The last of the Maine Happy Block tops is quilted! This one had a note on it that it was pieced by Suzy. Pantograph is Happy Times. I’ll get these last two bound and washed in the next couple weeks. I have 4 or 5 of the 8 to take back to Maine. A few were already donated.
When I went up to quilt tonight, a storm had just passed and while I thought it was done, I heard a little distant rumble of thunder so I straightened up my blues while I was waiting for the all clear.
I do not like the shelves I have and they were always meant to be temporary – it’s just too much wasted space and it’s hard to see what I have but at least the blues aren’t falling all over the place now.
What I’d really like is to get another set of cubbies like I had in Minneapolis. I wasn’t able to take them with me when I had to move the longarm to our GA condo in 2014 and my stash lived in bins for the 3 and a half years the longarm was there. Maybe once I get the new longarm settled in and after Mom’s extended visit this fall, I’ll do something about finding new cubbies.
This is a partial shot of the wall of cubbies I had along with my quilt model Chesty! I had two of these units that took up the whole wall in my sewing room. The bins were great for holding my scraps which were also separated by color.
How do you store your stash?! I know some people don’t like to expose it to light but I’ve never had a problem with mine being on open shelves.
I bought a nice large cabinet at Ikea that has doors on it with glass on the top of the doors. I have most of my stash organized in that. But it doesn’t hold everything. I am trying to get my stash to that point. I am trying very hard to not buy any new material or precuts or kits. It is sooooo hard to resist but I really need to get some of these things done. My husband put together a cutting table for me that includes 3 cubby storage units with a table top also bought from Ikea. I store the rest of my stash in that. But I do have yarn in some of them. I got the idea for the cutting table from Pinterest. There are a lot of sewing room ideas on there. My sewing room is just a small bedroom. But I think I have it pretty well organized for a small room.
Mine is stored in cupboard on shelves. It works well for me.
I have a wall of built in shelves in the space that would have been the closet in my sewing room and store fabrics grouped by color and project boxes there. I also have the smaller sizes of your Ikea cubbies under my ironing board and cutting table. Special groups of fabric are stored there so they don’t get used up before I finish their project.
Let’s not even get started about my stash. It is a mess! In fact, it’s several messes as it’s stored in a storage shed, the garage, the basement AND my official sewing room. I have some fabrics stored in Rubbermade totes of various sizes, some in shoe boxes, some in paper ream boxes, some in brown paper bags, some just folded (or thrown willy nilly) on plastic shelves like you have. I used to have a “system” at my old house (sound familiar) of shelving with under-the-bed boxes neatly lined up, but that system stayed with the house so now it’s more of a catch-as-catch-can system, which is frustrating. I end buying fabric because I know I have some but just can’t find it (ditto my orphan blocks? WHAT BOX ARE THEY IN?!?!). Grrrrr!
These quilts are all sooooooo pretty! Such a simple block/concept but yet each one is so unique & so pretty. I love them! How many have you made in total?
My daughter would tell me that IKEA has cubbies. I don’t know if they do but her answer for any storage or furniture problem is IKEA! The last happy block quilt is adorable and you are still amazing with your level of giving.
I’m an organizer so I have always sorted them by color or designs: Christmas, children etc. I only have a small bedroom for my sewing room but it has a very large closet. We took the doors off and husband put up Rubbermaid shelves which were ok for awhile. Now I keep the fabrics in cloth tubs. Then I bought more cubbies for another wall and we made a wonderful cutting table out of two base kitchen cabinets. I have a family room with several storage areas for fabric also. I have way too much and this October will be mailing it out to The Navajo Project. I’m wondering if you would like children and teenage fabrics with matching prints and solids?
I have never had a problem with fading, either. I need to have my stash on open shelves in order to know what I have. Also, the stash brightens my basement studio. I have three big white laminate shelving units bought at Builders Square (a chain that closed long ago) when I lived in Fargo. The shelves are 15″ deep. They have been augmented by a collection of other shelving units. The best are two Ikea Billy bookcases that I got for $10 each at a garage sale. If I were starting over I’d get all Billy. [I ought to create a photo tour of my studio and stash….one of these days.]
I store mine in a double closet on the 3 lower shelves my hubby installed–I am not really happy with how messy they get when I pull fabrics for a quilt..and they are down low to the floor –getting up and down is becoming harder as I age (!).
this is such a pretty quilt I like the lovely borders you’ve found for each block…nice work hugs, Julierose
What brand of cubbies did you purchase? I really like that look and the functionality they offer.
Your cubbies remind me of the unit I put in my bedroom on one of the dressers. You know, those cube shelves that you use with those cloth bins. I store my fabric in my sewing room in drawers. I don’t worry about sun lght because my room is an inside room with no outside window. HOWEVER, I have to protect it from dust. It must come in through the window A/C unit. Maybe it’s dust from the dogs since one is almost always keeping me company when I’m in my room.
xx, Carol
I had a similar cubby style from IKEA when I lived in Melbourne, Australia. The room had outside shutters that were lowered when the room was not in use. It also had window blinds. Melbourne’s winters are days of low sunshine and cold winds that come straight from Antarctica. Some fabrics still developed fade lines! Not all, but some. I ended up covering the whole thing with a flannel backed tablecloth which I used as a design wall. We’ve moved further north now to where it’s even sunnier. We’ve moved three times in 18 months and are about to move once more into a house we’ve purchased. I miss all my stuff as it’s scattered into boxes in 2 different locations. I’m trying to work out a new storage system as I won’t be able to have fabric exposed to light as I’m sure fading will be an issue. I still have my IKEA unit.
You have been busy! Love the strippy quilts…they seem really easy and quick! Wish I had a long arm machine. Congrats on your new one. Years ago, my dh said I could get one, but only if I turned it into a business. Not what I wanted to do, so I pay to have others quilt my quilts, instead of doing my own.
I have multiple storage units…a china cabinet with glass doors on top and wood doors on the bottom, a roll around kitchen cart with a butcher block top that has shelves with doors, and 3 2-door plastic filing cabinets that roll around, but are kept stored underneath my cutting table which is our old kitchen table that my dh put risers on. Organized? No, my fabrics aren’t very organized…but I do have projects separated from the rest of the fabrics. I tend to buy fabrics that I like (am especially fond of fqs) but then when I want to make a project, I can’t seem to put them together into something I like, unless it’s a turning twenty pattern with big block pieces that show off the fabrics.
Mary, I have my fabrics stored in cubbies in a north facing room. I’ve had the folded edges on a few piece of fabric fade a bit. I just cut around it if I find it. Usually it’s fabric that has been on the shelf a long time.