Aurifil Artisan Challenge: January 2020

Happy January! This month, I'm participating in another Aurifil Artisan challenge, which was a challenge for an open ended post on sewing organization.

Last year, I asked my oldest helper to organize my Aurifil thread for me on my thread rack. I gave her free reign on the approach and she went with a rainbow gradient (also one of my favorites organization schemes)! In addition to my Aurifil spools shown on the thread rack, I store my cones of thread underneath the standing thread rack. I only have a few cones (used for longarm quilting), mostly in white.

For this Artisan challenge, I also wanted to pull together a collection of all the ways I organize little piles of fabric and pieced units. I sew a lot in batches and cut in bulk as well, so I tend to need a solution for keeping things separate but together. I love my piles, as you can see below. As you may be able to see in some of the photos, my longarm frame is a great place for laying out piles and organizing as well.

I often rotate blocks or pieces 90 degrees to separate into batches, but I've recently seen makers using paper plates to keep blocks or batches together. I haven't tried the paper plate method, but I think it's a great idea! If pieced units are the same size and rotating them doesn't work, sometimes I line them up in groups of five or ten.

Anyways, I enjoy checking out everyone's process when it comes to organization and piles! It's fun to have a peek inside the process and how different people approach sewing in batches. Happy sewing!