Get Organized: WIP/UFO

This guest post is part of the Get Organized Series!

 

Hey Y'all!!!! My name is Rhonda and I blog over at Quilter in The Gap. Over yonder I have a podcast too. It is so much fun! I ramble on about various quilting things, interview different quilty bloggers, and occasionally just yammer about a whole lotta nothin'. Regardless, I sure hope you will come 'n visit The Gap.

I am so excited to be here today. I adore Sew Lux Fabric & Gifts and feel honored to be a part of this series. Organization is very important to me. I cannot work in chaos...just ask my family...when the kids were younger (and there were more of them), they had to sit at the table in alphabetical order. Not because I needed to remember their names (yes, it helped - at one point there were 6 of them) but because it was neater. Ok that might be a slight exaggeration but I do like things organized...maybe I am a bit obsessive!!

I am currently hosting a year-long Finish A Long which aims at helping y'all get rid of all yer UFOs (UnFinished Objects) complete and out of hiding. I have a UFO list a mile long - 25 items long to be exact. In order to know what projects I need to work on and what stage they are at, there needs to be a system. That is what I aim to talk about today....maintaining a WIP/UFO system.

When you are putting away a WIP/UFO, until a later date, it is important to put everything you need into the bag or storage container of choice. Throughout this post I will refer to bags because I use the Hefty Jumbo Bags - Never found a project that wouldn't fit prior to being layered:

Great bags - 2.5 Gallons

In the bag I put EVERYTHING I may need for the project - binding, pattern/magazine, completed blocks, cut pieces, scraps, pre-determined fabric, backing, and anything else that may apply to that project. My project bag may look something like this:

At the early stages the binding may not be included and then during a shopping spree you come across the perfect bit of fabric for the binding...My suggestion would be to store it with the project and not with your fabric stash. Storing it with your fabric stash only increases the chance of it being used for something other than the binding on the project for which it was perfect. See the necessity of the bag?

How to store your projects is fairly easy...just remember to include everything you purchased for that project. Don't declare anything to the scrap bin until you have quilted, bound, labeled, and gifted that quilt. You never know when inspiration might hit and you decide to make a matching pillow case (good luck finding those scraps from a year ago). This is why I keep everything in the baggy until I am DONE!! Well most the time.

Now let's talk about where to store your WIP/UFOs. Everyone's sewing room/table/cupboard/studio is different. So, I am going to share how I store mine and allow you to be inspired from it and see how it fits into your sewing area. 

I have three plastic rolly carts in my studio that are designated for WIP/UFOs. I hate plastic rolly carts and I am slowly doing away with them in my studio and replacing them with antique pieces...but that takes time. In the meantime, here are the three pieces that hold my WIP/UFOs:

As you can tell there is pretty much a drawer for each stage of the process. Since my mood changes as I enter my studio, I know exactly which drawer to head to depending on my mood. That is assuming there isn't a deadline to mean or a shiny new project to work on! 

Well, I have allowed a sneak peak into my anal retentive side - Maybe someday I will share the inside of this:

Believe it or not...it holds the majority of my notions, trims, stabilizers, and such. All in three drawers. You would be amazed what is in this beauty. She is a new addition (remember earlier I said I was working on replacing rolly carts with antiques....she did a fine job. And she was FREE! But she is for another day...watch for that on my blog...Quilter in The Gap...hope to see you there. Bye fer now!