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.
Article continues below this Ad
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’
Article continues below this Ad
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!
DETAILS:
Article continues below these Amazon Goodies
1,818 Responses
I need a bureau to store “works in progress, prepared kits and specialty fabrics. My space is small, but I think we’ll utilized.
My biggest organizing problem is keeping too many patterns/magazines/books that I know I will never make. My pattern obsession is almost as bad as cookbooks!
My biggest problem is I have a large amount of fabric with small space to try and organize everything.
My biggest problem is my imagination. I continue to have a big imagination and not enough time in a day to complete all the ideas. My storage bins of future projects takes up a lot of space. I love your idea of having a list. I think I could create a list and then put away the ideas, pulling them out when I am ready. It would free up a lot of space in my work room, giving me more time to mentally create my next idea.
My biggest challenge is how to deal with the leftovers once a project is finished. I have several scrap quilt patterns in mind and have a few started, but still keep all of the tiny bits for the someday string and postage stamp quilts.
My biggest problem is keeping my large rectangular ironing board and my cutting table free of clutter. In my very small sewing room these are favorite dropoff places. I always need to clear these before i can begin to quilt. There goes a chunk of my limited quilting time.
I need my done
My biggest organizing challenge is keeping track of all the parts and pieces. I usually have my daughter cut out my projects. By the time I actually get to sewing the project, I may have lost a pattern piece or a cut out piece. Frustrating.
My greatest organizational challenge us keeping materials organized-so I can easily find materials-as I work on a project.
I have trouble keeping things together for the project I am working on and some of the ufos that I have.
My biggest problem is that I am NOT an organized person. I get started on trying to organize my room and it is overwhelming so I quit.
My biggest problem with organizing my space? I have to admit I am not really good at putting things away where they belong. Too many times I just stash things away then can’t find them when I need them!
My biggest problem is deciding how to organize to get started: fabrics by size or color? See through closed bins or baskets? It just feels overwhelming.
My collection is small and I organize by color. I’m a little bit of a neat freak so it’s fairly organized.
My problem was space. I have two rooms now, thanks to my sweet, understanding husband.
My new problem is to many projects! My daughter cracked up when she saw how many I have.
Nope, not going to say…LOL
Space! I just need space because I collect old cutter quilts to make items out of to sell. They take up a lot of room!
Sorting fabrics! There’s so many options – by color, but size, by potential project(s). I keep trying different ways – all with their own benefits but have not found the right way for me yet. In the meantime, I love resorting it (when I have the time) and helps inspire me for a next project!
My problem is what I call “fabric in holding”. All of the jeans , shirts and just scraps waiting to be cut into the proper size for a quilt. I have many big black bags hanging around under stuff.
My whole room is chaos. I need to get my supplies put away. The room needs to be rearranged for the space/size. Also, since I pre wash my fabric, I need to work on my stack of fabric that hasn’t been pre washed. It is a big pile! That will clean out an entire corner!
My biggest problem is my overflow. I use my dining room to quilt. I have numerous tote bags hanging on the corners of every chair to hold each project I’m working on. Five of the chairs are stacked as high as I dare. The China cabinet that used to hold my beautiful china is now filled with various fabric and notions as well as two buffet cabinets. I am now slowly taking over the kitchen which is causing my family to eat in the living room. I also have a desk in there that is piled up with a sewing machine and quilting stuff. My family thinks it’s getting out of hand. Is this too much? Do I need help? My family thinks so.
My problem is what you called overflow. Things tend to move around (I’m sure it happens at night when I’m asleep). Your article gave great solutions, and your calling your studio messy was great. It will keep me from obsessing over mine. Thanks.
My biggest problem is storage in my under the stairs sewing area. The small space makes it difficult to store fabrics and projects.
I organized my sewing room last year and am happy with everything except my books. They are in random order and I don’t even know what I have anymore!
My biggest issue ,is I use my spare room for my sewing room.Company comes, grand children .Gram is on hold for sewing.My room has closets full of material and shelving. Had my ironing board made bigger. Lol Now room is getting smaller. Love it .My space.A good place to hide.
Too much fabric in boxes. I don’t know what I have anymore. I have emptied a closet in the sewing annex (yes, I now have my quilting stuff in 2 rooms) where I am putting shelves so I can organize it.
