Clear Your Work Space!
Today’s Topic: Clear your work space for better quilting
Good Morning, Quilters!
Thank you for all your kind words as I return from my blogging “sabbatical”. I hope to blog every week, but it will take a little time before I establish a writing schedule–so stay tuned!
The Clear Work Space Challenge
Today’s topic, clearing your work space, is almost too obvious to mention. However, it is a recurrent problem for me and an issue I have noticed when I teach in-person classes.
Here’s the problem: maintaining a clear horizontal surface in a sewing room seems like the Mt. Everest of quilting.
Every clear space is a screaming invitation for a new stack of fabric, several spools of thread, a handful of dog treats or the worst, a pile of laundry waiting to be ironed! (Seriously, just because the ironing board is in the sewing room–doesn’t mean we actually iron clothes!!!)
Clutter Free Flow
Despite the challenge, it is important to keep your quilting surface clear so you can move the quilt freely. Anytime you pause while quilting, even for a split-second, the quilting line will be interrupted. Imagine you are stitching along, thinking about the graceful curve of the feathered leaf, then boom–you run into your coffee cup! Ugh! Graceful sweeping line becomes jagged, awkward line. Your brain jumps into “should-I-tear-that-out-mode?’-instead of zen quilting mode. Seconds later, you shift right into high gear, the disastrous, “I’ll-never-learn-to-FMQ-mode”.
Avoid Quilting Collisions
Avoid the inevitable quilting disasters by starting with a clear work space. Just sweep all that flotsam and jetsam right onto the floor where it belongs. Don’t stop to put it away! Remember, you only have a short time to quilt. Don’t waste quilting time cleaning!
Avoid Drive Overs Too!
I will admit, this is all based on personal experience. Way too often, I’ve left spools of thread, scissors, papers, books, my camera on my sewing table and regretted it.
By violating this small habit, I once stitched a prepared quilt sandwich into the back of my quilt!
Small Habits, Big Difference
Learning to FMQ may feel like a huge task, but really it is an aggregation of small, easy habits. YOU can do this!
The important thing is to start with good habits. Learn from those of us who have made all the mistakes!
Be sure to read: Good Habits-Be Prepared!
Please Share
Do YOU have any tips for keeping your work surface clean?
Have YOU spent 15 minutes cleaning your studio and then never quilted?
When is the last time YOU doodled?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Happy Quilting from my clutter free studio (just don’t look at the floor–or the dust!)
Lori Zennedy
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com!
Check out my books on Etsy: LoriKennedyShop
Oh my, Yes, I have quilted loose fabric to the back of my quilt, too! Good advice, Lori! I’m working on organizing my stash this month so I can have a more organized sewing area. Thank you for your excellent advice.
A pegboard that clamps to the side of my sewing table has made a huge difference for me. Everything that I need occasionally while sewing ( snips, sewing machine oil, seam ripper, dusting brush, etc.) is within my reach and my sewing table only has my current project on it. It’s a lot more fun to sew if you don’t have to clear off your table before you start stitching.
My cluttered space is my biggest challenge.
Today I’m emptying Pandora’s Box (aka the orphanage).
Speaking of clutter, that can only help me clear my space.
Great advice! So glad you’re back!
Oh geez, done with my coverstitch machine, the bottom layer crinkles for folds over because I turned the fabric. Lovely…..ripping that out is painful.
I’m so glad you are back! I have missed you!
I def like the idea of shoving the flotsam and jetsam onto the floor.
Funny though, my kitty tripped on fabric once haha
Anyway, taking daddy (99yo) to the doctor today, and when i get back I am gonna file ten things. then another ten things. this usually works for me. Then it will be time to dream up something for dinner (ugh) and on to watching crime and mayhem on BritBox, and binding. I really do want to get back into FMQ
Using my 15 minutes of time to clear the clutter from ALL of my horizontal surfaces (sewing, cutting, pressing) is sometimes the only quilting task to which I feel capable. And it always makes the next day of quilting such a joy. I never feel guilty for doing that.
