Quilting in the closet (studio)

When we moved into our house in November 2014, I was pregnant. In January of 2015, our little girl was born, and we finally had made some progress with getting all our stuff unpacked from the moving boxes. (She was born 3 weeks early, so I guess I was both stressing and was having nesting instinct but those boxes got unpacked -really- fast)

I had also then already gotten a crafting room (a "she shed" I've heard it be called, to counter the word "'man cave"...) set up. It was in the room that now belongs to little girl. She moved in there when she got a bed of her own in April 2015. (Before that, she slept in the "mammalådan" or "mother's box" that every Finnish child gets from the state).

Nowadays, my (oh so tiny she-shed) "studio" is located in the tiny walk-in-closet by the bathroom. It's about 1,5x2 m.

Not a lot of room, so I've tried to get rid of a lot of crafting materials. And use up, make do or do without, as the sayings go.

I got my beadwork supplies organized and put away safely (remember, small kids in the house!) behind lock and key last year. This year, it's the quilting and sewing supplies that are gonna get organized. I've already made pretty good progress there since last September, but I need to get rid of fabrics to be able to do even more.

Washing, pressing, folding, sorting and using fabrics is a whole thing onto itself.

People (sewists, creationistas, quilters) write about it; what works/doesn't work for them, how they repurposed odd furnitures for it, how they store scraps etc. "Scrap management" is really something else. Try googling "scrap user system" and see how much comes up.

How do I do it?

Well, I've come to the conclution that "less is more" when it comes to scrappy quilting. As in, I think having a little of a lot of colors is better.

I have them put in individual Palaset boxes. The drawers that goes into them are used for other things. Printed fabrics goes in the boxes, solid colored fabrics goes on top.

These boxes, which I'm slowly getting more of, are storing my buttons and other such nick nacks. They're all containers that used to store store brand "Vanish"-detergent. After they've been used up, and gone through the dishwasher, they make okay containers for other things. I just glued fabric on them to get them looking a bit nicer.

Already cut up fabrics in 'usable' sizes (like 10x10 cm, 15x15 cm and such) are found here, in these old Ikea magazine holders, sorted by color family.

Behind them, I have already cut up shirts that won't fit anywhere else.

Crumbs and scraps are sorted into these similar Ikea magazine holders, also by color families. The metallic plant holders happens to contain binding.

All of the magazine holders won't fit under, so three of them sort of "float around the room". To the left of them are all the larger pieces of fabrics that arent big enough to use for backings.

I probbly should sort them better, but right now they're loosely sorted after amount.

Behind the "Alex" is my smaller design wall.

And my larger one takes up much of this wall.

As you can see, it's pretty crowded with random projects.

Above the sewing table, there's the shelf with boxes filled with backings and other assorted sewing relating stuff. Also non-quilting fabrics.

And under the table is even more boxes and fabric boxes: jersey, denim and such.

And that was all I had thought to show you. The room is small, and one of my goals for 2018 is getting the stuff from under the table sorted and put away. Because I want nothing on the floor. (Easier to clean then) And the stuff on the shelf also needs to be sorted and destashed.

Lots to do still :)