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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

April WIPocalypse - picture heavy

It's time for April's WIPocalypse posting.  2014 WIPocalypse Measi at Measi's Musings has hosted WIPocalypse for the last three years.  If you click on the block you should be taken to the information page and you'll get all the information you need to participate.  This year, in addition to theme months which I pretty much ignore, Measi has provided some questions which I do try to keep up with.  This month's question is how do we organize our stash?  A few years ago, I would have said, "In the craft room", but when I moved to Virginia, I went from a craft room to sharing a room with The Hubs and his computer.  There was 30+ years of crafting supplies in that craft room in New Hampshire and I wasn't sure where it was going to fit in our new home here in Virginia.  It was pretty unorganized the first few months or so (read in boxes all over the house and basement) but then I took the doors off the closet, and put curtains up to use as a display board:


And put shelves up and filled the closet up:


The top shelf has my quilting supplies, the next shelf down has my beading supplies (behind the curtain on the left) and some project boxes.  The fabric is on pants hangars and labeled with fabric color, count and the project it is for.  The colored boxes in the middle there have Carriage House Samplings, Shepherd's Bush and Prairie Schooler patterns.  I use a lot of those scrapbook storage boxes for my needlework. I have several 6-drawer Iris storage carts that I use for both paper crafting and cross stitch storage. For my cross stitch, I put one project per drawer (the drawers are actually storage boxes that slide into the cart), so when I'm ready to stitch on that project, I pull it out and have my pattern, fiber, beads and fabric all in one place. The rest is for paper crafting and rubber stamping.  This is the after, before, it was rather a hodgepodge - now it is just messy.

After another year or so, I bought an Expedit bookcase from Ikea and moved a bunch of stuff out of the closest and the packing boxes from the basement and got this:


The drawers hold my sewing supplies, the two tan baskets have my printed Chatelaine patterns, lots of beading, sewing, stitching patterns, crafting paper, floss and fibers and craft books and magazines fill up the rest of it.  The baskets on the right have my knitting supplies and some mending that needs to be done.

I then bought these units from Michaels for my kitted patterns, my DVDs, assorted papers and The Hubs' books and game manuals:


And that's where I keep my craft stash.

I have four projects left from my original WIPocalypse list, Santa's Magic, Elegant Doily, Secret Victorian Garden and Three Tulips. 

I had a finish this month on Three Tulips.  It went from here:

 to


Santa's Magic was here at the March WIPocalypse:

 and here for this one:


Secret Victorian Garden





and Elegant Doily went from here:

to here:




12 comments:

Chris said...

Good Morning Susan!
I love this post. It is great to see how everyone organizes their crafts. I have a bedroom that I want to turn into a craft room and I love seeing how everyone organizes their supplies. I have lots of sampler books that I have to organize too.

Great progress this month!
Hope the week is calm so far. lol :)

Rhona said...

Thanks for sharing how you organize all your craft supplies...it's great to see how everyone does this (mine is just a big mess!) great progress on your stitching projects, they all look wonderful!

Robin in Virginia said...

Congratulations on your Three Tulips finish! Nice progress on your WIPs. I enjoyed seeing how you organize your stash.

Robin in Virginia

Brigitte said...

It's not easy to organize all our crafting stuff, particularly when we do different crafts. Since my retirement I don't need my study any longer and have been re-organizing my stitching and quilting supplies but I'm far from being as organized as you are.

Vey nice progress on your WIPs. I have been wondering what all the projects are that are hanging on that curtain. I can recognize some of them but not all.

Von said...

I love getting a glimpse of people's craft rooms, especially those who do a variety like you (and me)!

SoCal Debbie said...

Thanks for sharing your photos! What a great idea to hang the fabric on pants hangers! You've made amazing progress on your stitching and it's beautiful. Congrats on finishing your rabbit before Easter!

D1-D2 said...

The more I look at the fabric of Santa's Magic, the more I like it. Could you please tell me what it is.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Great progress on your stitching this month.

I liked the craft storage photos but I was trying to get a better look at the row of framed samplers above the unit. Any chance of a close-up?

I talked about my storage but couldn't be bothered to take photos!! It was getting late and I'd been at work LOL.

Jan said...

Thanks for sharing how you organize all your craft supplies. I find it's a nice way to discover new storage ideas. Super progress on all your wips.

Elizabeth said...

What beautiful work on your projects! I like them all.

Shebafudge said...

I am impressed with your storage solution. I wish mine was that good! Lovely stitching too. :)

CathieJ said...

Your "craft room" is great. I have a small nook in my basement. I love all of the great stitching you are working on. I have never seen a white on white pattern before. Gorgeous.