This is so true. If miraculously I`m ready early for an appointment or a meet up with friends, I don’t want to get started on quilting. I find that a great time to do a little picking up. Then I’m ready to quilt when I get home.
I am missing out on prime time quilting time ( weather outside is frightful) because of the disaster that is my studio. Too many reasons for it, but it definitely inhibits the desire to quilt. Keep up your gentle reminders.
My cutting table was an absolute mess. I had different projects stacked on top of each other. I purchased some wire mesh drawer units that fit under my cutting table and got everything organized. My goal is to keep it that way. I didn’t realize how much that clutter influenced my avoidance of resuming projects. I is so refreshing to come in and see my empty cutting table when I start a new project!
Were you peaking in my sewing room this morning? It is a mess and when I go in there to clean it up, I am overwhelmed with where to start. I have decided to start in the closet to get my stash under control. Maybe just properly folding the fabric better will make it easier to stack. Then I hope to get my cutting table cleaned up. It tends to be a catch all for scissors, rulers, scraps – you name it. My goal is to make a dent by Friday. But, Road to California is this weekend and it’s only a 60 minute drive away. Always something to interrupt me…
Oh man! My cutting table is a foot deep in stuff. Really needed to hear this today!
What is it about January that brings about the cleaning and organization desires? I’m in the middle of trying to clean and organize 2 sewing/quilting rooms. This all started because I wanted to move 2 plastic drawer units from 1 room to another. Then I decided to organize them. This seems to have gone on, and on. Work expands to fit time. The rooms still aren’t finished. The job has multiplied into a 2 room disaster. I hope to see the light soon! Your blog is so refreshing and informative to read. I am so happy you are back!
When I am “in creative mode” I drag out everything and make a really big mess but I stop and put it all away and clean before whatever the next step it. King of like clean as you go cooking. It works for me.
It makes it SO MUCH more fun (& easier too) if you start with a clean workspace. I am the world’s worst and putting stuff on my tables that get in the way when starting a project. This is Fresh-start January so here I go! I love your workspace – – it’s my inspiration! Thank you for this great reminder!
Thank you for the reminder about keeping our quilting space free of clutter. I too have quilted something on the back of a quilt, grrrr, it is difficult to remove.
I love the ironing comment! I grew up ironing everything until I came to my senses. I am frozen in place with combined office, library, and craft room combo that is bulging at the seams. I think I’m going to ditch the guest bedroom concept and make that my playroom. I hate to confess, but I have a new sewing machine I haven’t touched for 2 years. It still has styrofoam under the presser foot. Crazy, huh? Frightening
yes! This article has inspired me to organize. Also your article on quilt sandwiches Is giving me the starting point I needed to FMQ. I tried to FMQ once and it was a fail. Thank you for your blogs!
I try and tidy up my sewing room before i retire for the night. That makes it more appealing to return to in the morning. When the fabric bins are out and i cannot find anything the process becomes less enjoyable.
Emptied a 6 inch deep picnic basket with lid that already had snaps for utensils, plates, and this has become my “schtuff” place, for rotary blades, thread boxes, small scissors, 4 inch square, tube ruler, patterns, my pin cushions, fabric chalk, sewing needles go in there . I have 6 sterlite clear smaller bins for my fat quarter stash, scraps, and use larger sterlites for like color yardage, and one for finished tops> Large square table in corner, Singer Patchwork with baskets of batting stored underneath. Other Singer is on sewing table. Ironing board behind it. Cutting table is repurposed kitchen island centered in room with 4 drawers,2 shelves. The room is only 10X10, but it works for me. And yes, I can leave sewing on machine, but put away things every night OR I cannot find them the next time I want them.
I agree. Must tidy before I leave or discouraging to start again. I love that Lori got me going on FMQ. Life in my quilting world definitely changed for the better.
I actually cleaned my sewing area right before Christmas, because I thought I was going to have company. Company didn’t make it, and now I can’t find my basting safety pins and 3 patterns. LOL!
