From: ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan)
Subject: Re: The Pile-Up Begins :-)
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 22:12:09 GMT

In article <1hscvsINN21v@life.ai.mit.edu> marie@ai.mit.edu writes:
> ... what do you folks do to store/sort all of your pending projects?  Once
> my Dad's wife found out I had a new machine, she gave me lots of fabric,
> craft >panels and notions that she had saved but had no real use for.
> Right now everything is in 3 big bags in my spare room, but I'm sure there
> must be a better way!  I have a little plastic box that I've been keeping
> the small stuff in, but I bet it will soon be too small to be useful.  I'm
> beginning to see the appeal of a nice, big sewing basket.  What do you
> like/dislike about sewing baskets?

I have two sets of shelving in my sewing room.  One has shelves 6-12" apart.
On it I put writing-paper boxes without lids, and I put various notions in
them -- rulers and tape measures, shears, bias tape and zippers, ribbons,
lace, patterns, etc.  (The thread used to be there too, but now it's on a
wall pegboard.)  (The buttons are in a clear-sided jam jar.)  The other has
shelves 18-24" apart.  On the bottom shelf (actually the floor) are bags of
yarn for knitting projects, and whatever non-quilt sewing project has top
priority (at the moment, curtains).  On the top shelf are bags containing all
my other non-quilting projects.  The next shelf down has my needlecraft books
and an open space for quilting projects in progress.  The other shelves hold
my fabric stash (scraps, for quilting, or otherwise unassigned).  I have 8
piles of fabric arranged by color, plus one pile for fabrics for my next
quilt project.  All are out in the open where I can see them.

I also have 3 knitting baskets in which I put whatever project I'm doing that
needs handwork (i.e., the embroidery as well as the knitting) if I want to
take it with me out of the sewing room.  At the moment, for instance, one
knitting basket is more-or-less permanently next to the couch in front of the
TV (with about 1/10 of a sweater in it).  The knitting baskets are large
enough for 14" needles or shears or biggish needlepoint canvases, and 2 of
them have comfortable enough handles to make it possible to lug them around
without cramping my fingers.  Knitting baskets are good for portable work
because they are lightweight, being basically fabric bags in a folding frame.
The frame provides feet for them to sit on when open, and folds up pretty
compactly for carrying.  They're also inexpensive Christmas presents (that's
why I have three of them ;o)).

I used to have everything neatly in closed boxes and bags, but found that
"out of sight, out of mind" was too true for me.  Also, the bags of fabrics
and scraps seemed to be taking up an awful lot of room.  So I spent two days
going through all the bags and rearranging things so that I could quickly see
what I had, throw out the impossible UFO's (size 16 is a distant memory),
organize my non-quilt projects, and free up a little space.  I'm delighted to
say that the reorganization worked!  Now when I buy fabric for my stash I
know exactly where to put it, and there's room to put it there!  And when
I have a little project to do it's easy to look through the fabrics without
handling them so much or disarranging bags.  And when those curtains are done
and hung I know which bag to get from the top shelf for my next top-priority
project, instead of having to hunt through all the shelves and bags and won-
der if I'm losing my mind thinking there was this lovely thing I wanted to
do next but can't find.


Carrie		ceb@rechenau.unify.com	x6244		---------------------+
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