Over the past few years, as my quilting skills have grown considerably, so has my collection of finished quilts. While many of my quilts are proudly displayed throughout our home and/or are travelling as part of exhibits, I am still left with a pile-o'-quilts folded and stacked on top of my bookshelf. Of course, I made sure to store them up high so they are safe. But who cares about the danger they present to me whenever I needed to pull out certain quilts for lectures and/or workshops!! Inevitably, I would pull one or two quilts and an avalanche of quilts would ensue. So Pinterest and Doug to the rescue!!
My Pinterest searches revealed a number of quilters and crafters using large tubes to create storage cubbies for their quilts, yarns and other craft supplies. Initially I thought they were PVC plastic tubes but was unable to find anything larger than 6" in diameter in the plumbing/gardening sections of our local hardware/home improvement stores. Rather than give up, we wandered over to the contruction department where we found our solution: Quikcrete Quik-Tube Building Forms.
Quik-Tubes are made out of heavy-duty cardboard and used to create concrete forms. The tubes come in 8", 10" or 12" diameters and most are 4' long (although 10' and 12' lengths can sometimes be found). They are fairly light yet strong, and inexpensive (ranging from $7-$16/tube--depending on the diameter needed). I purchased 4 of the 10" diameter tubes that Doug cut into half giving me a total of 8 tubes, each approximately 2' long. My plan was to stack them into a pyramid, so Doug built 2 large L-shaped wooden bookends to prevent the tubes from tumbling off the bookshelf--remember--we are trying to avoid a quilting avalanche!!
Now I have a tube for each of the workshops I regularly teach: Walking Foot WOW!, Intriguing Interleaves, Slice of Improv, Mod Molas and Mandalas. When it is time to organize and pack for the workshop, I am able to easily pull out those quilts needed without causing the others to crash down on top of me! After the workshop, I simply roll them back up and stow them back into their assigned cubby until they are needed again. And yes, I still have one remaining pile: a pile-o-quilt tops that are all pin-basted and ready for quilting!
Confession time: This new storage cubby system did lead to one last avalanche! A long overdue and much needed cleaning avalanche!!! Seeing all my quilts all rolled and organized motivated me to tackle organizing other areas of my studio. Stay tuned for pictures of my cleaned and tidied studio!!!
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| Quilt Storage Progression |
Quik-Tubes are made out of heavy-duty cardboard and used to create concrete forms. The tubes come in 8", 10" or 12" diameters and most are 4' long (although 10' and 12' lengths can sometimes be found). They are fairly light yet strong, and inexpensive (ranging from $7-$16/tube--depending on the diameter needed). I purchased 4 of the 10" diameter tubes that Doug cut into half giving me a total of 8 tubes, each approximately 2' long. My plan was to stack them into a pyramid, so Doug built 2 large L-shaped wooden bookends to prevent the tubes from tumbling off the bookshelf--remember--we are trying to avoid a quilting avalanche!!
Now I have a tube for each of the workshops I regularly teach: Walking Foot WOW!, Intriguing Interleaves, Slice of Improv, Mod Molas and Mandalas. When it is time to organize and pack for the workshop, I am able to easily pull out those quilts needed without causing the others to crash down on top of me! After the workshop, I simply roll them back up and stow them back into their assigned cubby until they are needed again. And yes, I still have one remaining pile: a pile-o-quilt tops that are all pin-basted and ready for quilting!
Confession time: This new storage cubby system did lead to one last avalanche! A long overdue and much needed cleaning avalanche!!! Seeing all my quilts all rolled and organized motivated me to tackle organizing other areas of my studio. Stay tuned for pictures of my cleaned and tidied studio!!!
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