Organization Envy...
This will be a short post this week, but every once in a while you come across someone who has a figured out a better way to organize something. I call that effect Organization Envy, and this time it came in the form of a blog post by Debby Brown, a very prolific scrap quilter. It came in the form of a Facebook post, where she had very neatly organized a tub of jelly roll strips Very neat and tidy, much as Debbie is. Have I mentioned that she's prolific?
Very much NOT like me, which has caused me a sense of frustration over time. I've often wanted to engage in mindless sewing - my word for just sewing two strips together. It can be very calmning, as well as productive. Like many quilters, I have bins of strips that I want to make more accessible, and strip quilts I want to start working on.
The picture above is where I started this week. I had been keeping my woven cottons and my batiks separated, and although I thought I had mostly jelly sized strips, along the way I began keep narrower strips as well. But, in the interest of time, I began just lumping everything into one bin, with the idea of sorting it all out later. Everything in one giant overflowing bin - so big I couldn't even snap the lid on. It was time for some action.
Disclaimer - this isn't nearly as neat and tidy as Debby's pile, but that's ok. It's usable for me. I decided on two sorts - Size and color. Color is a big one for me - I use it everywhere else in the workroom., and it's where I put quilts together.
I've also done a second sort, by size. Jelly size strips in one bin, everything else in another by color. I know there's some great patterns out there for a variety of sizes, and this makes this something I can work with...it makes it a useable stash.
The two sorted bins have most of the strips, but there this one bin left. I have a visit from the Little Quilter tomorrow...maybe we'll try sorting by color. This could be interesting - stay tuned
So I have a question - what's your favorite go to pattern for strips? I have a lot to play with.
Until next time.