LOVE QUILTERS
The people who share your passion
LOVE QUILTERS Super-organised quilter Heidi Staples shares her secrets in a new book, Sew Organized.
When I was growing up, my mom was always sewing, but I didn't really get serious about sewing until right after my third daughter was born. After being in education for ten years, I had become a stay-at-home mom and was absolutely desperate for a hobby. I had been intrigued by the craft blogs my sister was reading, which soon led me to looking at sewing and quilting blogs. When my mom bought herself a new sewing machine after her old one broke, I asked her to teach me how to use it. I fell completely in love with sewing and quilting, and started my blog Fabric Mutt at the end of 2011.
I started thinking about writing this book only a year or so after I started sewing. I felt strongly that picking up sewing had saved my sanity at a time when I was feeling wrung out by the physical and
MY FABRIC STORAGE IS FIRST ORGANIZED BY MATERIAL (LINEN, VOILE, COTTON, ETC) AND THEN BY COLOR WITHIN THOSE GROUPINGS. I HAVE A LOT OF BLUE!
emotional demands of raising three little girls. As I got more involved in the online community, I learned that I wasn't the only one struggling to fit sewing into my busy life. We're all trying to juggle so much: time with family and friends, keeping up our homes, holding down a job. It can seem impossible or almost frivolous to set aside time to be creative. It was important for me to write a book that would be helpful to other people facing these challenges – to write the sort of book that I would have wanted when I started sewing. I pitched the idea to Stash Books and worked on my official book proposal during the summer of 2013. It was accepted that fall, so I spent the next year and a half working on it. It's hard to believe that it's finally out there for people to read and use!
I don't teach you how to sew in this book. There are tons of books and blogs out there that can give you everything you need in that department. This is a book to help you make time to sew. I've found (through endless rounds of trial and error!) that by making a few changes in my habits, I've been able to find the time to sew every week. My book includes advice on setting up your workspace, organizing your projects, keeping a sewing calendar, managing long-term projects and dealing with kids in your sewing room. I've also included lots of projects that are easy to make when you need a quick finish – either for a lastminute gift or for some instant sewing gratification.
Each of the projects has its own little history. The Summer Tourist Quilt is special to me because it holds so much of my stash in it. I love simple patchwork and I love seeing all those pieces of past projects together in color order. I adore the Deluxe Pincushion. It's small, quick and completely useful – perfect for a sewing retreat or swap gift. And I've always been a fan of cute travel cases, so I'm especially fond of the Jet-Set Case and Girl Friday Sewing Case.
To me, fabric is everything. What makes a project look modern or traditional? What shows you that this quilt is for your grandmother or your husband or your five-year-old niece? It's all about the fabric you use. I think the longer I've been sewing, the more confident I've become about what I like. It's easy when you're starting out to follow the crowd and chase after every new collection that's popular. I still love a lot of the same designers, but I've become a lot more selective, too – which, in the end, is good news for my bank account as well as my stash! I know that every print on my shelves is there because I love it and that means I'm going to actually use it.
Right now, I'm working on a Designer Edition of my Summer Tourist Quilt where, instead of focusing on color, each block features a rainbow of prints by a certain designer (see my progress
on Instagram at @fabricmutt! I started out by making a list of the designers I wanted to include and then pulling their prints from my fabric cabinet, which I then sorted into separate bins and bags.
I don't have time to sit down and make the whole quilt at once, so I've scheduled one block a week in my sewing calendar. Every Sunday on my calendar, I have the name of a designer written down, which is the assigned block for that week. Once I finish the blocks, I'll schedule a week each for backing, quilting and binding. It's that simple. I've said before, nothing in this book is rocket science. It's just taking a lot of simple ideas and putting them together to turn you into an organized person who, because of these new habits, now has time to sew.
If you’re just starting out, start small. If you try to do everything at once, you'll give up. Try picking up one new habit per week or two weeks, such as cleaning your workspace when you've finished sewing, using project bags (one of my favorite tips from the book), or keeping a sewing calendar. When you master one trick, move on to another one. You'll be surprised how much more you can do. Don't EVER waste your precious minutes on a project that you don't really like just because it's popular. If you're not feeling the love, stop and move onto something you really want to make. Above all, remember that this is supposed to be fun. If you're not enjoying yourself, it's not a hobby and it's not doing you any good. Let your sewing time be happy time – no stress allowed!