Hello Everyone,
Last week I showed you my favorite tools and this week it is fitting to show you how I organize some of my tools and things that I use in my studio. But first, I want to congratulation the winner of the first week's fabric bundle.... Congratulations to Kristen Amero! She won the beautiful bundle and has received it already. Stay tuned for the winner of last week's giveaway.
I don't know how you are in your studio, but I think that I can categorize myself as organized chaos at times. The above picture kind of sums that up. I do, however, try to maintain some semblance of organization at any given time. But let's take the tour of some of the organization that I do have in my studio.
One of the things that I am most proud of are my thread racks for my long arm. I have wooden racks that I have attached to the studs in the wall and arranged my cones of thread by color. It makes it very easy to grab and go when I am quilting my quilts. Plus it doubles as a colorful piece of decoration on my wall.
Maximization of space is a BIG key factor in setting up the studio. So under my longarm there is unused space. Therefore, I store fabric and projects there to make use of the space. The projects are in bins and stacked underneath the backside of the machine. Fabric is stored on shelves that I purchased from Ikea. They are calle Besta. They were the perfect height and depth for under the longarm and store lots of fabric.
Then I have an Ikea bookcase that holds all my teaching "manuals" for me. I know where to grab them when I am teaching a particular class. We added the doors to the bookcase to make it look neater. I love that, because clutter breeds more clutter, at least in my house. I definitely don't want that!
Then I have my cutting island. They are two pieces of Ikea furniture from the Varde kitchen line. Which they do not make anymore... insert sad face here. The one side of my island has great draws. I store rulers, office supplies, notions, projects and more. The other side I have fabric and projects behind two doors. The cabinets are at the right height too! Two cutting mats sit atop the butcher block tops.
Next up, the rulers are organized in a wooden holder, next to the cutting mat. I really like this ruler holder, it makes it easy for me to grab the ruler that I need when I am cutting.
I think the thing that tis my most favorite organizational piece is the Ikea bookcase that I put in the closet. This bookcase holds the majority of my fabric stash. When I moved to Arizona, I took the time (when un-packing) to fold and group all my fabric by color. When I walk into my closet the colors put a HUGE smile on my face. I absolutely LOVE it!! If I bring more fabric into my studio, I immediately fold it and put it in it's place right away. Don't let it pile up... that leads to the chaos.
I am not sure if the last thing falls into the organizational category or not... but it is my design wall. I am lucky enough to have an 8' X 8' design wall. My hubby and I put it up and it is the most amazing part of my studio. I can put what I am working on up there and see it at any time. I did a video tutorial on how to construct the same wall. You can go to my YouTube channel here and watch it and others OR you can watch it below. I have had many people make it the same way as I did and they love theirs.
I hope that my post of organizational items inspires you! But don't forget to go visit the other bloggers this week and see what tips, tools, and techniques that they have for organizing their studios.
And since I spoke about thread first... I have another GIVEAWAY today!!! I am giving away this little swag bag that was kindly donated by my favorite thread brand, Aurifil. YUP.... Thread, a tote bag, thread charts and a sticker for your sewing machine! LOVE this!!! If you would like to enter just go to the Rafflecopter below and do as many entries as you like. The more entries you do, the more chances you have to win!
