Sorry I was derailed this spring folks.  Here is the continuation of the Sewing Room Organization Challenge.  Those of you who have been following this journey may remember I stalled at organizing pins, needles and stabilizers...week 5.  Well I finally finished them!  I had to wait for natural daylight, good eyesight and a magnifying glass to meet. 

I found this solution for used needles on the Internet.  These needles are still good...just needed to take them out for another project.  Instead of going back in the machine they were lost in the depths of the drawer where I stored needles.


I bought a huge pincushion from Fabricland on sale and  divided it horizontally to provide different sections for different needles.  I use the top section for different size/type needles than the bottom section.  That gives me 12 sections for needles.  The only complaint I have with this arrangement is the pincushion takes up a fair bit of space on my small sewing table.

The needles that have not been used and are still in packaging are organized in plastic drawers in a unit my parents originally had to organize hardware supplies in the family workshop!  It’s probably a plastic storage cabinet from Canadian Tire or some home hardware type store.  I have 3 of these actually…and I’m just starting to organize them. 

You can see I’ve labeled each section for easy identification of needles.  I’ve also noted on the front of the drawer what needles are in there.  I’m glad I did this.  I discovered all kinds of needles I didn’t know I had.  I don’t think I’ll need to buy new needles for awhile!

While I was at it I went after the pins – both straight and safety – and organized them.

Here they are in the storage unit.

As for the stabilizers…I liked the original storage solutions.  Anything that could fit into the clear plastic bin went into it.  Anything too long for it went in the surplus garbage can.

  

Here's the stabilizer bin in situ on the sewing unit...above the serger thread.

  

So I'm back on track with the Sewing Room Organization Challenge.  Look for an update next week sometime!

Well it doesn't quite go like that in the song...but that seems to be the theme of my life right now.  I was to the gym this morning where I was presented with an exercise program that seems rather straight forward and doable.  I'm not going to remember all the exercises though.  I hope they do attach them to the page when I'm in next...as they said they would.

I got checking "The Serotonin Power Diet" book again and discovered I am doing the diet wrong.  I've been eating carbohydrate at lunch time when I shouldn't be.  Plus, I am supposed to be sick of carbs by this point in the diet.  And I'm supposed to drop my carb snack at night.  I am delighted!  When I drop those two carb servings I should be down to four servings of carbs a day.  That should work just fine for me.

I've been busy knitting here.  I am re-knitting the sleeves to the baby sweater.  It's more like a toddler's sweater now!  I am blocking the new sleeves and then will sew the whole thing together. 

I started lace knitting a wimple, but pulled it all out in frustration today.  It was too large and I had dropped too many stitches and couldn't see where.  I'll start again...

I am plotting the start of another child's sweater.  A wool pullover of burgundy Atlantic by Briggs & Little. 

I don't know what I'm going to do with all this knitting.  I suppose I'll end up giving it away or selling it.  We'll see.

I tried to simplify my life a bit today by going from two library cards to one.  I had one for our homeschool when we homeschooled.  Now the girls have left home I think I can safely give this card up.  Alas, Paul had taken some stuff out on it and accrued some fines.  I didn't have cash on me to pay the fines when I was at the library, so I left the card as is.  Paul can pay the fines.  I'll slowly rotate this card out of use and then cancel it.

I've been eating weird meals lately...trying to use up food before we go on a road trip soon.  Today was Swiss chard and spinach inside a whole wheat pita.  Kind of interesting.  Actually quite good because the Swiss chard had been cooked in butter and olive oil, with garlic and lemon.  It could have done without the lemon though!

I made some cool Blueberry Lemon Muffins not long ago...sorry, no photos...

Blueberry Lemon Muffins
(makes 12)

Mix wet.  Mix dry.  Put wet into dry.  Add blueberries and bake in 350 F oven for 20 minutes.

My latest variation is to make Blueberry Coconut Muffins.  I used apple juice concentrate and milk to make 1 c. of liquid...and I tossed in about 1/4 c. coconut instead of the lemon rind.  I also made them half whole wheat pastry flour and half white flour.  They are absolutely delish!

I'm slowly plugging away at refinishing a small plywood dresser built by Carl's grandfather.  We bought it off Carl when he and Lisa moved.  I've stripped quite a few layers of paint off it.  Now to patch it, sand it, and paint it.

For those of you wondering...I haven't forgot the Sewing Room Organization Challenge...  I just keep forgetting to bring the magnifying glass upstairs to check the sizes of the used needles...which are currently sitting in a pile on my sewing machine extension table! 

Well, maybe I skipped a week or so. But I have finished sorting all the fabric finally! I managed to rid myself of 8 boxes of fabric in that monumental de-cluttering and sorting. Next up?...

This week's challenge is to organize pins, needles, and stabilizers.

Mine are mostly already done. But there could be some fine tuning. Here's the current situation. I have pins everywhere. Mostly though, they are housed in a plastic drawer unit that's been in the family for years. Here's the situation...


