Getting My Thread Stash Organized

I have been in my current sewing room since about March of this year. I love my room, but after 2 recent moves, I am still “adjusting the fit” of it.

Last week end I picked up the other 2 Ikea drawer units that I have been wanting. They replaced the file cabinets that were the base for my serger and sewing machine table.

Now that I have these additional drawers near my work space, I can arrange things so they are closer to where I use them.

-My serger thread is now in a drawer under the serger.

-The sewing thread is in a drawer under the sewing machine.

-I have 3 drawers with embroidery thread under my embroidery machine.

How convenient!

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I used to keep the smaller spools of embroidery threads and the sewing thread in lidded plastic drawers in a plastic rolling cart.

The problem with this was that I had to pull each drawer out, open the lid, and see if what I wanted was in that drawer. The new drawers make selecting thread colors much easier.

I do still have the wall storage behind the door for the larger spools of embroidery thread and other miscellaneous threads.

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The only problem I could see with the new drawers was how to keep the thread standing and organized. I had a box that was a good size for cutting strips to put into the drawers as organizers.

I started with a piece of cardboard from a box, a box cutter and my 6×24″ cutting ruler.

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Strips cut 1.5″ wide for the embroidery thread drawers.

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The strips keep the rows from blending into each other and help to prevent the spools from tipping over.

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I also cut strips 3.5″ for the serger thread drawer.

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I re-used the strips from the lidded drawers for the sewing thread drawer.

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I am also organizing my pattern stash and my embroidery designs.

Having things organized and convenient makes it SO MUCH more fun to spend time in the sewing room!

August 2011 FNSI – What I Worked On

I actually got an early start on my FNSI. My friend Carole had a girls embroidery day at her house. She opens up her sewing room (a recent addition built onto her house just for embroidery) early in the morning and she has room for several of us to join her for the day.

I arrived with no real plan for the day. I had a few things in mind, and grabbed what seemed like my entire sewing room to take along. I wanted to be sure I didn’t forget anything.

I had a kitchen towel in my stash so I decided to embroider this chef onto it.

It is part of a set of bonus designs from AnitaGoodesign.

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Next, I decided to try a cutwork design, also from AnitaGoodesign.

I had brought a piece of white linen, and stitched this scarecrow head from the Autumn Cutwork Medallions Designs disc.

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I am planning on making a fabric covers for my sewing machines. The first one will be for this machine, since it is not too large or oddly shaped.

I kind of have an idea in mind, using several sewing themed embroidery designs, but I will figure it out as I go along. I only got 2 of these designs stitched out so far.

These designs are from another set of bonus designs from AnitaGoodesign. I have several more designs to stitch out, but that will have to be another day.

Getting Started on My New Sewing Room!

My husband and I just bought a foreclosure house to live in. We will be renting his house, which we currently live in, and have already rented out my house.
The foreclosure house doesn’t appear to have any structural or mechanical problems, and is actually in pretty good shape overall. I had to replace several of the window blinds, and the carpet is “okay”. The patio is painted a wild teal green with terra cotta colored carpet that is in bad shape. I have already started taking up the patio carpet and the patio will be painted to match the rest of the exterior of the house ASAP.
But the first and most important re-do is the room that will be my new sewing room.
I have already taken out the carpet and removed the baseboards in preparation for putting in laminate flooring. Since I don’t have to worry about dripping paint onto the floor, I painted the walls yesterday.

Here are the color swatches for deciding on the color.

The larger patch is a sample of Behr Interior Flat Laurel Leaf. It is too dark, so I added some swiss coffee paint that I had to lighten it up, but got it too light on the first try (upper light patch). I tried again, with less of the swiss coffee and got a color I was happy with (lower patch).  I took my final color mix to Home Depot and they mixed a gallon in eggshell finish.

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I have painted one wall and am moving on to the next.    To the left, you can see the paint samples (hard to see, the photo is a little dark).

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One wall finished, moving on to the second wall.

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I finished most of the painting last night, but it was getting late and I needed to get home.  I still need to paint inside the window area and will probably need to do some touch up today before I start laying the floor.

My Sewing Room ~ As it is Currently

We will be moving again very soon and I wanted to post a few photos of my sewing room as it currently is.
This is the “bonus” room. It is next to the single car garage and is the same size, measuring 10ft wide by 20ft long with no closet and 10ft ceilings. There is a very large window on the west wall, and doors near the window on the north and south walls.

****South Wall****

The short book case holds several 3 ring binders. My intention for the binders is to sort and store all of those instructional print outs and such that accumulate. The sewing table is a hollow core door sitting on top of 2 filing cabinets. The sewing/embroidery machine is an older Babylock Esanti and the serger is Babylock Evolve. I have 2 cork boards above, and the photo shows my AnitaGoodesign Santa’s Ride wall quilt pinned to one of them.

 

*****North Wall****

The tall cabinet holds several of my books, embroidery design cd’s, rolls of stabilizer, and much more. The sewing table is a top from a desk sitting on 2 Ikea storage units. The sewing/embroidery machine is my Brother Duetta 4500D. The thread racks were originally one large rack that I made to hang on the wall behind a door, but I recently cut in them in half so they could sit on the desk top. The wall quilt at the far end, above the ironing board, is Crazy Compass by Hoop Sisters.

****West Wall****

This is not really a sewing area, except for the bookcases on each end of the desk, which hold several magazines and books. The desk is my computer/printer area. The cart to the right under the desk is just a plastic 6 drawer unit for small items that I need to keep nearby. The window looks bare because we will not be living here long enough for me to decide what to put up.

****East Wall****
The east wall is just a large bare wall with a flat panel tv on a stand.