Organizing -- Day 3

I hope I haven't turned anyone off with my "organizing geek" tendencies.  Today's tip is less "geeky" and more "FABRIC!!!"

Last year, a friend of mine moved and didn't have room for her cutting table any longer.  It now lives in my studio.  I am so grateful to her!

I was thrilled at the thought of a huge, flat, clear surface to cut my fabric and organize my current sewing project.  For those of you who are already laughing, yep, the surface quickly became covered with remnants of old projects and I constantly had to shuffle bits around to find a clear space to cut.

That could not stand!

When I finish a project, instead of chucking the leftover bits into a pile on the corner of the cutting table, I try to dispose of them properly.  I cut them into useable chunks and store them for future projects:

If you check the photo carefully, you can see that during my extensive travel times I've let the corners of my cutting table stack up a bit.  Time to get cutting!

I cut:

• 2 1/2" strips
• 1 1/2" strips
• fat 1/8ths
• fat 1/4s
• 5-inch squares
• 10 1/2-inch squares
• selvedges
• orphan blocks
• scrappy bits for crumb piecing

The next time I need to pull fabric for a project, I can shop in my own stash first!

If you want more information on organizing your leftover bits, check out Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System.  She is the boss of scrap organization!