Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Fiber Storage continued

When I bought this place, the living room had curtains that were not to my taste. At all. It looked like a 70's wedding dress had thrown up all over the windows. Yards and yards of tulle with flounces and bows and ruffles. Eeew. I took it all down immediately, stuffed it in a bag, and put it upstairs. I offered it up on Freecycle, but had no takers. I can't imagine why. So it has been in a bag taking up space for almost nine years. When my friend was over a couple of weekends ago, we were working on organizing the fiber room. I found this bag of tulle and decided it just had to go. I hate throwing away (packrat much?) something like this, perfectly fine fabric/curtains that I had no use for. The bag went out in the hallway in the pile of stuff to get rid of.

Then we came upon the idea of the shoe organizer/fiber pocket storage. But where to hang them? All of my wall space in the fiber room was already used. The guest bedroom had some wall space, but I really wanted to try to keep it as guest bedroom like as possible. We happened to be standing in the guest bedroom, then walked out into the hallway/landing. Duh! Perfect wall space right there in the stairwell! Look at all that otherwise wasted space! I decided I would make my own fiber pockets. As I was rummaging around in my fabric stash, I found the perfect almost canvas-like base. But what about the pockets? Why, the tulle! It would be see through, so I could see what fiber was in the pocket, I could make use of the tulle, perfect! Let me tell you, that tulle is slippery crap and hard to sew, but I did it.



I hung it on a dowel suspended by two cup hooks screwed into the wall. That is the stairwell. I have room for another shorter one, to the left of this. I have to sew it yet. There is still wall space left though, so I didn't stop there.



I hung long lengths of roving on the one wall, the two over the door pocket organizers my friend gave me hold finished batts, and the pocket organizer I made holds loose dyed fibers. That is, dyed fibers not in roving form. More dyed braided roving went on the little landing wall where the steps turn the corner.

It is like a huge design wall. I can stand there in one spot and see all of the dyed fibers I have to choose from when designing a batt colorway. I can already see a color combination I wouldn't have thought of without seeing it first. (The melon roving in the middle, combined with the teal to the left of it, and maybe the blue to the lower right of it. It would have a Southwest feel to it.)

My fiber room no longer has a huge pile of little bags of dyed fiber. Now it just has a huge pile of huge bags of roving from the mill. At least I can walk in there now though. And the stairwell is a lot prettier with the roving covering most of the ugly brown paneling. Win all the way around!

Anybody want some tulle? I still have a whole bag left, I only used part of one curtain panel. No really, anybody want some?

5 comments:

Mama Pea said...

You know what I like best about your new arrangement? The COLOR! What a bright, cheerful, colorful place you've made the stairwell. When I think about how many times a day one can go up and down stairs . . . what a treat for the eyes and the soul! They say we should make our environment as personally pleasing as possible . . . so what could be better for a fiber artist like you?

Lilac Haven said...

Looks great.Ive almost got all my roving spun. Yippee.

Cindy said...

Your stairway is beautiful! How clever and resourceful, but no thanks on the tulle;--)

Cindy said...

Your stairway is beautiful! How clever and resourceful, but no thanks on the tulle;--)

rilera said...

Very clever Annie!