Some of my organized drawers

I got this lovely cabinet last year and have stuffed the drawers with all my crazy goodies. Some of the drawers house my favorite stashes of color coordinated fabrics and embellishments. Above are my opulent aquas and my dreamy valentine pinks and reds. I just dyed some red and pink velvet that will go wonderfully with the Valentine stash. I've already blogged about the rich greys and gorgeous golds that occupy a space in this wonderful cabinet.

Gerry K. actually found the cabinet on Craigslist (thanks Gerry!) and posted the link on CQI. I love anything with drawers and especially if it is made of wood and vintage. When I saw this, I knew I had to have it. I called the owner who said he had just hauled it down to an estate salesman and I had to wait two whole days to find out if it would be mine or not! The cabinet belonged to a wonderful lady who kept all her sewing paraphernalia on one side and her collection of costume jewelry on the other side. Her Granddaughter sold it to me and shared all her memories of going to grandma's and playing dressup with the jewelry. I love it!

Day was as good as gold . . .

Who said diamonds were a girls best friend?

It was a grey day today . . .

I can deal with it though. (-; I'll take a whole drawer full.

How cool is this?

How cool is this?! I went to an estate sale last month and this was one of the goodies I got. It was meant for scrapbooking, but I got it to hold laces, threads, and other embellishments as I'm working on a project. It has two tiers with little clips on it that will hold whatever I want to keep close without totally junking up my work surface. Is it awesome or what?! I also got many Mill Hill crystal beads and a mess of Mill Hill seed beads in these cute little containers. I was blessed. (-;

Magazine Rack

I bought this magazine rack at a store that was going out of business. It works well for storing stitching pamphlets and patterns.

Leftovers in the Sewing Room

I kept the containers my little bead boxes were in and I have these full of leftover bits of things. There is bead soup, silk threads, cotton threads, silk ribbon, ribbon and fibers, and silk flowers. I stack them up on my sewing table for color and inspiration and when I need something I check here first.

An Ironing Station

You probably already do this too, but I like using this little tabletop ironing board and a craft iron for my crazy quilting and applique. I only get out the big one for sane quilts and it hides behind my closet door when I'm not using it. (It finally has a place! LOL!)

Sewing Room - My Favorite Things

As far as I am concerned, no sewing room would be complete without some of your favorite momentos around to bring a smile to your face! I love things old and things to remind me of good times! These old toys were given to me by my Mom a several years ago, but belonged to my Dad when he was only a boy. In the wagon I put a couple of momentos from the CQI retreat last year - the heart box Gerry K. gave out to everyone and the hand made button spools were given out by Claudina H. On the motorcycle on his lap is a gift my husband gave me along with a gift card to shop at a bead shop here in town. He took the time to pick out a sweet red heart bead on his own and I treasure it. On top of the bus I put several old wooden spools of thread that I got at an estate sales (one of my favorite past times is going to these).

Caddy and Trays

I use a wooden caddy I found at an antique store to keep all my scizzors and rotary cutters in to keep them handy.

Another thing I like to use when using beads or buttons are the little glass trays you see stacked up next to the caddy. I will dump my beads into them when I'm using them and it is convenient to just pour them back into their containers when I'm done. Alternatively I will store tools that I need in them (like my punchneedle or punchneedle threader) or store things temporarily when I sorthing things. I got these through Pampered Chef and they are called "Simple Additions".

Sewing Cabinet Drawers

These are cute ways to store all sorts of things. I am putting small stitching books in one and have zippers and thread samples in the other.

Storing ribbons

Someone gave me the idea of storing ribbons in a clear container to show off the ribbons. I found this clear paint can in the container stor and just love it. I'm going to have to go back and get more I think. I love being able to see what I have to work with.

Ta Da! The clean sewing room!

