Tuesday's Tip - DIY Thread Storage

For today's tip, I'm going to show how I made a great DIY thread storage drawer.

I have a thread hanger on the wall by my small sewing machine, but I needed something for my mid-arm machine that's on a frame.  It needed to be convenient, hold even large cones, bobbins, and keep the thread clean.

The plastic drawers in the photo were next to the frame, and had an empty drawer.  I saw a picture on Pinterest that showed dowels hot glued to a plastic drawer, and that got me thinking -- I could do this!  So I got out an old thread holder, a scrap piece of wood, bamboo skewer, glue gun, electric drill, and a few other odds and ends and started to work.  I was determined to use materials on hand and do it myself!

After several ideas that didn't quite work, I ended up drilling holes in the piece of wood, breaking the skewers in half, and hot gluing them in place if they were loose.  The skewers needed to be long, so the  bobbins that match the thread could go on top of the thread spool. The whole piece was then spot glued into the drawer.

I did use half of an old wooden letter holder (I think that's what it was) on one side, for my really big cones and to fill the space, but a larger piece of wood would have worked just as well.

This is still a work in progress, I may shorten the skewers a little, and it's not the prettiest thing, but when it's filled with thread and bobbins (someday!) it'll look fine, and it works!!

What do you think? Have you made something like this?  I'd love to see pictures!

Mary

Organizing My Studio - Part 2

Once I got my shelves organized, it was on to the rest of the studio. I've made a lot of progress, and wanted to share some of my storage, display and sewing solutions.

My budget isn't large for my studio, so I've tried to be creative with my storage solutions. It helps to have a handy husband! This is my quilt "ladder". It's made of two 2x4's that were sanded and painted white. Then holes were drilled in the 2x4's about 22" apart, and 1" pvc pipe was put through the holes to make the "rungs". I can lean it against the wall and hang quite a few quilts on it, as well as my purses and bags. With the quilts on it, it's heavy enough to be fairly sturdy. It's also easy to take apart and move and the width is adjustable.

WIP's or UFO's -- there are always lots of projects "in progress" that need a place that is visible, so I'll finish them! This wooden drying rack was very inexpensive, but works great.

Cutting Table, Sewing Table and Quilt Frame:

Organizing My Studio -- Making Progress!

Is this organizing ever finished?  I'm pretty sure the answer is "No!"  I really enjoy organizing my studio, it looks so nice after, and I get to use my creative organizing ideas!

My first project was organizing my shelving where I keep my stash.  I still have some labeling to do, but so far --

• Refolded ALL of my stash, using 6" ruler folding technique
• Sorted the fabric by color and value, and put the smaller pieces (fat quarters) in clear plastic shoe boxes  
• Fabrics that I wanted to stay in a group were put together in the green basket
• Scraps are sorted by color on the upper right side of the shelves, again in plastic shoe boxes
• Fleece and flannel are on the top shelf, with some of my quilts and craft supplies
• Strips are hung on the end of the shelves
• Bolts of white and off-white are stored on the bottom shelf, with smaller pieces of batting
• Rolls of batting are in the corner

Here's a really simple explanation of how I did the folding --

Straightening Up & Reorganizing My Quilt Studio

Instead of a New Year's Resolution -- I've set myself a goal to straighten up and re-organize my quilt studio by the end of the year!

Checked off the To Do list --

• Packed up all the Christmas fabric (well, almost done).  I was determined to use up my stash of Christmas fabric this year. After coasters, place mats  purses, bags, and several quilts and bed runners, it's about 1/2 what it was -- of course I had to buy some fabric on sale but I have a lot less! Take a look at my Quilt Gallery to see some of them!

• Organized all of my accessory, purse and bag making supplies. One of my discoveries this year was purses at thrift stores.  They are inexpensive, and I found new ones that had never been used.  The handles, zippers and trim can be used on my items which saved me a lot of money.

• Got rid of all of the plastic bags I was going to use "someday", and went through some OLD projects I was never going to finish, and either put them back into stash, or let them go.

• Now, to straighten up my stash!  I use shallow plastic bins, and have one for each color.  Some of the solids, and unusual items and multicolored florals go in their own bins.  The fabric on the table in front is new fabric I got for Christmas (love gift certificates!!)

I may do some furniture re-arranging too.  When I've gotten things all organized, I'll post a picture of the entire studio!