Sorting Scraps

I had small scraps of fabric stored in several messy containers around my sewing room. Every time I searched through them looking for particular colours, they got more messy and tangled and frayed. When I decided to join in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, I quickly realised that sorting the scraps by colour was going to make life a lot easier. So that's what I've been doing.

Here's an "in progress" shot of a bunch of scraps sorted into piles.

Working with one colour at a time, I press the pieces and trim off fraying threads. I also take the opportunity to throw out anything that is too small for the scrappy hearts I'm making, or any fabric I really don't like and will never use. Then I pop the neat pieces in zip-lock bags:

My intention is to store the bags in the tubs that hold my larger fabric pieces. Then when I generate more small off-cuts, I can pop them in the relevant bag straight away. 

You might notice a bag of red scraps in the previous photo. I thought I had used up all the red making hearts last month, but it turns out I had more red bits and pieces than I thought I had. So with some of the larger pieces I started another rainbow scrap project:

The Scrappy Sprouts pattern instructions I'm following came from here: Traceyjay Quilts Scrappy Sprouts. However I have reduced the size of the squares to fit the sizes of scraps I have. Mine will end up about 75% of the original size. I haven't decided yet what thickness the centre stalk will be.

Making these two red leaves alerted me to a pressing problem. If you press the seams in alternate directions for each row, they are not going to nest when you join the leaves one above the other. So I think in future I will make the top row from random width background pieces, so the seams are not in line with the leaf seams. 

Thread Storage

Yesterday at Bunnings in Geelong I was browsing through the storage area, and came across these containers:

They are "Stackable Caddy Organisers" that clip together so you can lift several with the top handle. Each one has three different sized compartments. I thought they could be handy for sorting out and holding the various types of thread I currently have all in one big tub. But I couldn't find a shelf label with a price anywhere. I took them up to the front counter just to ask the price, as they looked like they might be a bit pricey. I was quite surprised to be told they were only $8 each, because they were discontinued. (Regular price $25 each, according to Mr Google.) So I snapped up all the remaining stock. And here they are with all my different quilting threads in them:

That freed up the thread-holding tub, which now holds my quilting rulers. And the container that was holding the rulers now has some other bits and pieces that were sitting round without a home. So the nett effect is that my sewing room is just a little more organised.

Books on Shelves

It was like re-encountering old friends as I unpacked ten boxes of books this afternoon, and placed them on the newly-painted shelves:

At least another ten boxes to go (let's hope they all fit) but it feels so much nicer to walk past clean shelves of books than having the wall of boxes here.

Painted Stuff

Yesterday this happened:

Painted bookshelves! Since we moved in, all our books have remained in boxes because the shelves needed painting. Now the shelves are painted and back in the house. They'll need a little time to ensure the paint is completely dry before the books are unpacked, but this extended summer we are having should help with that.

And today, this:

Sewing room door, also painted!

Storage Find

Under the Sweet Sixteen's table are a couple of open compartments which could be handy for storing accessories. But because they are open, they are of limited usefulness. I've looked in various shops for a basket or box that would fit in these spaces, which are only just over 5cms high. But the shallowest basket I'd seen was 6cms high.

A couple of days ago I found what I wanted:

2.5l plastic containers, $2.50 each at The Reject Shop. And they even have lids, which was more than I expected. Amazingly enough made in Australia rather than China! Look how well it fits the space.

One now holds spare needles, bobbins, the cleaning brush, etc, and another holds my ruler collection:

Which grew a little this week when I received an order from Westalee. But everything fits, and there's probably enough room for a couple more small ones:

Speaking of rulers, here's some learning exercises I completed for the "Quilting with Rulers" Craftsy class:

Plenty of wonkiness, but also lots of potential for use in future quilts once I perfect my technique. I think it is important to show imperfections and wonkiness on blogs, not just the beautiful stuff!

Design Wall

Last month I bought two "acoustic pinboard" panels at Bunnings:

and four Ivar hooks at Ikea:

With a few holes punched into the panels and the addition of some cord I already had:

Instead of my boxes of fabrics being exposed to the light

they are now in the dark behind my new 1200 x 1600 design wall:

The cord allows me to fold the panels together if I take them down to get at the fabrics.