I’m not a doodler. I guess I’m just more of a study the “design” and jump right in and try it. Today I’m actually trying your “The Oak Leaf and Acorn” design minus the acorns. So far, mostly ok. Thanks for your design tutorials. I love the step-by-step pics in them. Very helpful!
Shhh. I cannot doodle! I do have a limited artistic bent. When I want to try something I have material all sandwiched just for this purpose. I find my quilting path for it and then just jump on the project. It is just the way I work in the time I have. People ate starting to ask me for help and some even ask me to quilt for them. That is daunting but I have done a few. But this keeping the space clean … biggest good thing I have done for my sanity and peace.
Surprise! I have been on a medical sabbatical for about nine months. I know can up the stairs and want to get started on quilts. However, I decided to first clean up the room. This may take a week but I know I will feel better when the room is all cleaned up and organized.
So glad you’re back. I have definitely quilted in some scraps on my quilt backs, thinking they’re “off to the side” and I don’t have to clear the whole table.
I love your term drive overs. I am pretty good about clearing my table before I quilt now because of that. Nice to see you blogging again.
So glad you are back! I’ve been trying to be neater in my studio but take frequent guild workshops which make me make it messier again. Seems like I am attracted to horizontal surfaces to unload stuff when I don’t know where to put it.
That’s me allover!
I used to have a messy sewing room. But then I reorganized it and everything has a place. Now, when I am done sewing for the day I put all tools away. I clean that work table and only leave out what I need to sit down and begin working again. When I am done w a project, I cut useable scraps into certain sizes and store them in clear bins. If anything was left out, surfaces get cleaned and stuff put away. Floor is swept and vaccumed. I enjoy a clean space. I can find everything because it has 1 home only. And once it is organized, it really only takes a few minutes to keep it that way.
Yes! Me all over. I can’t work in chos. But the cutting into usable sizes. I struggle with this. I forget to go there first when starting a new project(especially scrappy ones) and my buckets of different sizes by color is overflowing. I have to start using them first.
I’ve recently learned that my sewing room is mostly too small because of all of the unfinished projects laying around! My goal this year is to finish them all up so I have room to dream and explore new techniques.
I have s closet that holds all of my fabric and the boxes with my projects. I started a new project yesterday and realized there are no empty boxes to put it in.
For half a moment I thought I needed to go buy more boxes, but then I came to my senses and realized I just needed to finish a couple of projects.
Over Christmas period I ordered an over the door storage item, it’s wonderful I have put my scissors in one pocket, marking pencils in another etc. It has made a huge difference to my sewing room, I know where everything is and even better when I finish sewing I am making more of an effort to put my various notions back in their pockets, can definitely recommend.
So good to have you blogging again!
My sewing room is a disaster right now. I am in the process of deciding what I need to let go, fabric, notions, and what I should keep. Difficult decisions, but I can see we will be moving in a year or less and I don’t want to be rushed!
So true! When the quilting “zen” strikes, how nice it would be to not have to move stacks of fabric and UFOs. Just sit down to the quilt sandwich and start stitching. A happy place indeed. 😁
so nice to have news again of you I finish my first quilt al done by hand now Ineed to quilt it that project take all my time now Iam ready to quilt Imissing that a lot youpi is quilting time
Great ideas thank you.
I’m a natural born slob, but I have found that if I don’t clean my sewing room after every project, I can’t function. So to remedy this, I do big quilts, putting off the inevitable.
Putting things away is my number 1 agenda at the end of each day. That way I start with a clean area and a clear mind!
Muchas gracias Lori, por la motivación que das.
Happy Day! Lori’s back at it. My secret to staying organized is to clean up after I piece a top. Then I set up for quilting. When the quilt is finished, I clean up again and start my next project with a room that’s at the ready. I actually never doodle, but I wanted to quilt monkeys, so I did some doodles but ended up using freezer paper to help me repeat the motif I created. The fun part is that the monkeys look like the monkey pieces from the monkeys in a barrel game. I folded the paper, drew the motif onto the paper and cut out what looks like paper dolls…paper monkeys! They’re sew cute! Just monkeying around…
I love my sewing room and the peace it gives me. I pick up my immediate surroundings regularly and that includes dusting out under the stitch plate and bobbin area after every few hours of sewing. I also invite other sewers to work in my space so that is good incentive to really tidy up. I find I need certain tools at every work area, the cutting board, ironing station and machine so I am careful to put everything back where it belongs every day; otherwise, I go bonkers hunting for the tweezers or the ripper
“Flotsam and Jetsam on the floor” – oh so true…. !!!
