All these stash posts over at Sew, Mama, Sew! had me ashamed. That's right! I'm putting a face to the messy fabric out there!! You're out there too, right? I feel like we see so many photos of beautiful stashes, but that can't be how it is for everyone... All of us are creative types, aren't we supposed to be messy?? Right? Please - help me out here. You all have messy stashes sometimes too right??
I'm not a naturally tidy person. I'm just not. It's always a struggle for me to keep my things in order. That said, I'd let my stash get completely out of hand over the past couple of months. I'm embarrassed about it, but this is the state it had gotten into...
And that's AFTER I gathered it all one place for the photo. Can you believe that the last time I thoroughly organized my stash it ALL fit in that tan bin in the upper right of the photo?? Yeah. That was a long time ago...
I read this incredibly inspirational post by Elizabeth and that was that. I HAD to do something about the horrific state of affairs.
First, a good sorting and refolding lead me to this.
Then a trip to Ikea later and I had this!
Yay! If you click through to Flickr on the photo you can see my notes of what it all is but basically, going clockwise... the basket is my scraps (for me they are very small), the clear bins are less than a yard, sorted by color. Then there's my home dec. weight fabric & quilting weight solids, and lastly in the original tan bin, my cuts of a yard or more.
Clearly this isn't where it all lives in my sewing room, but the shelf it all goes on is tall and deep. There's no good way to get a photo of it all when it's put away. Now I am organized! Let's just see how long I can keep it this way...