I’m busy making my main studio space more usable… check out my progress AND enter my giveaway!
I give you a BEFORE tour
My main studio space is where I work all the time. It has my projects in progress, machines, computer, and most of my fabric.
About 3pm I started pulling all the projects out of my studio space to resort them and put them into better size container and more effective & productive spots for my use. I did a video for you
For the post part I’m not doing fabric, just projects.
That includes all the different products I review or test. PLUS I had some UFOs in my main space that were not being worked on and taking up valuable work space. They needed to be moved.
Taking it out is EASY.
Deciding how to regroup and where in my studio should it now be, is more difficult. I started when I got up.
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For our family business we work at home, so our whole small home has become our office.
We have no basement and no usable attic. So my business takes up 4 rooms in our home.
- My studio is my main work room and what you see all the time. It is the family room of our home, it’s what in the videos with my beautiful Koala Furniture and my Baby lock machines
- The shipping department has one room as his office.
- We have 1 other rooms for quilts, batting, notions, projects not being working on, other fabric, books, etc.
- AND the ‘over flow’ room right now is our dining room as it can’t all fit in the one room upstairs. The photo above is one wall in my dining room. On the wall is my village quilt (BUY the pattern here), and the blocks are from my Triangle book (HERE)
In my studio I keep JUST what I’m working on and my main fabric. On that video I talk about it being messy. It is ‘messy’ in that projects were not in optimum work places, split across areas, and things got put in spots that took up valuable space in my small room
Now for a few photos of my ‘after’
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Keeping it organized keeps my sanity 
Hope you enjoy watching as I make progress!
If you are new here, welcome! I run a lot of fun projects
These are my 2 latest FREE sew alongs, join me!
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1,818 Responses
It is difficult to organize a huge amount stuff into a small place.
A purge is soooo beneficial. I have tons of fabrics and projects and I do not feel bad when I decide to pack up a lot of it and gift it to my quilt fellowship. They are happy, I am happy. Its a win-win.
I also start by pulling it all out. Then I decide what to keep and what to give away. I think I am actually making some progress. I can close my closet doors now.
My biggest problem is organizing my fabric. I have lots of tubs full of fabric but no organization. I have tried but really do not know where to start or what to do. I have to go through the tubs to find the fabric I need.
My biggest problem is that I have too many interests, from sewing to quilting to crafts. My supplies tend to get out of hand when I go from one thing to another. I always have something being created.
Hard to stay on task when I uncover so many awesome fabrics and get ideas for so many new things
My biggest problem is finding appropriate, sturdy, and not hideous storage units/shelves/etc.
Too much fabric! I can’t find a uniform way to store it since my space small, a corner of the family room. Some is on shelves, scraps cut to size in shoe boxes, and other pieces in tubs. Too many places to look.
My most needed item is a sewing desk. I use my dining table most of the time. But it would be nic to have a desk that can stay in one place and have room for sewing needs, like tools, thread, templates. All the things I have to look for.
My biggest problem is my sewing table – it is too small. It is a school-aged child’s desk. I’m not really complaining. A few short months ago, my sewing table was the living room coffee table. And my chair was a 3-legged milk stool. Yes, I was practically kneeling on the floor to sew. LOL
My biggest problem is I WANT it all and have a small room!! I make it work though as heaven for bid I couldn’t buy more fabric, thread, notions, patterns, etc.. Thank you for the opportunity to win an awesome giveaway.
Storing fabric
I have too much stuff and don’t know how to give it up
I loved that you took everything in a particular area out and then assessed each piece as you put it back. Some didn’t go back. That is a great idea.
My biggest problem is I only have my dining room table as my sewing area. Plastic storage boxes surround my table and makes it next to impossible to organize anything.
My biggest problem is staying on top of organizing. I have a bad habit of just setting pieces and parts aside instead of completely putting it away before starting the next project.
The biggest problem I have is starting to many projects and not finishing them. Oh but it is so much fun.
My problem is too many UFO’s in a very small bedroom. I have attempted to organize in boxes by project. But sometimes that just doesn’t work.
I tend to work on multiple projects all the time. and I hoard fabric real good if i see a great deal i can not walk past it. I need to find space for what I have and stay away from fabric stores for awhile but I know that will not happen
My biggest problem is having space for my fabric!
My biggest problem is time and where to start.