I once was having terrible tension issues with my machine. So I dug out my sewing machine manual and solved the problem. I was finally stitching away and creating beautiful free motion music when I realized I had sewn right thru my quilting project and then through the manual hiding underneath!🙄🫠
Boy, I need to finish… I have 1/2 table cleaned off… but have so much clutter that needs to go somewhere. Such good advise… I’m so glad you’re back. You give me so many ideas.
I have been very lax with dumping my leftovers from quilts into a plastic tub(s). At the end of the year I organized all those scraps and am now trying to put things away after each project. So far so good. Of course it’s only the middle of January. lol
Love all these stories! Clean as you go, the only way!
I am in the process of moving my sewing room from a room in the basement shared with the washer and dryer, to a newly renovated entire 3rd floor and I am so excited to get real sunlight and a huge new place. The best part is going through all the fabric, patterns and notions and reorganizing and purging. Huge task but it will be so worth it. I am finding things I forgot I had and donating all those fabrics I will never, ever use. I bought a couple of big furniture pieces with 12 big open drawers each with the label holders and can delegate one for each color or ongoing projects and they look beautiful. This will help having so much more room and having a place for everything. Boy, do we all have a ton of fabric, scraps and stuff! Hopefully, this will help keep it all tidy and my cutting and sewing surfaces with stay clean!
Missed you – welcome back!
I am ‘cleaning up’ from three decades in the sewing/quilting industry and looking forward to retirement with personal projects. I have found it helpful to develop a group of ‘next contestants’ for extras – tools, patterns, fabric, and yes, unfinished projects. Package them up attractively and send along to become a prized find for someone else. Good karma into the universe.
I do love a flat spot – and most get covered with stuff – ha! The one exception is my machine quilting area. I value that flat, smooth, uninterrupted space so highly it is sometime the only clear space visible … and ALWAYS ready. Also valued in this space is the wall two feet to the left at the end of the machine table … no quilt slipping to the floor and pulling at the area I am working on. Yeah!
Party on.
I, too, am glad you are back. I was so proud of how my sewing room looked. That’s important because it’s on the first floor and friends always pop in there to see what’s going on. When Christmas came I had to relocate extra furniture and keep it looking good. Things got shoved. Now, it’s as if I’ve forgotten where everything went. I did a lot of projects over the holidays. Now I need to take a full day to get it back into shape.
Welcome Back, you were missed! My dad never left ANYTHING on his desk…. me, not so much, but it’s a goal!
My Bernina Q16 is still in the back of the car as I have to clean and reorganize my sewing room to accommodate her.
Love the content and the comments! Now…let’s begin rearranging (again)!
I quilted a pattern page to the back of a quilt.
So glad to be able to read your blog again, you were missed! The world is right again! I no longer have a sewing room due to lack of space for one. My sewing space now is in the living room so things are tight to begin with and the necessity is clean it up or there will be no living room.. not a good choice. So I limit what I take out at a time and do my best to put it all away at the end of a sewing session. Not as hard as it might seem, just take out only the necessary items for the plan for the day. It does shorten the time I can allow for sewing but it sort of works…no one complains too much. The machine is confined to its cabinet and my cutting table and mat slides in and out from behind one od the living room chairs. Any way, it works and I am happy to see you back, really missed your blog and you!
Cathy
All flat spaces were designed for *stacks* of stuff!
ie; kitchen tables&counters, ironing boards, coffee tables, desk tops, dining room table&buffet, cocktail table, chairs, ottoman, end tables…
Ahh-heck, when needed, even the space under all of the above!!
If it’s flat – stack!! *grin*
LL