Back in the Game

I finally managed to put everything away after retreat this weekend.  My house might not be the most organized, but I hate it when my quilting room isn't organized. 

The thing that took the most time... putting away all of this fabric that I got at Marden's on my way home from retreat.

Marden's sells salvage fabrics.  The fabrics are quilt store quality fabrics (well, the one's that I got, some might be more Joann's quality) and have no issues.  No fabric is more than $4.99, which is awesome for quilt store, designer fabrics.  In addition, they are very generous when they cut their fabrics.  I measured, and all of my 2 yard cuts were at least 2.25 yards with most being 2.5 yards. My 3 yard cuts were all at least 3.5 yards with most being 3.75 yards.  I calculated it out that with what I paid and the fabric that I purchased, it worked out to $3.80 a yard!  And that's for quilt store quality fabrics.  I'm talking Westminster, Free Spirit, Henry Glass, Studio E, etc.

After putting all of my fabric away, this is what my fabric shelf looks like!

My fabric is organized by color, by fabric line and by fabric type.  I have one section for my solids, one for my batiks, and the rest for designer cottons.  I have two spaces for books and two spaces for my fat quarters. 

I organize fabric that's more than a yard in length two ways.

For fabric that is just going in my stash, I wrap it around a 9" ruler and then fold it in half.  I them place it into a cubbie by color.  This is my green/teal cubbie.

If I have more than two 1+ yard pieces of fabric from the same fabric line, I wrap them around a mini bolt to keep the line together.  I used to use pieces of cardboard before I got the plastic mini bolts for Christmas last year. 

Phew, now that I'm all organized I can get back to being creative.  I finished the quilt top for the Paper Pieced Pattern-A-Day Garden Party Blog Hop that I'm participating in next month.  (phew, that's a mouth full)  I get to share that with you on April 26th.  I can tell you that I've been inspired by the early spring we've been having here in Massachusetts and the flowers popping up are my inspiration.

My Quilting Room

As promised, here are some pictures of the finished bookshelf with my fabric in it. 

Here it is in the middle of being filled with fabric.  

 And here it is with most of my fabric in it.

 And here it is with pretty much all of the fabric that I want to put in the new bookshelf inside it. 

Doesn't it look great?  The top right two shelves were designed to hold all of my fat quarters, bundles and loose ones.  This pictures is before I added all of the loose fat quarters and had to move things around to fit them.

I have organized my fabric by color in each section and I have a separate one for my batiks and my hand dyed fabric.  I also have cut up some cardboard and wrapped fabric that is all fabric from a particular line. 

And for kicks, here are a few pictures of the rest of my quilting room...

As you can see by this layout I have a "triangle" set up where I can go from my ironing board, my cutting table, and my machine very easily.  I had set up my room differently before but I really like the usability of being able to easily go from one area to the next.  If I want to quickly iron or cut something in the middle of sewing it literally takes me just a couple of seconds.  I would highly recommend this layout. 

My DH made me this cutting table using a cheap desk we got at Target and he added a board large enough to fit my 1 yard cutting mat with some additional space on either side.  He also installed the pegboard and cork board above the cutting table so that I can store my rulers, patterns, notions, etc.

And here's the rest of the room.  I have one whole wall dedicated to my design wall and a TV that my DH got me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I also have my thread rack up on the wall near my sewing machine.

Quilting Room Takeover

Last week my DH and I went to Ikea to try and get some shelving for my quilting room.  I wanted to get the Expedit shelving but the boxes wouldn't fit in my car.  I was bummed, but to cheer me up, my DH decided that he was going to build me a custom bookshelf for all of my fabric.  He drew everything up and began building it on Sunday.

Here's the start of things...

Progress...

And here's where he was last night.  As you can see, the room is an absolute mess right now because everything had to be taken off the three small shelves I had on the previous location and he had to move things around to do his work.  This means that I haven't been able to sew much this week.  I'm not complaining because it means that I will have an awesome unit to store all of my goodies!!!  I can't wait to unveil the finished product once it's completed.