Since I admitted yesterday that I have a 30+ year old Christmas stocking barely started, I’ll just bare my soul and show you my sewing room closets. I’ve been cleaning for a week so please say something nice . . even if you’re busting a stitch laughing at the mess!
Yesterday I went in the sewing room after having not been in there for at least five minutes. The doors are off the closets while Vince gets the screen doors ready to put up . . which hopefully will be soon because I do not want Boots in there on all my stuff. I walked into the sewing room and with all the a/c repair and closet doors being taken down, he has escaped a couple of times. I called him. Of course . . he’s a cat . . he doesn’t listen. Just before I was about to panic, thinking he’d gone out and we didn’t notice, I remembered .. top of the closet on the stack of quilts.
Boots
Yep . . there he is. Fine . . he can stay because I have no doors on the closets right now so I can’t keep him out.
Sewing Room Closet
You can see that I’ve been cleaning a spot on this shelving unit for the freeze dryer. The FD is a little too big so I think, at least as of now, the plan is to take a heavy, thick piece of wood and make it like a table top, put legs on the front and back and make it like a table over this shelf. Vince suggested taking out one shelving unit and putting in a cart but I would be giving up too much shelf space that I desperately need. It will end up kinda being like a table over a shelf. Then I’ll have the vacuum pump sitting next to it and can keep my bags and supplies right there on the shelf. It works out in my head but who knows if it will work out in real life.
Fabric
There’s fabric everywhere!
Fabric
Cut fabric. Bolts of fabric. Plastic templates I’ll probably never use!
Fabric and Toilet Paper
I had forgotten that I had toilet paper stored in here. I thought it was all in the house. I don’t think we’ve bought toilet paper in at least three years. When I go to Chad’s or to my uncle’s, I always bring at least two of the 9 roll packs and leave them there. Now I see I have more toilet paper in the sewing room.
More TP
And, there’s more toilet paper! Maybe I’ll make a deal with Vince that I’ll shut up about moving until we’ve used all the toilet paper.
To be totally honest, I saw more toilet paper in the other closet. I’m guessing we have at least another four years worth of toilet paper (because there’s still quite a bit in the house!). If ever there’s a toilet paper shortage, you know where to come!
Valerie J. Zagami says
I must say you are wonderfully “organized”. I have a room to be done which holds so much but far less planned out. Good for you. Have to laugh, my dear in laws would bring toiled paper and coffee every time they came to our house! Of course they brought home made sauce and other good things too! Cats, they are just so determined to make every space theirs!
Judy Laquidara says
Maybe that’s just what old folks do! 🙂 Nicole never keeps a big supply of anything and with all of us there and using toilet paper, I never want to run out and have to rush off to the store and buy it when it isn’t on sale so I just bring it.
Cheryl Barnes-Jackson says
Hey Judy,
We have a Harvest Right freeze drier and and have just ordered the new oil less vacuum pump as a addition. The pump that comes with the unit uses oil and can be very, very messy. I know Vince is extremely handy but I’m afraid oil will splatter on your fabric if you ordered the unit with the original pump.
Judy Laquidara says
Not sure how long you’ve had yours but I think within the last year or so they’ve switched pumps and the newer one isn’t supposed to spray oil. The fabric is probably 3 feet from where the pump will be but thanks for the warning . . I will get a shower curtain liner and place over the fabric . . at least til I’m confident I will not be getting oil on it.
Cheryl Barnes-Jackson says
Sounds like a good plan. We’ve had our unit at least 4 years.
melfunk says
I would love to have the space you have, toilet paper and all. LOL That’s one thing you don’t want to live without.
Love your thread stash too.
Diann says
Thanks for letting us look. Oh the fabric and wow on the number of spools of thread. It’s a wonder Boots doesn’t get lost and can’t find his way out. He’s such a handsome cat.
Judy Laquidara says
Technically he is not supposed to be in those closets but with the doors off, he knew right where he wanted to be. We have one door replaced and hopefully will get the other one done this afternoon.
Tee says
It looks just fine! The haphazard fabric makes my nose twitch, I want to refold everything and lay it flat. That is all. How do you keep track of expiration dates on the food? I have a small pantry and I often find a can of something that is close to expiring that I have to use up.
Judy Laquidara says
First, I don’t get real fired up about expiration dates. If the can isn’t bulging and spews when I open it . . it’s good. Second, I put food in on one side and take it out on the other side so, unlike most pantries, I’m grabbing the oldest first. Botulism doesn’t taste and doesn’t smell so I worry more about the condition of the can (and I don’t really worry). I’ve used canned foods that are 2 or more years past the expiration date and everything is fine but it’s pretty rare for me to find a badly expired can unless it’s something that just got buried in the wrong spot and then it could be 7 years past the expiration date, in which case, I’d toss it.
