My husband and I decided the host a small NYE game night at our home to ring in the new year. When we made the decision to have friends over it was just after the Christmas rush and we had been out of town for a few days, so we had to get all our chores done and quickly. And we did it! We did a complete deep clean of everything, even the closets, misc. drawer and bookshelves were straightened up. So these first few days of January, I’ve been enjoying every minute of our perfectly arranged apartment.

Part of the deep-clean included straightening up my fabric collection—which I’m proud to say, took less than 5 minutes because I invested time in planning my storage solution in 2016. I went to Hobby Lobby and Joann’s and bought these stackable storage bins made by IRIS. (Take advantage of Hobby Lobby’s weekly coupon and watch for Joann’s sales. I didn’t pay full price of any of these, I usually had 30-50% off.)


Each bin holds a current or future project. I can put all my fabric in the bin with the pattern I’m using and stack them nicely in my closet. Each time I’m done working on a project for a while, I can easily put it in my bin and put it back in the closet. Part of the bin system I like, is that I can clearly see what I am currently working on. Unlike plastic bags which can be difficult to see through, don’t stack and break. Plastic bags are for bringing home purchases, small trash bins, and picking up after your dog—NOT for storing fabric.

I’m not being paid to promote IRIS’s storage bins, I honestly recommend them to anyone who needs a solution for storing projects.

I did have to spend time organizing my scrap fabric—which wasn’t much as I try to be careful about how much accumulates. I have a ton of triangle scraps from flying geese blocks. I prefer the rectangle and two squares method, which I recognized as a little wasteful while making my flying geese so I kept bags of these little triangles for who know what. But while looking at these, I realized I could more efficient with my scraps by pre-sewing these triangles before cutting them off of the flying geese block. Here is what I do now:

Here the first square has been sewn down onto the rectangle. Before trimming, draw another line ½” away on the side that will be trimmed. Then sew down that line.

Cut in between the two lines (1/4” seam) and press the block open. Repeat for the other side.

Now, you’ll have a flying geese block for your project and two HSTs for your scrap box! This prevents needing to sew on the bias of the triangles later to make them HSTs. HSTs are much easier for me to use than a bunch of triangle scraps.

Hope this gives you a few ideas on how to organize your fabric and scraps better in 2017. I'd love to see or hear about your storage solutions, comment below or email me at TheStudioOwlQuilts@gmail.com.

Happy New Year!