Travel Tip: Konmari-style Packing

Over the years, I have tried several different ways of packing clothing for travel and even done some research online into recommended methods.  After learning how to tidy my house from Marie Kondo's books, I decided to try her folding and vertical stacking method for clothing in a suitcase.

So far, this is the best method that I have found.  It doesn't eliminate wrinkles entirely, but wrinkles are minimized.  Clothes are easily organized this way, and it is very easy to find anything I need while travelling.  The photo below shows pants, jeans, shirts, and pajamas folded and vertically stacked.  A few more items will fit on top.  When I get to my destination, I can easily pull out the items I need without disturbing all the others.

Here are links to Marie Kondo showing her folding method for Tops, camisoles, and socks; Odd-shaped clothing; and T-shirts (YouTube videos).

Konmari-style Packing

Another Yay! for tidying. :)

Tatting Thread Color Samples

I like to have color samples of my tatting threads to help me choose threads for future projects.  I decided to use a rings-only edging pattern for the samples, as it shows the colors the way they come off the ball of thread.  A motif of rings and chains tends to chop up the colors.

I found this pattern on a Russian website through Pinterest.

Here's my version:
R: 2 ± 7 - 2 - 7. RW.  Leave unworked thread space of 3-4 mm.

Repeat R for desired length, joining Ring 3 to Ring 1 and Ring 4 to Ring 2, etc.

When I tat this with Lizbeth size 20, one sample uses about 3 yards 6" of thread.

Quilt Shop Billboard

We saw this billboard recently when travelling on the highway south of Atlanta.  I can't say that I have ever seen a Quilt Shop billboard before.  Too bad we didn't have time to stop!

Exit 221 - Quilt Shop

Edited to add:

I just realized that this would have been much more curious if it was at Exit 221B. :)

Sewing Room 2.0, The Closet

The tidying that I mentioned in my last post included this closet, which is attached to my sewing room.  It holds quilt fabrics; bins of interfacing, buttons, zippers, etc.; some paper crafting supplies; and now my wall of yarn.

View from the doorway

The wall of yarn (with some bins of UFOs and quilt fabrics on the left)

Supplies for paper crafting and other things

Again, I don't have "before" pictures to show you, but I promise that it is much more organized than before and the bins are more accessible.  Yay for tidying! :)

Sewing Room 2.0, New and Improved

I didn't mean to neglect this blog for so long.  Sorry about that!

In the meantime, I have been taking pictures of interesting fiber-related things and thinking, "I could post this on my blog!"  So there are a handful of things waiting to be shared with you.

My latest news is that I have spent much of the last three weeks tidying and I am eager to share what feels like a new space, my sewing room.  The tidying began with my bedroom closet, involved the office and part of the dining room.  I was able to clear off a bookcase that had been in the dining room and my husband helped me move it into the sewing room.  That gave me a lot of space for magazines, books, and binders, which had been on my metal shelf units.  That freed up space on the metal shelves, which are deeper than the bookcase, for fabric, storage bins, and what-not. 

I didn't take "before" pictures, but I think you can imagine a sewing room that was rather higgle-piggle, with stuff stacked up on every available surface and storage bins and what-not on the floor, so that there was a narrow path through the room.  Also, the cutting table was piled up with stacks of fabric, works in progress, UFOs, papers, and other tidbits.  The long side table was nearly covered with bits of this-and-that, more fabric, a half-finished shawl, knitting tools, etc.  The day bed had become home to tote bags, more UFOs, samples of free-motion machine quilting, and the dies for my Accuquilt fabric die cutter.  The floor of the sewing room closet was piled up with things to where it was hard to get to the storage bins there.  Plus, there was dust!  Not a good work environment.

I admit that I have been reading Marie Kondo's book Spark Joy, and it has been the inspiration and guide for all of this tidying.  I have not followed her system exactly, as I have been tidying mainly by location instead of category.  I consider this a first pass at tidying -- putting similar things together, finding a few to throw out or give away, and cleaning as I go.  Before, my yarn was stored in bins located all over the sewing room.  Now most of it is on one wall in the closet, with a few bins under the table in the sewing room.  All of the sewing and crafting tools that I came across in my tidying are in one location.  It's much better. :)

View from the doorway

The long side table

The cutting table

The design wall and ironing board in place

I hope to do more tidying in the future, as there is much more to be done, but I must stop for now as there are other things that need my attention.