I'm basically happy with storing new needles in these drawers, but slightly used needles tend to roll around under the dividers and I need a magnifying glass to see what size they are before putting them into the machine.  I'm hoping the nice pink pincushion below will solve my problem.


This is a box of stabilizers that I sorted through earlier this winter.  I was amazed at how much junk was in it.  Looks like it needs to be neatened a bit yet.  I may move them to a smaller box.

Well, that should keep me occupied for awhile.  I'll post when I'm finished so you can see my solutions to this situation.

I can't believe this weather we're having!  It's been raining cats and dogs all weekend.  Today was sunny and warm, but tonight it's going down to 10 Celsius!  It's so cold I shut the doors and put on a warm dress...as opposed to shorts and sleeveless top.  This is the end of June for crying out loud!

Well despite the weather I've been able to stay on track with my weight loss plan.  I phoned around today looking for adult swimming classes.  It looks like I can get five lessons for $90CAD from the city.  Not bad as it would be private instruction.  One place offering them was shut down till July.  I'll phone the other place tomorrow.  I checked with the YMCA and it was actually going to cost me $64CAD for a class with other adults.   I thought I'd buy a YMCA membership ($50/mth) and access massage, fitness assessment and training for free.  But apparently all those things cost extra over and above the membership.  Doesn't make much sense to have a membership to me!  I'm opting for the private swim lessons through the city.

My official weigh-in was 176.4 pounds.  I am hoping to make 175 pounds by the end of the month.

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The sewing room is coming along fine.  I picked up a little corner shelf and cross from a yard sale for the room. Paul hung the shelf and I quickly filled it.  The cross needs a special hanger on it.  Paul also hung up my magnetic knife rack.  I use it to hold scissors and other metal objects used in sewing.

I've also been shopping for sashing fabric for my sampler quilt.  I have one more block to take a photo of and post.  I finished it Saturday.  I think this will look okay.  I'm waiting till I have the entire top sewn before deciding on a backing fabric.

I also pulled out my kimono quilt to work on again.  The instructions aren't very good.  I'll have to re-cut some pieces. 

I finished going through the crazy quilt fabric.  I separated silks from satins, etc.  I'm thinking the silks might actually go into a yo-yo quilt.  We'll see.  I am also on the last half box of quilting fabric.  I should really finish that tomorrow.  But we'll see.  I have company coming and lots to do!

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My frugal find today was the local Bulk Barn store.  Some things are more expensive there, some things less.  So you really have to watch it.  There were some nice diet things there too.

I've taken to picking up organic produce when we eat the whole plant.  But non-organic if we peel it.  I put off buying meat today.  Seems a little goes a long ways when there's only two of us in the house.  My biggest challenge these days is not buying too much food!

Well I'm off to watch a library DVD with Paul before bed.  Write to you all later!

Here's the finished thread photos. I finally got to Walmart for the tiny pigtail holders. The Dollar Store was out of our way and Paul was driving. He was in a rush. Hmmm...anyways...here they are.

This is the sewing machine thread reorganized and labeled properly...


Here is the serger thread labeled properly and on a shelf...


And here are the cute bobbins with the ponytail holders holding the thread ends in place...


It works like a charm! Here's a closeup so you can see exactly what's going on and what size these are. They're the smallest size I could find that was this fluffy type. I don't think the other skinnier types would work as well.


That's all my thread organized everyone!  Now to think of a challenge for next week...

I've been working on my thread today. I transferred the serger thread from a big bulky box to one where it is more easily accessible...two actually.  One box (the front one) is for my usual serger thread.  The back box is for specialty threads...like wooly nylon.


And here's the situation with the regular thread. I need to re-label the drawers....


Here's the bobbin mess. It's not bad, but still, this tray slides under the machine and I often have thread tails sticking out from it. I want to corral those. So it's off to Dollarama tomorrow for those tiny pigtail holders!

The challenge this week is to organize threads and bobbins.

I confess, my thread is already organized to my liking...in plastic storage drawers I picked up many many many years ago from the hardware section of the department store.  The tools and hardware section...and fishing sections...are the greatest places to find cheap containers for things.  Men just won't spend the money on those things that women will. 

I organize my thread by colour and by type.  Specialty quilting and metallic threads are kept separate from the usual threads.  Otherwise I store the silk, poly-cotton, cotton and linen threads by colour together.  I suppose if I had a lot of any one type I'd sort them out differently.  But I don't.

I store my serger thread in a plastic see-through bin.  Works fine by me.  Though lately I've been thinking of switching to another more suitable sized bin.  We'll see...I'll try it this week and see how I like it.

I talked to a friend about putting serger thread on one of those thread racks and received an interesting response.  She claimed her thread got so dusty she couldn't use it.  She keeps all hers in a bin now too. 

I am going to make a trip to the Dollar Store for those mini pigtail holders (tiny elastics) to hold the thread on my bobbins.  I hate having them unwind and trail all over the place when they're in storage.  So I thought for $1 I'd try that trick and see if it works.  Will post more if it does. 

I'll post more pictures later this week.