Conquering the stuff

After finishing the bag the other day I was all set to continue with another project - I have enough UFOs, or "marinating" quilts as Jan of Be*mused calls them ;-), to keep me busy for a while, and there are an insane amount of ideas for new quilts in my mind and in my notebook. Enough to keep me busy for a very long time! I just couldn't seem to settle on anything I wanted to do. I could blame the heat for me not wanting to spend time in my sewing room, but no - I had to face the truth: I didn't want to spend time there because it was too messy!

So the last couple of days have been all about conquering the stuff that has invaded every available surface and trying to find room for it all. I'm not there yet, and the room actually looks worse than when I started, but I have done a lot. First of all I tidied all the 15 mushroom crates of fabric I have stacked under a shelf by the window - refolded and sorted fabric and managed to find room for the newish ones that have been cluttering up my cutting table for far too long. All the scraps have been sorted by colour and put in paper bags, waiting for more of this. I have been meaning to get round to making these in all colourways and that might just be my summer project this year. I also sorted the two boxes of backing fabric, and other big pieces of fabric that will be used for something "special" (like the two red/orange/white IKEA prints in the second picture) I found that putting the fabric vertically in the boxes gives me a much better chance of seeing what I've actually got in there, instead of piling it all in a big heap. Well, I did actually add another layer to each box, so there will have to be some sifting through layers, but still...
So that's it for now. Tomorrow I will deal with the work surfaces, and little by little the room will be brought to order. Eventually I might even share some pictures of my space...