The continued tour of the "quilt cave"...

I was invited by Madame Samm of Stash Manicure to continue explaining the organizational madness that is my quilt cave (the basement).  It looks like I will be posting there once a month for a few months to finish showing how I organize my space.  This month I discuss how I deal with patterns, books, and magazines...all that paper that tends to pile up.   Check it out at the link above!

I am lucky to have stash and books, but my set up is pretty humble...lots of second-hand file cabinets from U of M, table tops from the recycle center, etc. I love to dream about how it would all look if I had an unlimited budget to buy shelves, fixtures, fancy containers, etc., like they do on those organizing shows on the cable channels.  I did have to invest in some sturdier shelves from IKEA for my quilt books after my last shelf collapsed into a pile of pressed oatmeal boards and quilt books gone all helter skelter.  That was a sad, sad day...

I just love sheet pocket protectors, hanging file folders, sticky notes...I have a deep down obsession with office supplies...maybe because I love all the things they can help me organize.  As a musician, I also store my loose sheet music and books in file folders like this, in addition to our family personal and financial records.

This is my favorite little "mad pleasure" - it is my idea book.  I save pictures from magazines (that I don't save the directions to), quilt show photos, and little pictures from greeting cards, catalogs, etc. and I glue them randomly into this bound lab record book with a glue stick.  These little snippets give me inspiration about color, lay-out, drawing appliques, little cute sayings to stitch, etc. 

I do love using the bound books, even though they get too fat to properly close after glueing in all that wonderful encouragement.  (Maybe a binder or spiral notebook would work better for you.)  I like how these fit in my cubby, right behind my sewing machine.  They are my "go-to" resource to get to a happy space if I am feeling blue or uninspired.

I think I need to make a correction from my last post.  I posted blocks I had finished for an online bee I belong to.

I called these Disappearing 9-Patch blocks.  I think they are really Disappearing 4-Patches.  Disppearing 9-Patches look like this (thank you Helen of Quilts and ATC's).

Both the Disppearing 4-Patch and the Disappearing 9-Patch are great blocks to make with pre-cut charm squares...do you have a favorite quilt or block pattern that you like using charm squares for??

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)