my sewing corner {& stash!}

I've been having fun the last couple of weeks participating in Gray All Day's link up of finished projects.   This week Helena decided to do something different -- a "show-your-stash" link up party.  I once showed a part of my craft room (ahem, three years ago?) here on this blog -- but that craft room, which I never got around to completely documenting, is now gone.  It was the fourth bedroom in my house, and when organized and tiny, though it is a small bedroom, it was glorious.  I loved it!  But, when it become untidy it became a place where I shut the door, and did my crafting in other places.  It became a reminder of everything that I *don't* want in my crafting -- obligations (of things I needed to make for others), unfinished objects (that I didn't really want to finish), and languishing piles (which were a result of not having enough time in my craft room!).   You  may or may not know what I'm talking about here. ;)

Enter the decision to turn the guest room back into a guest room, and the random back corner of my basement into my crafting area.  This is, in fact, a much longer story, but let's leave it at the point in Spring 2014 when my basement flooded, and we decided to take everything out and put it all back -- in a more re-organized way.

Now -- I'm left with a craft room I can use, and when it's tidy, I love!  The "tidy" part is ongoing, by the way, so excuse the "in-progress" look of my following photos, which were taken after about 30 seconds of tidying.

First, I have my "yarn wall."  Who doesn't want a yarn wall? (Okay, maybe a non-yarn addict wouldn't, but still ... )  This is the wall that divides my basement from my crafting area and it houses a good portion of my yarn and my crafting books.  Stuffed into cubbies are the "significant" amounts of yarn, and in the boxes are the smaller amounts of yarn (generally 1-3 balls), sorted by weight.  This is of course catalogued in ravelry (my for-sale-stash is located here if you are interested!) and I frequently consult my stash to see what's there before I make an impulse buy (thank you, Dizzy Sheep, for the enabling moments you've given me).

Next, I have the area to the right of my sewing table (in which my sewing machine is a Pfaff from almost 20 years ago -- my first big purchase after getting married!) ... Here, I have my collection of "garment-amount" fabrics.  As I've dived into making a handmade wardrobe this year, this has grown ... a bit.  I'm cutting myself off at the space in which I have to house fabric.

It's getting tight, which means I need to start making stuff again!  (That is good.)

Then, I have my old Apple computer on a dresser that was once in my daughter's room but now houses assorted crafty goodies (wrapping supplies, shipping supplies, zippers & other notions ... ).  And, to the right of that is my "smaller insignificant" fabrics.

These are generally 1/2 yard, or less, and folded as per the ruler fold in order to fit into the cubbies.  I actually just moved these from the spare bedroom into this space recently and was unsure what to do when my ruler folding trick didn't work -- then decided to move some extra books into this space as fillers.  I think it works pretty well.  Here's a close-up of the scrappy goodness ...

To the right of that is the craft room-turned guest room, though I still keep my scraps of fabric on the door to the guest room.  When we have guests, I'll move it, but for now it makes an easy spot to store extra fabric scraps.  If you can't tell, it's overflowing right now ... I need to get on that whole "using-my-scraps-thing" soon!

All of this reminds me of my favorite quote on housing a "stash" of fabric / yarn / what-have-you.  The question is : How much is enough or too much?  The answer : "Enough" that keeps you creative, but "too much" stilts your creativity.  You decide where you are at!  In my current crafting space, I'm just teetering over the edge, which means I need to do some sorting and some making.  (That isn't a bad thing.)

So, thanks for taking a look at my little crafting haven in my basement!

What about you -- do you have a space to create?  Do you have a way to organize your supplies?  And, most importantly, do you have a favorite scrap quilt or scrap project to use fabric scraps in??