As far as the fabric, it gets straightened from time to time but when I was sewing and pulling fabric to audition for quilts, I’d end up with lots of fabric out that didn’t get used and it would get haphazardly replaced. That never bothers me.
Carole says
Dang, girl! I want to come shop your stash! What fun it would be to go through all your quilting supplies! Really, it does look very organized!
Judy Laquidara says
It is a fun stash. The more I’m hanging out in there working on those closet doors, the more hope I have that some day I will sew again.
Cilla Tyler says
I’m in fabric envy!!!!! Oh the beautiful quilts I could make with that stash!!! I’m always working on more than 1 quilt. I get at least an hr or 2 in daily, sometimes 6 hrs piecing or quilting. It’s a passion like your knitting is for you.
Judy Laquidara says
Quilting once was my passion so I’m hoping that some day it returns.
Sherrill Pecere says
ACCCKKKK!! You have WAY more fabric than me and I’ve been sewing a little more than you (doesn’t take much, right?!). I donated 4 humongous bags of fabric to the quilt group at church a few months ago and just dumped (ok, donated) another 4 humongous bags on Mon. Hope they don’t get mad at me..HAHA. But I have 3 bedrooms that look very similar to your closet and they drive me insane. I gotta get rid of stuff.
Judy Laquidara says
Good for you for donating what you won’t be using. I am happy to say that all of my fabric is in that one closet. The other closet has some backings that are folded together with the quilt tops but all my fabric is in one spot.
Dottie says
Love seeing your racks with material, thread racks, as well as food/TP, etc. I have some of those rolling racks in my sewing room, and just decided the other day to get some S hooks to hang my rules on the ends (where your thread racks are). Am wondering how you hooked up the thread racks on the end of the rolling racks? I really like how you have those stencils hung up, too!
Judy Laquidara says
Zip ties! I think about 90% of everything around here is held together with zip ties.
Dottie says
Thanks, Judy!
Nancy C Elliott says
oh my…. I thought I had a fabric stash. You have got everyone I know beat. LOL You really should go on ebay and sell everything you will never use. I mean I; see fabric I wish I could get my hands on because I have been looking for months to add it to my stash. All kidding aside. It looks fine to me because you can see what you have and it is reasonably easy to grab something off the shelves if you need it.
Judy Laquidara says
Thanks! I still have hope that I will get back to quilting. I’ve worked hard to build a stash of fabrics I love. Which one is it that you need?
Sandy says
Wish I had such a large closet! My fabric pantry is much smaller than yours and is overflowing with fabric. No TP or food, though!
Liz says
Who knows – you may be spending more time in the sewing room with dealing with the harvest right machine. Just being in there may be enough to get you to do 15 minutes of sewing while waiting. Or with Vince being around all of the time, you may be spending time in the room for your own quiet time!
Linda in NE says
When the world goes totally to hell the last thing you want is to run out of toilet paper. I like to have a good stockpile too….though you’ve got me beat by several miles. 🙂 Seeing all that wonderful fabric on your shelves makes me want to come & dig through it…not to have it, but to just pet it all. LOL
Mary M says
Oh, I love your stash! I’ve been in a sewing mood lately and having a stash like that would have saved me money and time. On a different note, I tried to comment on several recent posts (loved your Santa quilt) and couldn’t. I was getting all paranoid about being “blocked” and today I noticed the default email that auto populated was misspelled! Who can’t spell their own email?.
Nelle Coursey says
I would not say this is messy or cluttered at all! Looks very organized to me! I guess you could put all the toilet paper together and the fabric together. But it still looks great to me! Better than mine…thrown in the closet! Or under the bed. LOL
Twyla Starr says
OH! so many treasures!! My husband has complained a few times about the stash of tp in the closets. I always ask him if he would feel better if I just let it run out. My mother raised me to always keep a least a couple of months supply of groceries (and tp) on hand in case daddy lost his job or ice storm, etc. We live in the country so it is nice to have what I need to cook when a recipe calls to me.
Kathleen says
I absolutely love that room. What do you have covering the shelves? Is it plexiglass? I have those same exact shelves and had not thought about covering them but think it would help to keep smaller things from tipping.
dezertsuz says
I’m a little confused. If the FD is too big for the shelf, how is it going to fit on a table over the shelf? Isn’t that going to make less space? And if you really aren’t going to quilt again, which selling your longarm seems to show you are serious about that, why not get rid of the templates and fabric, too. You can fill that space with yarn. LOL I played with all the longarms today at the quilt show – definitely not a good idea if you don’t have the money to buy one. LOL
Kristin says
If you are interested in selling any of your thread, let me know. My mom and I are buying a used APQS Millenium this summer from someone in South Dakota and I can’t wait!!