Summer Organizing Day 6: Notions

 Happy Monday! I spent a fun sewing weekend teaching a class on Saturday and had some time to work on binding a couple of my mini-quilts; I was also able to spend time working on organizing projects for this series.

So…welcome to day six of the summer organizing series. All of the posts will be listed with links on the main page of this series. Today we’ll be tackling one task because we will begin organizing fabrics later this week; you’ll have two tasks on Wednesday and two more tasks added in my Friday post.

Day Six: Organizing Sewing and Quilting Notions.

We’ve already talked about organizing some of these supplies–last week’s topics included organizing rulers, rotary cutters, scissors, thread and bobbins. So this week we’ll concentrate on all of the many quilting tools and notions that don’t fit into those categories.  Whether or not your space is large or small, pulling everything out and organizing it can be especially helpful. Of course every person’s space is different, so make sure to take some time to think about what will work best for your particular space. I keep my most-used notions in the plastic caddy pictured above. I had a question about it the other day–it’s called a “Handy Caddy,” and I purchased it at a local quilt shop. They come in a few different colors and are terrific little organizers. The one above stays on a table within easy reach so I can always find my most used tools.

I also like to keep bags of commonly used supplies so I can grab them and take them in the car or even to another room of the house. I keep my applique’ tools in one of the fabric zipper bags above, and I keep my Clover binding clips (along with small scissors and thread) in the other. As soon as I make myself a Sew Together bag (I keep giving them for gifts) I’m going to put together a sewing kit that I can take anywhere to be sure I always have all of my favorite supplies on hand.

Quilting and sewing notions to organize today:

• Pens, pencils, and marking tools
• Applique supplies: glues, pins, freezer paper, template materials
• Seam rippers
• Binding clips
• Bias tape makers
• Pins and needles
• Tape measures
• Buttons
• Spray starch
• Zippers
• Specialty tools 
• Tapes 
• Glue sticks and glue
• Any other notions not listed 

Storage Container Ideas:

• Baskets
• Fabric baskets and buckets
• Plastic bins
• Plastic drawer units
• Carts

Office supply stores are a terrific place to look for storage options for your quilting and sewing notions. Also look in the bathroom storage section, fishing tackle storage, and even toy storage sections of  variety stores for more storage container options.

Think about labels, too. A simple label maker works terrific to label plastic boxes and bins.Handmade luggage tags are a fun item to use for labels for baskets and bins. Be creative with your labels–but label. It won’t help to have everything in a box if you don’t know what is in it!

Have fun…this should probably keep you busy until Wednesday when we’ll begin organizing the fun stuff: fabric!

Thanks so much for stopping by!