All the parts have appeared in previous posts. The hooks could be seen here, the panels here, and the top panel was hanging up here. But it was only today that the holes were punched and the lower panel was actually attached to the top one.

More Shelves

The sewing room is getting there:

Slowly getting under control. I'd love to do some sewing - I haven't made a lot of progress on this month's UFOs. The tree skirt is quilted and bound, but it needs some fasteners attached. And I know what I need is in a box somewhere, but I haven't found that box yet.

Why, Ikea, Why?

I bought a couple of Ikea Bygel containers to hang from my cutting table to hold cutters etc. The internet is full of pictures of handy things people have used these containers for. But there's a slight problem. Each container has a label which covers nearly the entire surface:

The label is in Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, Thai and Taiwanese. Interestingly, there is different information included in each section. For example, the Japanese includes "100ºC", but none of the other languages do - I wonder what it means? Can it withstand boiling water? Or is it a warning not to put it in boiling water? The Chinese, Indonesian and Korean include the measurements of the object, but that is probably rather superfluous information if you are holding it in your hand to read the label. I presume each of these sections have information that is legally required in that country. The English just says "Made in China"! I presume that this label gets stuck on everything for the Asia-Pacific region. I don't have a problem with that, but what does bug me

is that the label is very difficult to remove! Why couldn't it be an easy peel-off label? And why does the glue have to be so irritating to the skin? After 15 minutes, I have very red and sore fingers, and still this much label on the first container:

I won't be tackling the second one for a while.


Updated

I sent this message to Ikea customer relations on 29/3:

"How can I get the label off the Bygel container?  I have tried hot water, picking at it (bad as I have an allergy to the glue you have used), and eucalyptus oil, but the glue is very stubborn and I now have very sore skin where-ever it touched me. Has taken me over two hours to get one looking OK, but I feel like just throwing the second one out as it is more trouble than it is worth."

Reply from Ikea 31/3:
"Thank you for contacting IKEA. In regards to your email, we are sorry to hear of the issue you are having with removing the stickers from the SOCKER Tin's. I have found the easiest way to remove these stickers is by peeling off the top layer and removing the adhesive residue with eucalyptus oil or alcoholic wipes. If you cannot remove the stickers, and wish to return your products you have 365 days from date of purchase with the receipt."

 Given that they mention a different product, I guess this is a copy and paste answer, where the sender forgot to edit the actual product. It suggests that I'm not the only person facing this difficulty. Maybe instead of causing this aggravation to people, they could just use removable stickers?

Sewing Room Progress

Next job for the day was to bring a ute-load of stuff from the Ballarat unit:

The kitchen island will now be my cutting table. There's also some extra shelves I bought at Ikea on the weekend and painted yesterday.

And here's the kitchen island in the sewing room:

And some of the new shelves in place. There's still quite a bit of organising to do. There are boxes of stuff hiding behind the island, which need to be unpacked onto the shelving. And my regular machine has to move to make room for the Sweet16. But it's gradually taking shape.

On one end of the island I hung this Ikea Variera box to hold my rulers:

All except the longest ones fit in it.

Shelving

Assembling shelving in the walk-in wardrobe:

Due to my miscalculation, some of these shelves had to be shortened. Fortunately the wood-worker in the family fixed that for me.

On the other side of the WIR, the same measuring issue meant that we ended up with a spot which looks like it was deliberately created for this vacuum cleaner:

I've also started putting up shelves in the sewing room:

Sorry it's a bit dark; it was getting late by the time I took that photo. This evening I added a few more shelves and stacked up more fabric boxes. I'm going to need more shelves, so am planning a trip to buy some in a few days. Then I can re-home all the boxes of magazines and sewing books that are still in the unit in Ballarat.

Painting

Spent a quiet afternoon painting more shelving bits:

They have been waiting for me to get to them for a long time. But now I am one step closer to being able to get my sewing room and wardrobe organised.