Sewing Room Storage Containers

In celebration of her 300th post, Sweet P at Coffee Time Quilt Studio posted a contest of unique sewing room storage containers. Each day for six days she posted a different one she uses in her sewing room and invited others to do the same. Initially I didn't pay too much attention to it, but I got caught up in it this evening and couldn't resist sharing some of mine.

My husband built this white birch spool box for me several years ago for my birthday. It held my entire thread collection for a long time, but I've acquired some larger spools that won't fit into it anymore because the shelves are not deep enough. This is one of my favorite things my husband made for me. One of my other favorite things my husband built for me is this quilt rack that hangs on the wall in my son's room. It's also made of white birch, just like the hardwood floors and doors in my house, so it goes beautifully.



I bought chocolate covered blueberries in this metal tin, which makes a very portable container for all my sewing things if I want to sew at a retreat, a friend's home, or if I want to take some handpiecing with me. I have a small tote bag that the tin fits in, along with a 4" square ruler, a 6" square cutting mat, a small sandpaper board, a small Brooklyn revolver, my nylon bucket, and the project of the moment.




This is my nylon bucket. It's about 4" square and collapses flat, so it fits in my tote nicely. I have two of these--one sits next to my sewing machine and holds pencils and paper, scissors and a 1" x 6" ruler; the other holds trimmings and other trash generated from my sewing. I also have a tiny Longaberger basket next to my sewing machine with bobbins, a couple spools of thread, needle packs, a couple of sewing machine feet, and the key to remove the throat plate on my machine.

This storage container is not unique, but it is one of the most useful containers in my sewing room. I have about a dozen of these and wish I had more. I bought these very inexpensively at Walmart, I think. They are stackable, and they contain bits and pieces of projects and ufo's in various stages of completion. Because I often like to work on three or four projects simultaneously, these are pretty handy to keep everything together, and I can just grab one out of my cabinet and stick a different one back in there.

I am off the next two days and am hoping to make some real headway on the Orange Crush mystery quilt. I now have 13 of 20 blocks done for Step 5, all 4 corner blocks, and 1 half block for the edge. As so often happens with me, I like this quilt so much more than I thought I would when I first started it.