My biggest organization problem is staying on top of it. I spend time putting things away, sorting fabric, hole punching patterns to put in binder, reorganizing, etc. But then I start working on multiple projects, decide to stop one and start something different (i.e. something for a holiday coming up) and have too many things scattered about. That leads to issues like blanket stitching my April BOM to my shamrock placemat center! Once I’d missed St. Pat’s Day, I put it aside (not away) and had stacked other things on top of it, lol. Oh Jaaaaack!
My biggest problem when having a ReShuffle of my sewing room . . I can’t find where I moved things to. . . Haha. . 😀
My biggest organizational issue would be split… time/energy and space. The bedroom I’m using is also a “catch all”, my daughter hangs her laundry in there, the snakes (yes snakes) reside in there and my b/f’s son’s furniture is in there. I need an overhall, but would settle for just a simple block loc ruler for the pesky blocks that never want to line up!
I just can’t throw away those scraps!! I have started to separate them int standard sizes which helps.
scraps are my downfall, How do I organize them and keep them useable. I always have something leftover from any quilt.
My biggest issue is how to store small scraps that are still large enough for a project.
My biggest organizational problem is my fabric. The left overs from previous quilt have been “tossed” into a plastic bin. I am using them in my sew sampler quilt. The bigger quilt fabric I have bought but haven’t used yet are in a shelf in my cabinet. And I need a better way to organize my tools.
My issue is a very small sewing space with too much stuff! Hoping to make a new studio in an empty room now that I am an empty nester!
I am with everyone else, space and the lack of it is always the issue. I am in a spare bedroom which is large, until I put all my sewing stuff in it. Would love to take over the dining room, which looks pretty…..but we never use. Just DH and myself now. The kids live states away.
I have three long wood slatted storage boards (can get online or at JoAnns) and a mini one. Works great and keeps them handy. Seldom used ones I keep in a drawer.
Organizing sewing machine feet.
My biggest problem is space. I share a room with a bed that my grandkids use. I don’t have anywhere else to put it/ I could go to the finished basement but it is cold in the winter…..and no windows.
Just too much stuff, too many windows in room, not enough empty wall space for storage. I moved my paper crafting to another room as kids left.
Have a lot of different kinds & sizes of rulers.
I can not figure out how to store them, and that they are easy to grab when needed.
My biggest organizational problem is fabric purchases and scraps. What to do with, ehen to discard, etc.
My issue is limited space for organizing my fabric and batting
My biggest problem is that I have multiple different activities that need to fit in one small room. I have art supplies, paper crafting supplies, and now quilting! I’m starting to sort through things I can get rid of but sometimes it gets difficult to even walk in the room.
My biggest organization problem is my left over scraps and all my projects that I want to do yet.
My biggest problem is keeping it organized once I’ve cleaned it. I’m good for a little while, then I get busy in a project and keep bringing out different things for it, and before I know it, it’s a mess again.
My biggest organizational problem is how to fold different sized cuts of fabric so that I can see all that I have and not go out and buy more of a similar fabdic.
Organizing fabric, I have some of it organized but after a project ,the leftovers are harder to figure what to do with them,
I’m too sentimental for my own good! So my sewing room is overflowing with fabric from my grandma and my mom and my own UFO’s.
I also have a small space, but I don’t have extra rooms. I bought sets of clear plastic shoe boxes and larger flat storage containers. Always clear so I can see what’s in them. My wonderful son keeps putting shelves up in my bedroom at heights I can reach. They don’t hold everything, but they sure help. If I could quit buying fabric that I like, but have no idea what I am going to do with it, it would help.
My biggest problem is having too many projects on the go at one time! I have a small cart overflowing with tops waiting to be quilted, boxes with tops that I need to do backings for, bins with works-in-progress! I have been trying to finish 2 projects before I start a new one but then I see something I just have to make!
My biggest problem is that I have to run between two rooms when cutting and sewing. My cutting and pressing room is actually the furnace/storage room and I have a downstairs bedroom for sewing. I certainly get a lot of exercise, cutting in one room, sewing in the other, then back to the cutting room to press or pick up a tool.