So I can enter my sewing room, walk around in it and even mess it up again if I want to! NOT!
This is the newly organized closet. My dH put shelves in for me eons ago, but I moved all my sane quilting fabric to the basement in favor of my crazy quilting supplies. (-;

This is a lovely antque dresser used by my father when he was young. I love it and it contains some of my UFOs. Next to it is one of my two ugly, but supremely efficient fabric storage drawers on wheels. Then there is the well behaved cat on the floor. I have 3 cats who love to steal my thread balls. I don't always let them in, but this one can stay! LOL!
This is a picture of my sewing and ironing center. Notice the small drawered dresser under the table -- I love things with drawers. (-; I have some of my books in a rack in the corner.

This is where I do my rotary cutting for sane quilts and work on hand work. I have a small t.v. that I watch DVDs of tv shows on while I sew. This center is complete with lurking dog. (-; I thought about putting up a peg board on this wall, but I'm not sure I have enough things to hang on one.

This treasure is the lovely cabinet I bought in November in Longmont. Gerry K., from CQI, pointed it out to the CQI ladies when they were doing their organization challenge. Unfortunately I was too unorganized to participate then, but I will be blogging about some of the things I've done since to organize my sewing area. I'm so excited because I'm almost done and may actually get to sew! Isn't this cabinet a beauty! It has 44 drawers! I spent a long time making colored linings out of acid free paper so I'd have a safe place to store all my yummy fabrics and embellishments. I sorted through my favorite fabrics looking for my ultimate favorites, and many of the drawers have become storage of fabrics and embellishments for future crazy quilts. I also have my beads stored in this cabinet. I will blog about some of the contents of the cabinet later. One of the really special things about this cabinet is that it previously belonged to a stitcher who stored all her sewing supplies in it along with her large collection of costume jewelry. Her granddaughter sold it to me and told me the memories she had of going to her grandmother's home and playing dress-up with all the jewelry. I hope to have a couple of drawers of goodies that my granddaughters can root through when they come over to continue the tradition. The top is rather junky, but I need some place to put my stereo and ribbons. (-;

Buttons, buttons...who's got the buttons.

Because I am a tease, I've decided not to put up the picture of my newly cleaned sewing room today! Bad me! However, I am going to show you something fun that i decided to do with my buttons while sorting things out. (Course fun is relative -- I'm pretty sure my family wouldn't think this was too fun LOL!) I had my favorite buttons, sorted by color, in a metal cabinet with many little plastic drawers like the kind you see in a garage to hold screws and nails. I also have a round cheese box for the buttons that are overflow. I like the cabinet for storage, but thought it was getting a little bit too full. So, I had purchase some spice containers at a garage sale (for $5) with the intention of storing my favorite of the favorite buttons in them, but never got around to doing it. The spice containers ended up in my Red Cross donation box, but after a couple of days I pulled it back out (you are never supposed to do this!) and decided to fill it after all. Because I love being able to see my embellishments in all their glory (it motivates me and makes me "pretty happy" as I love all things pretty), it works for me. Here are my buttons and storage methods in all their pretty colors.


The not so favorite and favorites.

The favorites of the favorites and my button color wheel!

Here's a couple webpages of spice containers that might work in your sewing room, but after looking at these prices, garage sales and thrift shops may be the way to go! http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/spiceStorage?page=1 and http://www.tubularspices.com/metal_spice_racks.asp I'm sure there are many more out there. I like the pricey clear stacking acrylic ones, but probably more practical are the shelves you can mount on the wall or the ones that fit into drawers, the best choice depending on where you have more space available. (-;

Sewing Room - Before

Sometime in November my sewing room got too pathetically packed with things to be useful. It is a pretty darn small room and I have lots of "things" which I tend to keep collecting -- estate sales and the like. So, for about 4 months I haven't even rented a movie since I only watch them while I sew and no sewing was possible in this crowded room. I bought a new (for me) cabinet in November also (will blog about that later) and so was sorting through things to decide what to put into the cabinet. Well, I don't know about you, but when I sort, things get messier. LOL! So by February, my sewing room was worse than ever! Here a pic from then: This last pic was aimed at the corner by the door, which is to the left.

