After I shared how I folded "larger cuts" of fabric (one yard to six yard cuts) on carboards, many of you have inquired how I store the smaller cuts of fabric I own. Well, those fat quarters and smaller cuts (half yard and less) are stored in color coded plastic tubs out in my garage. These smaller cuts of fabric are folded fairly uniformly, but I am not
terribly obsessive/compulsive about it. I just want the contents of the
tub to be neat and be able to see what I have without a lot of digging
around.
If I cut
into a fat quarter and have half of it left, I just fold it and put it
back in the bin with the full fat quarters. I know a lot of people have
bins of teensy little scraps they will put into a postage stamp quilt
or something, but that isn't me.
Deb asked me about kits, and where were mine? lol I had to laugh because I have pretty
much given up on kits. In my experience, I end up switching out most of
the fabric in kits for other pieces in my stash, so it really isn't
worth it to me. Kits I might buy are those put out by Bonnie Blue (now
called Red Crinoline), or maybe something completely awesome I see at a
shop or quilt show. Thelma and I bought our Halloween 1904 kits at the
Buggy Barn when we were there a year ago, because we knew it would take
us forever to collect all those oranges and blacks. Last January I bought a kit for my Long Road Home quilt because I loved the assortment of backgrounds it contained. I might buy one
kit a year. Or not!
This garage of ours is actually kind of awesome. It is huge,
plenty of room to park cars, but lots of room for storage cupboards and
shelves as well. Tons of good lighting so I can easily see what I am
looking at. It is not inconvenient to pop in there to go through the
stash bins to find whatever I need. It is the perfect place to keep
things I use, but don't need to have within five feet of my sewing
space. I consider my stash the same way an artist views their assortment of paints. When I want just that certain shade of blue or rust or green, I want lots of options to choose from. Sooo, here it is.
Yeah, I know. It looks like a lot. To be fair, all those tubs do not contain fabric. Lots of Christmas decorations, photos, mememtos from the kids younger days…All the stuff everyone hangs onto. But more than half those bins contain fabric.
The tubs are clearly labeled (I have a labeling machine that I couldn't live without). Over the past few years, my interest has been leaning more towards reproduction fabrics, so I have that category of stash in its own area.
My favorite designers get their own tubs as well, with fatquarters and leftovers from bundles I have purchased stashed in those bins.
There is plenty of random fabric that doesn't fit into the reproduction or specific designer category, and that is stored in color coded bins in a different section of the shelving system.
You can see my Random Yellow bin in the photo above, as well as some of the dozens of project boxes I have containing UFOs.
This particular method of organizing my stash works for me, although there are plenty of other ways it could effectively be done. I am fortunate to have a lot of space to store all this excess stash, and I know not everyone has that. You gals who live on the East Coast where big finished basements are so common are lucky if you have room down there for your sewing supplies and fabric! I am sure if I didn't have the luxury of having so much storage space, I would be much more circumspect about what I keep on hand and how many UFOs I allow to live on unfinished.
If you would like to have a look an an awesome sewing space, please check out this link to Heather Mulder Petersen's blog Trends and Traditions. She shares a lot of photos of her mother's sewing studio and storage system, and I think you will be as inspired as I was when you see it.
34 responses to “And the Rest of the Story”
Loved seeing your pictures of your sewing space and how you organize. Had to smile when I saw your Beach Cottage is still a UFO. I started that quilt because I liked yours so much and mine isn’t finished either!
Loved seeing your pictures of your sewing space and how you organize. Had to smile when I saw your Beach Cottage is still a UFO. I started that quilt because I liked yours so much and mine isn’t finished either!
Fabric storage is always a challenge. In my current home, there’s no basement and outdoor storage like a garage would not do either as little critters consider it a dare to chew through the plastic bins to get to that nesting material. And I totally agree with your ideas about the artist materials; I call fat quarters my crayons.
Fabric storage is always a challenge. In my current home, there’s no basement and outdoor storage like a garage would not do either as little critters consider it a dare to chew through the plastic bins to get to that nesting material. And I totally agree with your ideas about the artist materials; I call fat quarters my crayons.
It was a lot of fun seeing your very organized sewing space and storage. Looks like the decks are cleared and you’re all set to sew!
It was a lot of fun seeing your very organized sewing space and storage. Looks like the decks are cleared and you’re all set to sew!
Oh, dear! I’ve been overtaken by stash and storage envy before I’ve even had my coffee! You lucky duck to have this glorious space for your use. Love your storage box and labelling system for ease of finding what you need. Well done!!!
To label the many drawers I use for fabric, I made two folds across the short sides of note cards so they hug the lip of the drawer, write the drawer contents on the larger bit of card that will show outside the drawer, and tuck in in place. It’s a bit of a bother to replace when I open the drawers, but it’s no biggy.
Thanks for the tour, pt. deux!
I finished the green North Wind blocks yesterday!
Hugs!
Oh, dear! I’ve been overtaken by stash and storage envy before I’ve even had my coffee! You lucky duck to have this glorious space for your use. Love your storage box and labelling system for ease of finding what you need. Well done!!!
