Under All The Mess

I dug deep this weekend. Deep into the shameful state of my sewing space. I have always been clear about not being a great housekeeper, but I have my limits and when your sewing mojo is lower than low it is hard to try and motivate yourself to do it anyway when you can barely find a spare inch of space to get on with it.

So I went to Ikea on Friday, to get some things to finish of Helen's bedroom, but to sneak in a few things for me too.

I bought the bookcase and the blue and white storage boxes. The bookcase was only £15. It will sit in that doorway quite nicely. While it may seem a strange place to put a bookcase you would have to see this house to understand. The architect who designed it never gave much thought to actually living in it. The sitting room is on the other side of that door. In the sitting room every wall has something major in the middle of it - doors, fireplace or large window. The placement of furniture is hugely curtailed by this. I finely gave up trying to work around it and placed the sofa right across the doorway on the other side of these shelves. This door, therefore, is not used.

To the left of the new shelves is my sewing desk, that himself made me. It is 'L' shaped and big. I love it. So I cleared most of the stuff off it to turn it back into a useful space. At the far end of the desk is my fabric storage. 95% of the fabric I own is stuffed into these drawers in a good semblance of order. It is a system that works very well for me. I know where to look for stuff. I can pull out a drawer, or two, get the fabric I want, cut it and put it back without any bother at all.

Which would bring into question why I have that big pile of fabric and scraps sitting at the end of my desk waiting to be sorted back into its appropriate drawers. In my defence, some of it has never made it to a drawer before, and...     well, actually there is no other defence. It needs putting away, full stop. On my cutting mat is an assortment of HSTs that are left over trimmings from various projects. I want to square those off and use them. Squaring them off and sorting them according to size would be a good step in the right direction.

On the right hand side of my desk is my new desk tidy which I love. Two deep pockets for pens, Sharpies on the left and everything else on the right. A shallow bit for spare needles, spare rotary blades, needle threaders, etc. Two small drawers in which I currently have epp papers and stuff. It is so nice to have somewhere to pop these little items rather than digging around a mess of a desk and wondering where the hell I left something the last time I used it.

The shelves are still being filled. On the floor below the bottom shelf are magazines and my freezer paper. Above the Go! Baby and spare - of which I am having a wee dilemma. One of those cutters does not work well, eats up cutting mats for breakfast. Before I moved them into my sewing space I knew which was which and never got around to binning the duff one. Now I have them mixed up and am not sure which is which. All I can think is to buy two new cutting mats and see which one is the cutting mat killer, getting rid of it right away. Meanwhile, they will both just sit there.

Beside them are my embroidery pouches with projects within. The wicker basket has all my Oakshott in it. And the bag on the end has my lavender. The shelf above has my colour cards - Kona, Aurifil and DMC. A box full of scraps and an epp project on the go.

Next up are the new storage boxes filled, with sewing books and note pads below them. Thread on the left, perle in the middle (with my embroidery floss box below it), and zips on the right. The shelf above holds bits and bobs. An old giant spool wound with ribbons, a tin with my basting pins in it, washi tape, quilting feet, a fabric basket with selveges in it, buttons, etc.

The top shelf is still almost empty, other than the fab clasp purse Nicky made me which is full of ribbons and such.

I am feeling vaguely on the way to being organised. It is not a normal feeling for me. Maybe I can do some sewing. After all, if I have accomplished so much in the tidy up I can ignore that pile of fabric that needs sorting a little longer, can't I?

Susan