Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Conclusion of August -- Tidy Up Month

Ahhh, September at last!!  
I can quit tidying up my studio (I gave it a pretty good month) and stitch guilt-free! 
There has been progress!  I can now walk up to the color palette without tripping over piles of fabric.  That's good!! 
And the "sacred stacks" that live across the top shelf have had a straighten up and a bit of culling to eliminate some of the visual clutter at that end of the room. 
Now I want to attack getting my show ribbons hung back up across the top of this wall -- they were up for a time, but my hanging technique turned out to be inadequate. 
This is one of the piles of fabric I thinned out of the shelves -- I'll sell off some and donate some -- I'll begin de-stashing on my Instagram feed tomorrow -- it's @hueymary if you want to do a bit of armchair shopping!!
Two weeks ago, I couldn't walk around this side of the room -- my box stash was piled at the end of the cutting table.
Today it's stacked neatly and tucked into a corner.  Don't you just hate to let go of a sturdy box that might be a storage space for something?!? 
Once the cutting table was somewhat clear . . . .
I caved into several small stitching projects.  Nothing big, just a little stress release. 
I did get the work wall clear of papers -- the bulletin board on the left will work out well!
And I designated this small foam core board for "storage" of projects I don't want to put away quite yet.  It will be like a fermenting space.
We had our annual house guest over the weekend, so the pile of quilts that lives on the guest bed was rolled up and moved into the studio -- must get it back out of there tomorrow.
The sewing machine table has stayed fairly clear -- the only thing wrong with that is it encourages stitching over tidying?!?
One major decision has emerged -- the "tub" storage system for my style groups of fabric needs to be modified.  I stack all the fabric neatly in them, sorted by colors -- this is the polka dot/plaid/funky brights tub -- when I work from one, I pull it all apart but don't put it back together because it's time consuming to do.  Next thing I know there are piles of fabric all over the floor that just need to be put away. 
Must think about this -- can I pack the fabric into them in such a way to avoid the searching chaos or do I replace them with more shelving?  Not sure.
 
In the meantime, I hope to continue to improve the studio's appearance by letting go of some of the excess and finishing up more UFO's. 
It's definitely much more pleasant to work in there when it's tidier.
 
Let's stitch!!!
 
Mary Huey
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

6 comments:

  1. The studio is looking great. Congratulations! I like the idea of the "storage" board. I have been struggling with how to keep projects close by, but out of the way. This just might do it for me. I have what I need to do this so I think I'll give it a try later today. :-) And I totally agree with you about good boxes. I hoard them, but storage is ALWAYS an issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback, Joanne -- always appreciated!!

      Delete
  2. Wow! You accomplished a lot. Great Job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A 'fermenting board' --what a good idea! I need one of those. I guess the guest bed is sort of serving that purpose now. I had to chuckle when you mentioned the roll of quilts that were moved from the guest bed. I so understand. I think you made great progress with the tidying. It is a chore trying to keep a workroom/studio neat. There are some things in my little room that are floaters. There is no free space to assign to them, so they just move around as the need demands. I have contemplated attaching strings to the ceiling with little hooks to attach to the free floating flotsam, but then one might need a helmet to work there. sigh I think I will just go sew for awhile.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fermenting space is a handy thing to have. I am thinking of putting up a small pinboard near my work space just for that.
    I often have small piles of fabric on the floor too. If I put them on the table, there is no cutting space!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know exactly what you mean about clearing the sewing space. If there is tidying to be done but the sewing machine is clear the urge to sew is much stronger than the urge to tidy up so sewing generally wins!

    ReplyDelete