To label the many drawers I use for fabric, I made two folds across the short sides of note cards so they hug the lip of the drawer, write the drawer contents on the larger bit of card that will show outside the drawer, and tuck in in place. It’s a bit of a bother to replace when I open the drawers, but it’s no biggy.
Thanks for the tour, pt. deux!
I finished the green North Wind blocks yesterday!
Hugs!
Great system Nicole! Since I don’t have the amount of storage for UFOs that you do, I better start working on them. I need space for more fabric like your amazing stash!
Great system Nicole! Since I don’t have the amount of storage for UFOs that you do, I better start working on them. I need space for more fabric like your amazing stash!
So – which fabrics are so lucky as to live inside the house in your neat and tidy closet? How come they are special enough to get comic book boards? Hope they don’t get jealous of each other. Love the space and the shelving. I’m afraid of rodents getting into our garage as well, but yours looks very clean and sealed. Thanks for sharing!
So – which fabrics are so lucky as to live inside the house in your neat and tidy closet? How come they are special enough to get comic book boards? Hope they don’t get jealous of each other. Love the space and the shelving. I’m afraid of rodents getting into our garage as well, but yours looks very clean and sealed. Thanks for sharing!
W.O.W. I just got caught up on all the organization posts I’ve missed! Amazing! I bet it feels so good to get that done! :O) Thanks for some great ideas and inspiration!
W.O.W. I just got caught up on all the organization posts I’ve missed! Amazing! I bet it feels so good to get that done! :O) Thanks for some great ideas and inspiration!
Okay, you already know I want your beautiful porch. Is is possible to have your garage too??!! We have an old house and a rather small garage. We park both cars in there so even my sweet hubby doesn’t have a decent work bench. Poor guy.
Anyway, I love your system! Now, about that porch and garage….
Okay, you already know I want your beautiful porch. Is is possible to have your garage too??!! We have an old house and a rather small garage. We park both cars in there so even my sweet hubby doesn’t have a decent work bench. Poor guy.
Anyway, I love your system! Now, about that porch and garage….
I’m with Ina! Love your garage, mine is big but kind of packed so need to reorganize like yours :). I made the mistake of trying to bring all my fabric indoors so I’d see what I had but it just crammed up my sewing room. Think I need to do what you did and forget the whole if I don’t see it I won’t use it philosophy cause it’s not working for me.
I’m with Ina! Love your garage, mine is big but kind of packed so need to reorganize like yours :). I made the mistake of trying to bring all my fabric indoors so I’d see what I had but it just crammed up my sewing room. Think I need to do what you did and forget the whole if I don’t see it I won’t use it philosophy cause it’s not working for me.
Hi, Nicole – have you heard about archival acid-free boards? I’m just wondering about possible fabric damage over time using regular comic book or cardboard boards
Hi, Nicole – have you heard about archival acid-free boards? I’m just wondering about possible fabric damage over time using regular comic book or cardboard boards
WOW! Such organization I want to come to your house and drool over your collection of beautiful fabrics
WOW! Such organization I want to come to your house and drool over your collection of beautiful fabrics
I KNEW you had more fabric than in the last post! I was wondering what you did with all of it!
Yummy pics…
Tricia
I KNEW you had more fabric than in the last post! I was wondering what you did with all of it!
Yummy pics…
Tricia
Loved seeing how you organize and store your stash. And I love your stash. Wow! What a collection … um, er, toolkit!
Loved seeing how you organize and store your stash. And I love your stash. Wow! What a collection … um, er, toolkit!
Thanks so much for sharing your pictures of storage and really nice ideas. Never can have enough storage and seems like there is always something new coming in….)))
Thanks so much for sharing your pictures of storage and really nice ideas. Never can have enough storage and seems like there is always something new coming in….)))
Aren’t those metal shelving units great?! What did we ever do before they came onto the scene? I’m pretty sure you have a lot of us ready to come ‘shop’ in your studio & garage!! Good job!
Aren’t those metal shelving units great?! What did we ever do before they came onto the scene? I’m pretty sure you have a lot of us ready to come ‘shop’ in your studio & garage!! Good job!
Your garage storage looks great ! After I saw your last post on the comic book boards I purchased some on amazon & today I pulled all of my fabric out and starting wrapping fabric on these boards. I love them ! No more stacked fabric , that every time I pulled a piece of fabric out the whole stack fell down. I will try to post a picture Monday. THANKS!
Your garage storage looks great ! After I saw your last post on the comic book boards I purchased some on amazon & today I pulled all of my fabric out and starting wrapping fabric on these boards. I love them ! No more stacked fabric , that every time I pulled a piece of fabric out the whole stack fell down. I will try to post a picture Monday. THANKS!
OMG now that I have seen your whole collection, I am completely in awe and jealous! May I ask how many years you’ve been quilting? I still have three young kids so no possibility of using up so much storage space.
OMG now that I have seen your whole collection, I am completely in awe and jealous! May I ask how many years you’ve been quilting? I still have three young kids so no possibility of using up so much storage space.