Show Me Your Stash
It is amazing how fast a stash can grow. I mentioned in My Sewing Space post that my whole house is my sewing area. I also mentioned that my stash is, well, stashed everywhere.
Needs Organization
Some of my stash fabrics are organized however most of itcould use some sorting and arranging. My issue is that while I know what Ihave, I don't always know where I placed it. It's wonderful to have the storageavailable but it isn't helpful to have it stashed all over the house.
Some fabrics are neatly folded and placed in my closet organizer. They are larger pieces, some large enough for backing. There is no rhyme or reason to the stacking, just whenever I buy something large, it gets added to the stack.
Other fabrics are in pretty boxes and bins stacked around the house. They look nice; however, I can't see what is in them. It's difficult to know what you have. And quite frankly, I like seeing my fabric. The boxes are great for when company visits since everything is neat and visually organized. Unfortunate for me, it isn't organized in a way that is useful to a quilter.
I picked up these fabric section bins from IKEA. They aregreat for organizing fabric in drawers. I have found this to be good storagefor Fat-quarters and Fat-eights. By placing them vertical, I can see what Ihave in the bin. This visual organization of my fabric is a goal of mine.
A New Year's Tradition
It's fortunate for me that we are nearing the end of theyear. Around ten years ago, I started a personal tradition of sorting andreorganizing my stash on New Year's Eve. Back then I was preparing to move to anew job in a new city following the first of that year, the thought of packingand moving all that I had wasn't appealing. After that year, I just starteddoing it each year. It's a way to start my sewing year anew.
I like taking this time to review what I still have in mycollection. Over the course of a year I create many quilts and I pull from allmy different stores of fabric. Things get shifted around and I start to forgetwhere I placed what fabric.
This year I plan to organize my fabrics into types andwithin the types, by color. For example, holiday fabrics, civil warreproductions, modern prints, and so on. Then I'll select a storage area foreach type. Previously I kept my fabrics by future projects. I've changed mymind about many of those projects, so it no longer makes sense to store myfabric that way.
Tidying Up
I've read Marie Kondo's book "TheLife-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering andOrganizing." In her book, she recommends pulling all the items in the categoryyou are working on and placing it in the middle of the room. Humm. I guess formy stash it will be the middle of my house! I promise I'll post a picture whenI start this project but for now my stash will stay in the various places theyare currently hiding in.
What does your stash look like?