Quilt Studio is calling for posts on storage this month. I have a couple of ideas that have worked well in my studio to share with you. The first is a new fabric storage system and the second is a book shelf with a cutting/ironing table on top.
Last Christmas my husband gave me these wonderful drawers for my fabric. He got them at The Container Store. They are clear plastic sweater drawers and have dividers inside. So I just fold the fabric up to fit inside the dividers.
I like to keep my fabric organized by color to make finding what I need quicker. I use Joan Wolfrom’s 3-in-1 color tool to help with that. I separated all of the cards and slid one card into each divider at the front of the drawer. That way I can quickly look across the fronts of the drawers and find where the color I want *should* be. It takes a bit of discipline to keep the fabrics in their correct spots. But when it is all working right it makes finding the perfect fabric a breeze. And if I don’t have the right color, I take the card with me to the LQS to find it.
There is one problem with the drawers I have found. When I have one of the top drawers open it tends to want to tip forward from the weight of the drawer. This isn’t a problem with any of the lower drawers as they have the weight of the upper drawers on them to keep them in place. I just need to add weight to the top of the series of drawers to keep them stable. A counter top would be nice.
The second storage item I have to share is a book shelf that I have added a cutting/ironing table to the top. I posted about this table before but my dad helped me to alter it again to make it even more useful
As you can see the base is bookshelves, probably purchased at Target. To the top we added two pieces of plywood covered with batting and flannel. Between the two pieces of plywood are 1/2” spacers so there is a little slot to slide the cutting mat for storage.
And Viola! The cutting table becomes an ironing table.
The top easily unscrews so I can recover it when the flannel gets… dirty.
Thanks for reading!