September Studio Organizing
Posted on September 18, 2025 by prairiemoonquilts in Studio Organizing ChallengeHow did you do with the last challenge? Did you get rid of any messy piles? Find things you had forgotten about? Were you able to get rid of some things?
I’m back to my normal urge to work my way through the piles, which is a super slow way to get rid of a pile. But even slow progress is better than none, so I’ll take it! And keep working on it.
This month, I’m going to expand on last month’s challenge, and . . .
Work on something found in a pile and try to finish it
I unearthed a lot of stuff!
I even got this top finished, added borders, and threw it in the to-be-quilted pile:
But wait! There’s more! I found several projects, but they’re mostly organized in bins. I did find one, however, that is not in a bin, so that’s the one I’m gonna work on. It’s my Star Storm quilt, from this pattern by Victoria Findlay Wolfe:
I’ve ignored it for so long that I have no idea what I’m doing or where I was at with it, but it will be really good to turn that messy pile into a finished quilt top, even if I don’t have time to quilt it for a while yet. I’d rather have tops in the to-be-quilted pile than laying around in a mess.
So how about you? Did you unearth any long-forgotten projects? Did you find something that wouldn’t take much to finish up that you can work on and keep it from remaining in a pile?
That’s our challenge this time. Let me know what you have going on!
Well I did good on this challenge because as I had my croo Quote retreat last week I was able to take a bunch of stuff that I was no longer using or did not want to use and I was able to put it on our giveaway tables so people took things I got 4 projects done while I was there and still have a bunch more to do but you know that’s how life of a quilter goes I’ve gotten 10 quilts back from the long arm quilter and now I need to Bind those or send them to somebody to buy inform me happy quoted everyone
I worked on a bag I thought only had scraps. It also had 3 projects too.
I cut up the scraps into usable sizes.
Cut fabrics for a disappearing 9 patch,
put one project which had gotten split into two bags in one bag and
decided I was not making the third project and returned fabric to stash.
I’m really busy finishing (catching up) on the 5 BOMs
I started this year. So the disappearing 9 patch (from original bag) will be the project I will use as leader/ender until BOMs are done.
I’ve been going in the opposite direction and creating piles as I sort through my fabric stash to donate some that no longer speaks to me to my guild’s ‘Fabric, Yarn and Notions Sale’. I can’t put the keepers away until I have everything sorted.
My goal is to have everything fit in my studio but it’s going to be tough.
I found some squares and half square triangles and it seems I was putting some together but the sides are on the bias. I remember there was a pattern but I have no idea where that went! But all my scraps have been made into usable strips and smaller bits are now trimmed to squares, all sized and marked. Plus larger scraps not as big as fat quarters are also ironed and folded in a container. I can see my cutting table! We’ve had a bit of wet weather!
I went through three large boxes of fabric that I have “inherited”. I managed to process all that were half yard or more. The less than half yard pieces are in a basket still needing to be processed. I found some coordinating fabrics that will become an Irish Chain quilt. I took them to my Thursday stitchin and left it so I won’t have to carry a project back and forth. So that meets this month’s challenge criteria also. Thanks for the prompts.
It’s always fun to see what you are working on.
This last month, I found several unfinished tops that I donated to our local quilt guild’s monthly drawings. It’s always fun to see what they turn into when done–what was I thinking when I started all of these projects!!! I still have a pile of purple fabrics and projects that I have been working through–one’s quilted and almost bound, but there are more, which were started in a time in my life when I went to quilt retreats a lot more than I do now. It was fun to rediscover this pile of purples and there’s a lot of potential there to work on for at least a month if not longer…
Looking forward to seeing your Star Storm quilt! Those little bits of solid fabric really add a lot to those bright modern quilts! FUN.
I need to dig into boxes from when we moved. I think I have about 20 boxes that I need to go through. I’ve been working 10 – 12 hours for about the last 2 years so I’m just drained and very little quilting gets done. I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to participating again!
I loved star storm. I just need to clean and organize everything!
I didn’t dig anywhere but I have been trying to clean off my cutting table. Being wheelchair bound for 8 weeks dimmed my memory of intentions I had for some fabric I had pulled. I’ve been slowly puttering and trying to get some order. My husband is convinced that my studio is chaos and will never be organized; if he would put up more shelves that would help.
I have that pattern. I’m not sure I got very far along with it, so I doubt it will be on my radar this year. 🙂
I have piles that I’ve worked through this last week. I did finish a child’s quilt that is now ready to be quilted. It was on the design wall for a long time.
I finished the pieces for the 16-patch delight (it was a leader/ender) project. I’m sewing the top together. There are lots of seams to match.
My goal was to integrate some baskets of scraps that I was gifted into my sorting system. I did not accomplish that (in fact, that got worse as I was gifted more scraps). I did, however, work through a pile of quilts that needed to be bound and put a nearly finished quilt top up on my design wall to encourage a finish. So, maybe this month I’ll get the scraps sorted into my baskets.
That is a cool pattern! But I won’t be tempted, says here 😂😂😂 Did make me think of a string star quilt I’ve been wanting to make, I think I might start it as it will help with the scraps. 😂😂😂 I did partially complete the last task, I cut scraps some days but found I didn’t stop a 15 min and it cut into my sewing so it’s become sporadic. The pile of church fabric to be made into quilts has turned into 2 quilts and 2 backs and a work in progress. Added more fabric from my stash, found a bigger bin to contain it 😱and tucked under the back of my table where I’m not tripping over it. And I like you, continue to work through my piles, slooooowly. The new task is my life! I just finished a poodle quilt (ufo) and now switching to putting blocks together from the church pile. Unfortunately the habit of getting into the sewing room everyday hasn’t stuck. I will keep working on that one.