Guest Blog: Organizing Your Crafts

Posted by Christine on August 18th, 2009 at 03:14am

This post comes from Stasha at www.shondratasha.com, a crafter just like you. She works on multiple crafts at once and has finally figured out a way to stay organized. Here is her story:

I will confess to being what my family calls an ADD crafter. I have trouble working on one project straight through from start to finish. As a result, I have multiple projects started at any given time. I’ve learned that if I’m not organized, nothing gets worked on and crafting becomes a chore instead of fun, relaxing me time. The first step in my organization was to list all my projects in an excel spreadsheet.

Creating my list showed me I had some habitual places where I stopped on projects. Backstitching is one of my downfalls, so are new techniques and running out of supplies. I now had a starting point to re-evaluate my crafting style. With cross-stitch, I started backstitching as I finished the stitching for that area instead of saving it for the end. Since backstitching makes the stitching “pop” I find myself a bit more motivated to work on my pieces longer than if I was just doing the stitching alone.

Another thing I’ve done is to organize my crafting area so that I have “workstations.” I have an attention span of about 30 minutes and I end up jumping from project to project. My room is set up so I can do that. I have a station with my sewing machine set up and the quilt pieces are ready for me to pick up and work on as soon as I sit down. I can then move to the ironing board and press the pieces I just finished or I can move to my couch and either hand quilt on a project always set up or I can cross-stitch on something set up on the frame waiting for me. The next station is my cutting mat where I can cut the pieces I just pressed and have them ready for the next time I sit at the sewing machine.

I’m lucky to have an actual room to use for my crafting, www.tinyurl.com/stashroom but if all you have is a box, organizing it so a project is ready to go at a moments notice will give you much more crafting time and enable you to grab a minute or ten without having to look for everything in order to start. After all, if you have to find all the pieces how much will get done when only a few minutes exist for me time?

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Furl
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • email
Sphere: Related Content

Tags: , , ,

Under Guest Post Tags: , , ,

1 Comment for Guest Blog: Organizing Your Crafts

  • 1. Carol  |  August 21st, 2009 at 10:51 am

    I often have large crochet projects that require many different colors. I have a method that helps.
    I have a stand, the kind that you attach embroidery work or a rug hooking project to. I went to hardware stores and snatched up their emply wire spools, these are large and fit easily over the bars for the embroidery stand. I wrap my yarn onto the spools and put them on the stand, each spool can hold several skeins. As I crochet, the yarn runs off the spools, no tangles and color change is easy. All is neatly organized. My husband made an adaptor, one end fits on a drill and one end fits into the spool end. I place the spool on the end of the bar, on the stand, and loading yarn onto the spool goes much, much faster. When my crochet project is finished, I roll the yarn off the spool and into a ball then I store it away. All neatly organized from start to finish.

Leave a Comment for Guest Blog: Organizing Your Crafts

Required

Required, hidden

RSS Comments Feed RSS Comments Feed  |  Trackback this post

Related posts to Guest Blog: Organizing Your Crafts

They Include:

  1. Link Love: Organizing Your Crafts Yesterday, I wrote about how you can Organize Your Inspiration by cleaning up your craft area and creating...
  2. Help a Reader: Organizing Embroidery Floss Can you help Linda organize her embroidery floss? I have tried organizing my embroidery floss so it is...
  3. Guest Blog: If I Sell My Crafts, Am I Selling My Soul?? By: Patti Ghezzi for DivineCaroline I’m flattered when friends say I should sell my hand-knitted baby hats and...
  4. Guest Blog: Adorable Halloween Apron I moved to Omaha, NE from Chicago several months ago for love. Now that I’m here, I’ve invested...
  5. Guest Blog: How to Make Your Own Double-Pointed Needles By: Tina Sanders for DivineCaroline.com We use double-pointed needles for socks, for finishing hats or items in the...



Monday: New Craft Patterns
Tuesday: Home Decorating Ideas, Book Giveaway
Wednesday: How-to
Thursday: Link Love
Friday: Ask Maria, Product Giveaway
Saturday: Crafts for Kids
Sunday: Christmas Crafts

grab our button

Do you like to use patterns/templates/instructions when crafting or do you just wing it? Do you plan and measure your projects carefully or not?

Answer the Monthly Craft Question

FaveCraftsBlog Polls