house is a disaster and needs serious work so I can find what I have and make use of my space better. That is high priority in the next couple of months. I have floor to ceiling shelves, or pretty near (and the top shelf can be filled to the ceiling). And a lot of garment stash as well as quilting stash (some of which moves from one to the other occasionally). I do have some "window coverings" on the windows.... I have peg board mounted over the windows in the two rooms (the windows face south, not a good thing in the summer around here). There is a space at the bottom that is not covered and lets in a lot of light. The closet in my sewing room (as opposed to the "cutting room" which was originally my "Tupperware room" when I sold TW for several years.) is a large on with the sliding doors, one of which is taken out and standing to the side. There is a chest of drawers in the closet that holds notions like zippers, lace, ribbon and trim lengths, shoulder pads and so on. I finally found the sewing table I want, or at least part of it. and may be able to eventually get it, or get one custom made from the same company. But I wish I had more space in one room. Even 2 rooms that are maybe

10'square doesn't give much room to move around.

Pati, in Phx

Taria wrote: