Earlier this year, I shared with you my studio remodel. I called the post Not Finished but Fully Functional. That is still the truth today. There are a few little things that really need to be done–like organize my office supplies, but in all honesty that probably won’t happen until this fall. In less than two weeks, the boys will be out of school, and my time in the studio will be limited.
In those next two weeks, I’ve got to finish several quilts for my upcoming exhibit at the Gallery Nord in San Antonio, Texas. The Surface Design Association is holding its 2013 conference in San Antonio. In conjunction with the conference, galleries around town are featuring textile and fiber art. My exhibition of Color Grids is one of the SDA-sponsored exhibitions. Thank you SDA and Gallery Nord for supporting my work!
But before I could really focus on making those few last quilts, I needed to get my fabric in order. You see, my fabric was in its proper place, but it was not in the order it needed to be for me to find things quickly.
I have always bought 1 1/2 yard cuts of fabric. I like that amount. In the early days, I would take that 1 1/2 yard cut and make two fat quarters and store the rest in a closet.
I am taking these fat quarters out to McCarthy. We willuse them in my Creative Cloth workshop.
But once I began my studies with Nancy Crow, I found that I needed the full width of the fabric, not a half as a fat quarter is, to make my new fabrics. I no longer liked the fat quarter size and was constantly digging in my stacked storage to find the right fabric. This created a monster mess in my studio.
Now that I have my new space, I can’t imagine that I ever created in such a messy environment!
In order to make things more accessible for me, Walt built storage for my fabric all the way around my studio.
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- In order to get all of the fabrics properly organized, I did have to pull them all out.
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- Kato helped with the process. He loves quilting fabric almost as much as he loves felted wool.
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- This was not fun, but it was not super painful.
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- More tubs and tubs. The size of tub I use for this storage system is a 28 quart.
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- This is where all the solid fabrics, polka dots, and stripes live.
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- In the far corner of the studio, I have my vintage florals and psychedelics, black and white, browns, grays, and pinks.
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- Right next to the tall storage, I have this storage where the rest of my prints in order of the color wheel.
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- This is storage behind my sewing machine. Here I have all my novelty prints. You see in the lower corner of the shelf–there are two empty tubs! This must mean I do not have enough fabric.
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- On the ends of some shelves I have smaller tubs for scraps. When the fabric gets too small to fold it goes in one of these tubs. They are also in the order of the color wheel.
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- I had Fletcher take some photos of my using my system. Doesn’t it look user friendly?
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- It really is a giant rolodex of fabric!
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- I feel like a 1950s house wife proudly showing off my new electronic kitchen device! Quiltmaking so easy with the new fabric rolodex system.
I think of this storage as a giant rolodex of fabric. Every type of fabric in my stash has its place–solids go in one place, vintage psychedelics in another, and they are all filed accordingly.
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- Black
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- Brown
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- Pink
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- Red
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- Orange
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- Yellow
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- Green
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- Blue
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- Turquoise
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- Purple
I must say I love my new studio. It is so incredibly functional!
These are cut-outs of my boys that live in my studio every day. Notice that Tripp does not have a stand for his photo and someone–I wonder who–has scratched out the word valuable on Ozzy’s stand.
Every one got a World War II solider card for Mother’s Day, right? Mine came complete with mud splats from walking home from school. I love it.
Happy Mother’s Day to all.
drooling…….in awe of all that fabric! What organization!! Beautiful.
Thank you! I do have a big fabric collection, as we quilters are trained to say–it is my palette.
Looks great ,Maria! Hope you had a wonderful mother’s day too..much love Sue
Thankyou sue! Happy Mother’s Day to you too!
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