This week on House and Home I am working in my sewing space, The Sewtopia Studio. Fall is still a few weeks away but I am gathering the themed quilts to get a jump on the season.
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| I think I made this a year or so ago. It started as a panel, I added a couple borders and bingo, we have a lap quilt. |
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| One of several wheeled carts, this one sits to my right at the embroidery machine. See that sharp and menacing spindle on the right? It is an antique office piece and I use it to store thread spools when hand stitching. Works great just don't stab yourself! |
On occasion, I get emails asking "how do you ever find time to sew?" My first thought is,...you might be asking the wrong person! The last year or so I have been sooooo off my game that it is a travesty but I am trying to return to old routines that have served me well.
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| Tools and Notions need to be at hand to be efficient. Who doesn't like these little clips? Knowing where they are is important😕 |
Probably key to me is organization and minimal visual clutter. Each of these is dependent upon the other. I readily admit that the tools of sewing and quilting are a bit of an obsession with me. Machines, templates, cutters, threads, etc. define the art to me. However, stuff equals and clutter equals wasted time and that, in turn. culminates in less time to sew.
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| There are two stacks of 7 task boxes, each is labeled and what is needed for each project is clearly labeled. They fit perfectly under the large sewing table. That way I can see them easily, they do not take up counter space and this arrangement reduced the visual clutter of boxes stacked to the ceiling. |
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A few weeks ago I did a major purge in the studio. I donated and gifted fabric, machines and unused items that were not being used. I was then left with a willy-nilly set up that didn't work. I addressed one particular issue by clearing out all the scrap collection boxes and bins from under the large sewing table and separated them into a cart specifically just for that purpose. If I do not use those pieces within a year or so, they go...somewhere. In addition, I sorted through every task box, kept those projects I want to finish and donated those not finished (and never will be) to provide a semblance of order.
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| Two additional carts fit nicely under the desk and do not restrict my legroom. Actually, the foot pedal positions against the far-right cart and does not scoot around! |
If you know me, I am a sprinter. Ideas, sketches, plans and first stitches are a breath of air to me. Then I bog down. I get bored. I move on. Sadly, there is much of that for one reason or another, I have a million of them by the way, and the project sits on the back burner for a while. I tend to work on two or three projects at one time to minimize the boredom,
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| The thread tower. I have debated about this one for some time. I choose to keep it in the drawers out of direct light and dust. I like the thread racks but this works better for me. |
- I try, I really do try to put away and clean up after each sewing session.
- My machines are covered when not in use. Unlike some very special sewists, my covers don't all match. I use the ones that came with the machine, right out of the box. Maybe someday I will get around to making matching covers but don't hold your breath. This studio will N-e-v-e-r Make it to a glossy magazine page.
- I try to group like items to reduce the "finding time." Recently, I wasted a good 30 minutes of a precious one-hour sewing window looking for my Amelie Scott patterns. I was rather upset with myself. I knew I put them in a special place so I could find them for my class but where was that special place??? Right beside my Destiny II. Waiting for use. Not in the carts, not on a shelf, not anywhere I looked. Lesson learned. I plan to inventory at the end of the year, as usual, but I am going to make a key to direct me to just where I placed said items.
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