It is always worse before it gets better...( a sneak peak) | Go-Go Kim

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Monday, January 12, 2015

It is always worse before it gets better...( a sneak peak)


Ikea had my shelving on Friday!  I was there as the door were opening and it was like Heaven!  I was the only one in the WHOLE PLACE! If you have ever been to Ikea you know this just does not happen!  I found the Billy shoveling and was able to get those things on a cart and into my car all by myself ( HIGH FIVE)!  On Saturday, The in-house engineer and I constructed the shelves and he made sure they were safely strapped to the wall so none of my precious fabric would be harmed if we had an earthquake or something crazy like that here in VA ( it has actually happened).  

Saturday night was spent unloading all the boxes and bags of stuff that Katy and I had cleared out of the room just a couple of weeks ago.  I could not be more pleased with the look of my new shelves in this space!  If you follow me on instagram ( gogokim) , you may have seen some of the photos I have been sharing there.  There may have been some happy dancing too but that was not shared for fear of Katy never helping me again. 

Here is a very not perfect photo of some of the progress. 



I am trying to keep things somewhat minimalistic in this "new" space so I do not fall into the trap of SHOVING things into any space and losing stuff along the way.  The ability of something just fitting and being out of sight is dangerous in these parts. I am finding things I had completely forgotten I owned or more sad, that I had sewn and just put out just until I could get to it.

I decided that the cutting table shelves would be the perfect spot for some of my books and my fun vintage suitcases that store patterns and some other items that are not used often enough to be put in plain sight.


Then I came to this issue...only a few of my scrap bins...oh what to do with these...if anyone has the best way that they have found and used that had continually worked for them, I would really love to hear about how you do it!



I cannot bring myself to be rid of them because, honestly, I am a scrappy sewer.  I love my scraps and these bins have been so kind to me when looking for that ONE piece of whatever color I NEED more than AIR to finish a block for a quilt.  Until I stop being scrappy, I red to figure out the best way to keep track of scraps so they do not have a chance to take over.

I still have plenty to go through before it is completed.  The box on the right with bags is UFO's, the box in the middle...more scraps...three sewing machines...and this is only part of the foyer..
Aye dios mio!  



I hope to have things more completed my the end of next week but I also hoped to have shelving two weeks ago...LOL!


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13 comments

needle and nest said...

I love those pretty shelves of fabric! I've got all of my scraps sorted by color, and that's helped tremendously. They're all in ziplock bags in a cupboard, though... hahahaha... so I'm no help when it comes to storage! :)

MamaDoc said...

I love working with scraps and have been collecting them for years. I was running out of room and was forced to DO something. I decided to go with Bonnie Hunters scrap users system on her Quiltville blog. I have a bin for each size strip and one for odd size or larger squares. At first it was hard to cut into fabric thinking, "what if one day I need a 4 inch circle and I've cut these into 3 1/2 in strips?" But honestly once I got going it was kind of addictive and I made it through all my scraps and then culled some "uglies" out of my stash as well. Now it is so easy to just cut up the remainder of fabric after I've used it and immediately put it in the right bin. And I love working out of the scrap bins so much that I actually made 4 quilts and almost ran out.

magistra said...

It's looking great in there! I love your suitcases, maybe I'll find one someday - probably one that I'm buying back from days gone by, haha! I think I might try Bonnie's system described by Mama Doc here. I definitely need some sort of a system, too. Good Luck in your finishing up! You'll feel like a new woman sewing in such a pretty space! Magistra13 at yahoo dot com
Beth

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

Your shelves look great. Your room is going to be so tidy. Have you read the book "The man who got trapped in an Ikea wardrobe"? He spent the night alone in Ikea.

http://thankfullga447 said...

A quiet IKEA usually never happens, I was in IKEA once with a few customers and it was Christmas.

Beth said...

The shelving looks beautiful with your lovely fabric in place. Those pesky scraps are always a challenge to keep orderly.

Michele said...

Well I think it looks great so far.

Jake said...

Ah, about scraps! Okay, admittedly, I am not a scrappy quilter, but I do say scraps! I clean them out a few times a year and donate to my guild members. But, I've found this storage works best for me: I use clear shoe box sized totes and stack the on one of my shelves. Each tote holds a different shade family. I don't sort by size r by shape, anything green goes in the green bin whether it is a fat quarter missing a two inch square or a one inch strip. If you have more scraps than that, you could just move to bigger totes, but the secret is in having them all the same size....even if that means you combine two colors initially (my pinks and purples are together). When I'm cutting, quilting, whatever, I just chunk the stuff in the right color bin. Super easy. I do keep some scraps for hexies and such so I hang onto my faves. But, I'm an organizer. All my stuff is labelled, I can find everything. Same size containers work for me. My projects are in totes with labels, neatly stacked, I,can pull out what I feel like working on whether it is quilting, piecing, or one of Sar Lawsons Awesome purses in process. But having the containers all be the same size with labels really is the key. Your sewing studio looks great!

Elsa said...

Those shelves look pretty perfect to me! Love the added non fabric things too ~ that bowl and camera are fab!

Unknown said...

This is great. Enjoy yourself

Katy Cameron said...

Yup, never underestimate the power of an empty Ikea ;o)

Anonymous said...

I, too, LOVE my scraps! I save everything larger than about 1.5" x 1.5", tho now and then I do a slight purge. I have a whole bunch (like 100!) clear shallow tubs (my mother collected rubber stamps and loved to sort, so I am using those as I sell the stamps!) into which I sort everything regardless of size/shape. I have a tub for each color, then add a 2nd if needed when one gets too full. I can stack them on top of each other when I'm not using them. So far I have about 20 in service for scraps. I also have a messy pile on the table to my left from which I'm always grabbing bits to sew together as leader/ender scraps for my ongoing scrap blocks. I do like Bonnie Hunter's system in general, but since I make improv blocks, I don't do the specific size cutting that she suggests. Your space is so great-looking! Don't worry about it getting messy again - that's the way it is for so many creative people!

Liz
boltonia55@yahoo.com

Mother Chook said...

I love scrappy quilts too. I've sorted my fabrics (fat quarters and bigger) into colours and store them in clear plastic fold-able shoe boxes in the top shelves of my Ikea cupboards. Above those, I keep large open-topped jars (also Ikea) with smaller scraps - again, sorted into colours. So I effectively have 2 layers of a rainbow at the top of my shelves. I'd love to post a photo of my storage and the quilt it has inspired.

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