Thank you Pat
My biggest problem is how to organize my fabric, I never know if I should put it all in color family’s or fabric styles or just how to do it. Hopefully I will get better at deciding how to straighten it up. Thank you for all you do for us quilters.
I literally live in a barn. No space-cats (& mice) sheep, horses, chicken, ducks & turkeys right out my door. Dust is a real problem.
So I have to be super organized, but I’m not a tidy person. But its all good😃
I don’t have enough storage space to put everything away. And shuffle things back and forth to have space to work.
I have stuff in 2 rooms and in storage. maybe someday it will all be together
It’s totally the scraps I want to keep but they don’t “belong” anywhere yet
My biggest challenge is organizing notions & patterns! I’m constantly misplacing patterns, scissors, chalk pens…you name it. I also suspect that some gnomes live in the closet of my craft room and like to hide things from me. The next biggest challenge is organizing my scraps, the ones smaller than a fat quarter. I’ve tried sorting by color, size, and/or shape and it still is a jumbled mess within a couple of days.
Hi Pat,
I use large turkey zip loc bags to organize my projects.
Thank you
Susan
Scraps are my problems. I throw them in a big basket and never know what I have in there.
Too much treasured sewing stuff – not enough room. Enough said!
I am not a good organizer at all. Knowing what to do with scraps and organizing them is overwhelming.
I mostly have my stash organized by color, but I don’t know how to arrange mult-color fabrics. Some of mine have about the same amount of blue as green, red as white, etc. And where do I put the jelly rolls?
My biggest organizational problem is planning ahead on too many projects while I’m working on one.
Organization is my #1 organization problem! My sewing studio is a small space. I have so many projects going at one time, a mountain of scraps and batting, new purchases, and old purchases I’ve unearthed while digging for things I need but can’t find. My organization efforts involve putting things in containers and forgetting about them, then I end up buying duplicates, creating more clutter.
When I first started quilting, I organized fabric by colors but then as I progressed and bought different lines of fabric and pre cuts, i want to keep them together. It’s hard to find things and I forget what I have.
i am using an extra bedroom for my sewing room. i love the dedicated space but dream of more space for scrapbooking and beading. my scrapbooking supplies are in an extra bedroom closet and my beading is in a room off the garage. it would be nice to have stations for each project. right now it’s a chore getting scrapbook stuff out it’s either too hot or too cold in the garage to bead.
I need more space for room to work and a bigger sewing table.
So much fabric and craft-related supplies, but not in any particular order. I want to keep it all – just in case. It is already packed in, and I don’t have any place to move it out to so I can organize it and figure out how to put it back in, in some sort of order. Aurghhhh!
Hello. Currently trying to unpack from moving three times in two years. My two daughters and I travel with my husband who works as a safety director in construction. We moved from Louisiana two years ago, then Port Arthur TX after the flood, and now from Nebraska. Trying to reorganize the house to make room for my sewing machine and embroidery machine but having a little trouble.
My biggest problem is space. I share the basement with my father so I have half a room. And he’s a woodworker so I have to have everything in air tight bins, then I cover them with sheets. So I don’t know where anything is.
I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A NEW IRON . YOU GAVE ME GREAT IDEAS FOR ORGANIZING.
Struggling with how to organize my fabric so that I can easily see what I have. Currently have my precuts sorted by size and stored in an old dresser. My yardage is sorted by color and stored in canvas boxes on a bookshelf.
I really dislike odd pieces of left overs. So I stack them up until I can cut them into useful pieces for my quilt ministry. 6″sq, 4″ or 5″ swuates. 2 1/2″ sqs and strips. But the time to get it done is far apart so the unruly stack needs to be stored but if out of sight will the be out of mind?
I need to organize my space to. I will take some of your ideas they would work for me. I always get things that I forget I have or know I have that but it’s to find out where I put it.
I have a new sewing room and I’m still deciding how to best organize it.
MY BIGGEST PROBLEM IS organizing my fabric ,so I buy a few totes every now and then .so hopefully I will get organized soon
My biggest problem is storing the leftover batting , I never want to throw any of it away and it piles up quickly
My biggest problem is doing too many projects at once in an 8′ x 8′ area. Just not enough room.
Too many projects and too much fabric😀 gets overwhelming
Clutter!
my biggest issue is space, we have our 3 granddaughters living with us so we lost some space so I use my walkin closet as storage and my bedroom to sew in.