Company's Coming

I just love having company! I love the anticipation, planning, preparing, shopping, cooking, even the clean-up afterwards. I think about what kinds of food they might enjoy, what we might talk about, what sights they might like to see, who we should visit while they are here, even alternative plans if the weather or health do not cooperate. All of this is stated up front to encourage me to finish the task that is before me: cleaning up my sewing rooms. I have let it get into a state of severe disrepair and I'm a bit ashamed of myself. I thought of the shocked looks on my visitors faces if I didn't do something soon and got busy. The worst of it all were the mounds of fabric that I purchased recently, as you might have read in previous posts. How could I resist a whole large plastic tub of fabric for only $10? But now I need to provide the space and organization of all this fabric. It all got pulled out, dragged upstairs into the porch so I could look at it dispassionately. Once it is out of the messy space and into a new place it can be looked at more objectively: cottons, solid cottons, print cottons, fleece, knits, lining, vintage, UFO's, and then into subcategories. Once in groups, they were organized by color or themes and then a plastic tub, basket, or container was found. I even made labels! Once put back into the space they got a bit reorganized to fit and then I stepped back to see the result:

Sewing room where I actually sew, not repair sewing machines!

Not bad for the first pass. As I took this photo I could see that I have some sewing machines on the floor that are somewhat finished but need a place to be stored while I add the finishing touches, such as a box of accessories or the handcrank. Most of the machines in this room are either mine, sergers, or parts machines but it makes sense to me.

Note plastic bins with labels and stacked baskets to add a touch of organization.

The shelves also share space with my husbands hunting and fishing gear although he occasionally points out that he doesn't get enough space. True, but I don't either so that's just a cross we each must bear. As I went to take a photo of the other side of the room I looked at my main desk with the Viking 1100 and I could see it was a pretty big mess (see first photo) so I cleaned it up for this photo:

Two desk hold my machines and others are on the floor between them.

This is cleaned up so please don't think this is the before. Nope, it's the after clean-up but I'm more than satisfied with the new fabric reorganization and the ease of using this space. It's good to have visitors so we can see our homes through someone else's eyes so I'm very glad for that. Now I need to get those menus planned and find a sewing machine that can make a blanket stitch. Now where is that Elna? On no, I'll have to go into the repair shop room...but that's getting cleaned up tonight!