Measure Your Fabric… Say Whaaaat?

I’ve been inspired by a book I got at the library, Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space, by Lois Hallock. I sew more clothing than quilts, but I have a tiny sewing area and I was looking for organizing ideas. Lois is a professional engineer and, as a second career, a professional organizer who specializes in organizing sewing rooms. She says: “Measure your fabric. I am not kidding.” It makes sense: you can’t figure out how much storage you need until you measure what you have. Lois also has ideas for how to fold your stash so you can see it — wow, what a concept. Thoroughly inspired, and determined to procrastinate from measuring the volume of all my fabric, I sat down one night with one of my small pieces box (I have two — one light fabrics and one dark fabrics) and tried what she suggested. The idea is to fold so pieces up to one yard can be visible in a clear box that is about 5″-6″ high. I didn’t have the 8″ x 24″ quilting ruler she specified, but I did have a 4″ by 18″ ruler, so I folded the fabric and voila! a box full of flat folded fabric was suddenly neat. She says put smaller scraps into a scrap basket, and I’ll do that too — or I might give them away since they are not big enough for apparel. She has another size recommended for cuts from 1-3 yards, and I plan to try that too.
Lois’ book is full of rooms of various sizes and ladies with various budgets, hence her subtitle, “Sewing rooms for any space and any budget.” Ergonomics are very important, she says, since you need to be productive with the time you have.
Here are my plans from her book: 1. Get an office chair that adjusts. Can you believe I’m using a folding chair?! 2. Measure the volume of my fabric. 3. Get a rolling cart for my serger so that I can create a “work triangle,” as recommended for kitchens.
Have a look at Lois’ lovely book on Amazon.com: Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space