This pic is as I turn to the right and looks out at my beautiful view -- the dog run with the shed. (-; There are two six foot tables under there somewhere and the sewing machine is behind the ironing board which I've been shifting from place to place since I have no designated home for it. There is a magazine rack in the middle of the floor which I just bought from a shop that recently closed in Denver. The thread holder is there because it is also homeless. (-;

Turning more to the right, you will see my Dad's antique dresser which I inherited. It holds a special place in my heart and doesn't deserve to be this cluttered.

This view is from the doorway. Well, getting on with the point, one of my Yahoo groups (Nicklequilts) had a challenge to clean up our sewing rooms. I forgot to take a picture of my closet, but I moved out all my quilting fabrics (to the basement in the old cabinet) and cleaned up the main of the room. Stay tuned until tomorrow to see the clean room and in the days after I'll blog about how I stored some of my embellishments and what I put in that beautiful new 44 drawer oak cabinet. (-; By the way, my plan is to actually sew some day.

When working on projects...

Someone asked me if I pulled certain laces to work on a project and the answer is yes! I store them in old plastic computer disk cases that you see in goodwill a lot now.

For my beads, I found the greatest display shelves at a going out of business sale. They were selling everything to include their sales props. I don't know what this was used for, but it works great to see what beads I have available when I'm working on a specific project. The clear bead storage cases work really nice for this. I think of all my organizing discoveries, this is my favorite and most useful!

Organizing my Lace

I have been putting all my laces in order. I keep them in my Olfa storage drawers that I bought at the container store. After listening to a bunch of different people's advice on how to store and how not to store lace, I decided on this method. First I wrapped the lace around an acid free trading card which is the perfect size for small pieces of lace - 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". For tiny pieces I cut a slit in the side of the card and tucked the ends in there. For larger pieces I cut a piece of tulle and tied it around the lace to hold it onto the card. I sorted them by color.

Storing My Stash

STORAGE! How do you like this storage for fabric! It is huge! And I have one for fabric and another for fabric and embellishments. I got both from the container store and they've gone a long way towards organizing my sewing room.

Storing and keeping beads handy

I keep my beads in these little tins (and they are very little - keep maybe a teaspoon). I got them at Shipwreckbeads.com and they are called "Aluminum Box With 54 Mini Boxes And Lids". They have really gone up in price since I got them. I bought a set of 5 boxes (cause they were about $7.00 a piece this way) and planned to share them with others because who would ever need storage for 270 types of beads, right?! Before I could share them they were full! When I'm working on a project I move the color beads I need to the narrow white tray (got it from pampered chef-the line is called Simple Additions) and this keeps them handy for use (love these for use in my sewing room). I bought them for the kitchen and they gravitated to my sewing room. I even bought a second set at a garage sale. I saw some on ebay, here's one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Pampered-chef-simple-additions-3-piece-set-MG_W0QQitemZ110311091132QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item110311091132&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 I don't think Pampered Chef sells them anymore. I like the mini boxes because they are small and lightweight (made from aluminum) and I can put them back in their original box to carry them making them very portable. It lets you see all the colors you have available fairly easily. I think they would be better if they were screw on lids - I frequently dump a single container over when I foget to put it back in the case or tray. Because I have fat fingers, I find it difficult to get a minibox out of the case, especially the first one. I guess I could leave one minibox out of the box to solve this problem, but apparently it doesn't bother me that much! I often don't have enough room for all the beads that I have for a particular color and so keep leftovers that don't fit in the mini boxes in tiny plastic baggies (also available at Shipwreck beads) and refill when necessary.

Another way to store ribbon/lace

Here's my storage idea for lace and ribbon. I like it because they are cheap (many no longer store disks since CDs came on the scene), and stack nicely. Also, I sort them by color and since the lid is clear you can always grab the box you need. (-:

Storage for lace

I got this hanging storage from Avon (actually for jewelry), but decided to store lace in it instead. I really like it because you can see all the lace you have in one glance. It also has pockets on the back. For light laces, I've put a black piece of fabric behind a layer of the lace so you can see what it looks like very easily. For dark laces you could do the same with a light piece of fabric.