Rediscovering my stash!

What a marvelous Christmas celebration this year! My younger daughter hosted and it was so low-key and relaxed with everyone getting along. It's always interesting when the blended family comes back together with the in-laws, out-laws and ex-laws. Spending time with the grandkids is always a welcome bonus!

With this most recent move I have found that I'm missing several projects that I was working on before I moved in October. So, my post-Christmas project has been to find and organize my stash in the new place. I had no idea what a huge undertaking this would be. On day 3, I'm still finding fabric and am still missing some projects. Sheesh!

In the past I've had my stash sorted in plastic totes that were stacked in the closet. The problem with this is they kept getting mixed up, partially emptied and refilled with mismatched stuff, and pieces I would be looking for were seemingly lost in the black hole of totes. The other problem is what I wanted was usually in the bottom tote, which meant emptying the closet (which is remarkably clean in this picture!) in order to get to the lower levels. Definitely a frustrating system.

I've been watching some of the Facebook quilting groups to see how others sort and organize their stashes and decided I'd switch things up for this place. I'm using the cube-storage units that I purchased at Target. I already had a 3x4 cube unit which I put in the closet next to the stacked drawers that hold fat quarters, kits, and old patterns. I figured if I could get two stacks of fabric in each 12x12" cube, I could get a lot of fabric in that unit! Well, after 1-1/2 days of folding and sorting, the unit was beyond capacity and I still had a ways to go with more fabric in boxes and bags under the sewing table. Notice the stacks on top waiting to be sorted into cubes! 

I took myself on an outing yesterday and picked up an additional 2x3 cube unit, which I assembled and placed on top of the first unit, filling the space completely from the floor to the shelf. Yep, I had to remove the rod to hang clothes in this closet, but I wasn't using it anyway. I discovered one more tote in the other closet (yep, there's two in this room!!!) and it's FULL, but the fabrics are bundled in ziploc project bags for specific quilts, so I'm leaving them alone for now.


So, how did I do it? Here's the system I used. First I measured the cubes and found them to be almost exactly 12x12" square. I knew the fabric being rolled up would take up some space, so I cut a piece of foam poster board 5-1/2" x 18" (the length of the available piece) and tried a few pieces out. When stacked up, they were too wide to fit next to each other, so I shaved an extra 1/4" off of the board and found the 5-1/4" width worked just right.

I opened up the fabric on my sewing table, putting the fold on my right and the selvage edges on my left, placing the board near the end nearest me. 

Next step was to fold the fabric over the edge of the board and begin folding/rolling the yardage onto the board, tucking and pulling gently to keep it snug around the board.

I continued rolling the fabric until it was all wrapped neatly around the board. I did my best to have several inches of fabric on the last wrap so it would stay wrapped when I folded the finished piece.

At the end I would slip the board out of the folded fabric to use again with the next piece. 

 The finished piece is then folded in half and ready to be stacked in the cubes.

The stack of cubes is now as full as I'm going to get it today. There are more pieces to add that will get folded in a similar fashion as I come across them in various bags and boxes. I know there's more (besides what's in that full tote of projects) because I know I haven't seen several pieces I purchased recently. The search continues until I have all of my stash out where I can see it.

What I love about this system, in this house anyway, is that it is inside a closet that I can close the doors on and keep everything reasonably dust free. Also, the sewing room has one window that faces east, so it only gets morning sun and because of the way the house next door is located, the sun doesn't reach the closet.

The next major project will be to tame the bags and totes of scraps that have been collecting over the past year. After making Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt last year, I got hooked on scrap quilting, too. My quilting buddies have been very helpful providing me with more scraps than I know what to do with! For now UFOs and projects I had already planned are at the top of my list for 2015. After that? Well, I'm guessing I don't need to buy fabric for a very, VERY long time! LOL!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Orphan Blocks to play with!

Last night was my quilt guild's auction fundraiser. Members brought books, patterns, rulers, fabric, abandoned UFO's, orphan blocks, and more from their own stashes, and we all had an opportunity to bid on new-to-me items. There were some beautiful half finished UFOs that went for next to nothing. It's amazing how projects get stuffed into boxes or bags and abandoned, only to resurface and go into someone else's stash. 

I knew I didn't have a lot of spare cash to spend, so tried to look through everything before the meeting to see what items I really wanted to bid on. I successfully bid on a pair of X-Block rulers, a stack of 5 quilt patterns of interest, and hoped to get a stack of random blocks that could be turned into something amazing. As expected, they were among the last items to come up for bid and I bid higher than I expected to, but won out and for $45 got this gorgeous collection of nearly 40 blocks! It was more than worth it to support my guild. They range in size from 13" down to 4" and include pieced blocks, needle-turn applique, hand embroidery, curved piecing (curves done by hand, straight seams by machine), paper piecing, and even a few signed blocks from an exchange several years ago. I'm not sure whose collection they came from, but I'm sure grateful to have them in mine!

From the first time I looked through that stack, I knew I wanted them to make several different projects. The top block in the stack was the Dresden at the top left of the first picture. That and the trees had me looking deeper and then two blocks in particular caught my eye. One was this one with the scissors cutting fabric, and the other is the appliqued hand with the heart on it. That's almost exactly the same image I used on the label of my friend Adele's quilt, "Enlightened Souls."

So, now in addition to all of my own UFOs and voluminous stash of projects waiting to be conceived, I've added a whole bag of beautifully made blocks to do something amazing with. Let the creative juices start flowing!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz