Sewing Room Organization

I really, really like being organized. While my office/craft room turns into a creative mess during a big project, between projects I generally put everything back where it lives. My fabrics and papers are organized by color and type. I have a fabric-covered peg board to the right of my sewing machine - it holds scissors, templates, rulers, and a variety of other often-used items within arm's reach while i'm working. I have a variety of storage devices that I love.

Several years ago I saw an idea in a magazine (probably a quilting magazine) to keep track of your sewing machine needles that are used, but not yet at the point of needing to be discarded. They marked each section of a tomato-style puncushion with a needle size, and when you switched needles you just placed your used needle into the appropriate section. I gave it a try, but the marker I used bled into the tomato fabric and was quickly illegible.

I've been enjoying working with wool lately and have made a needlecase or two. And I realized that would work for my machine needles as well, but I wanted them on the wall next to the machine for ease of access. So, a little wool, a little batting and scrap fabric, a few grommets, and about an hour's time produced this little needle keeper. And now that I've purchased some of Superior's titanium needles, which last ages and ages, it will certainly get a lot of use.

The North Carolina Quilt Symposium show was hosted here in Raleigh by the Capital Quilter's Guild in May. I had a fine time talking with Vicki, the owner of Annie's Keepsakes, a wool shop based in Rockwell, NC. Her wool goods were beautiful, especially the bamboo wool - it was as soft as silk! But I really fell in love with her pincushions. Yes, I know, pincushion patterns are a dime a dozen lately. But what sets Vicki's patterns apart (IMHO) is her method of display that makes them more of a sculpture. She uses a variety of easily found items (spools, wooden wheels, metal coils) that both display the pincushion and are an integral part of the sculpture. I wanted many, but ended up buying and making the one that I thought looked like a coneflower. It has leaves that hold my seam ripper and small scissors. The flower petals can be up (like they are in this picture) or down. In this case, the base is a piece of bamboo.

A local theater is offering "free" movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. (I put free in quotes because while the tickets are free, by the time I buy the drinks and popcorn I will be out $20.) This morning is "The Bee Movie". The boys are quite excited to see it. Although, Matthew might just be more excited about having the popcorn. That child dearly loves his popcorn.