By Patricia Belyea
WAUCONDA WA. There’s lots of information available about how to organize your sewing room. For me, I’ve made a conscious choice to allow one area of my studio to be in complete disarray—my collection of solids.
In many of my compositions, I pair contemporary solids with luscious yukata cotton. So I like to have lots of solids on hand to make decisions on the fly when I’m designing.
Since I’m a textile importer, you’d think that I’d never need to purchase more fabrics. Not so. I appreciate the contrast of solids with yukata cottons to make my quilts sing.
My solid-colored cotton of choice is Cotton Couture by Michael Miller. I like everything about this cotton collection — the colors, the hand, and the ease of pressing. I have a swatch chart and purchase the fabric online at Hawthorne Supply Company.
When the fabrics arrive, the first thing I do is pre-wash my haul. After that, my organizational self-discipline ends.
I give the colored cottons a quick press and throw them into a bin. No special folding. No wrapping the fabric around little boards. No chromatic organization. Nope.
The fabric yardage goes into one of six bins—Yellow/Orange, Red/Purple, Blue, Green, Whites, or Neutrals. A seventh bin is labeled Scraps.
The disorganized bins are stacked on top of one another and tucked into a closet, out of sight.
When I need some color, I pull out a bin and dig through my rainbows of fabric. It’s a visceral experience—handling color with my eyes and hands at the same time.
Most times I make do nicely with my collection. Occasionally a colored cotton I have on hand inspires me but I feel compelled to search for a slightly different hue for my project. The Cotton Couture collection has over 200 colors to help me out.
Quilting is my pleasure. Having oodles of pre-washed colors in my stash fulfills my goal of having lots of fun. And spending less time organizing my solids means more time cutting up fabric and sewing it back together!
ABOUT US: Okan Arts, a petite family business, is co-owned by mother-daughter duo Patricia Belyea and Victoria Stone. Patricia and Victoria sell Japanese textiles online, host creative quilting experiences, and lead quilting & textile tours to Japan.
