A Crafter's Life, Studio

Fabric Organization Emergency!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

One day my friend and neighbor J texted me that she desperately needed to re-organize her fabric and could I help. I popped over immediately (because I love fabric and I love organization…and J is a fun quilting friend!). Tierney to the rescue!

(yes, fun with Google AI)

I don’t have a “before” photo but a lot of her fabric stash was organized in one of these IKEA “Billy” style bookcases (from the tour of her studio post Project Linus Mini Retreat, Part II )

J doesn’t have as much fabric as I do in regards to yardage and “precuts”. She’s been a quilter longer than I have but she seems to have great control. Only recently has she started holding onto her fabric scraps.

Unfortunately I was wrapped up in the re-organization process and did not take many photos but here are the steps we followed to make her fabric organization work for her and give her the feeling she was shopping in her own miniature quilt shop:

  • Pull all her yardage fabric (1/2 yard of fabric or larger) from shelves and baskets, etc. in her studio and pile them on one of her cutting tables
  • Test out ways to fold the yardage on cardboard she had purchased so that the fabric could fit neatly without the confines of her bookcase.
  • Dump out all her baskets and shelves of precuts (fat quarters, jelly rolls, charm squares, layer cakes, etc) onto another table in her studio.
  • Sort the fat quarters by color OR if they were part of a coordinated collection, sort them by the collection.
  • Separate all her Halloween and Christmas fabric (J enjoys making quilts and home decor like table runners and placemats for these holidays) and put them into baskets
  • Separate out all her “Quilts of Valor” fabrics and put them in a basket (she makes Quilts of Valor for Veterans).
  • Dump all her scraps on the floor and I separated them into bins of Batiks (she has a lot of Batik scraps), general, and solids/blenders.
  • Refold all her yardage on to the new cardboard and sort by theme, fabric line, or color.
  • Organize her shelves as follows: 1) precuts, 2) yardage, 3) Tula Pink, and 4) scraps.
  • J came up with the idea of cutting the cardboard in half to fold half yards and quarter yards.

Here is the finished re-organization fabric bookcase. I forgot to take photos of the baskets we created for Batik fabric scraps and special occasion fabrics (Christmas, Halloween, and Quilts of Valor):

J reports that she does feel like she has her own little quilt shop in her studio. She says she can easily “shop from her stash” and find fabric, precuts and scraps for her projects.

For me an organized quilt studio makes my creativity flow!

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

20 thoughts on “Fabric Organization Emergency!”

  5. Often these sorting jobs are better done by someone else, so well done for racing to the rescue! I find, with my own stuff, I can’t see a way through all the clutter.Someone else has clearer vision. That bookcase looks so well organised.

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  8. To my eyes, this space wasn’t so much filled with disorganized fabric…it just needed to be arranged such that the fabric is readily available to be used. Your trained eye spotted the best way to do just that! BTW: I spied some coffee related mats hanging on the wall…cool!

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  10. Pingback: Quilter’s Playdate: What’s Next – tierneycreates

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