All cleaned up

I've spent the better part of the last 6 days going through all the boxes in my sewing room closet and the drawers in  the little chest next to my sewing machine.

It all started when I moved 2 little stacking sets of drawers to the bathroom from my sewing room. I needed to clean up the clutter in the one and only drawer in the vanity. I got along without these in my sewing room before I bought them and everything I had in them I had kept in another place before I got them. I wouldn't miss them. Oh really?????

One thing lead to another and before I knew it my room was total chaos. I thought I would go though things at a leisurely pace and put each thing back after I put it in order and I would maintain control over things.
Well, that didn't happen! Why did I think this time would be any different?  This is what I have done ever since  I was a kid and my mother made me clean up my room. I get started and then there are things in the wrong drawers or boxes and I have to get out the right box and that leads to another box to put something else away and so it goes.



Eventually, there was no place to sit and almost nowhere to walk. Of course all that dragging things out and the resulting disorder wore me out and I would have to go and rest. I even took some naps. This morning I could stand it no longer I made up my mind to keep at it until I had ORDER.



That was then



This is now

I can sit down on any one of 3 chairs, I have a neat stack of things that I can get to and finish, my closet shelves have neat and orderly boxes that only have in them what they are supposed to have, I have one box that holds interfacing instead of bits and pieces in several  places, the same for stabilizers, and fusible web. I have a stack of things that I will never, ever use again (some of them I never used even once) and a box of books that I won't look at again; they are going, going, soon to be gone. There are 4 bags of rubbish waiting to be taken down to the trash room. I have one overflowing box of scraps to be sorted and made ready to use. They were in several small containers here and there because ???  I'm not sure why they were all over the place.

This is a good beginning.



I found so much stuff that made no sense to hold on to and as I began to start putting things away I got more and more ruthless about hanging on to something I might use in some weird circumstance. ( Let me tell you it is hard to be ruthless when your name is Ruth). I am going to go through my desk and my bookcase  and purge old papers and junk. I have a row of magazine holders on the bottom shelf of my bookcase that has so much stuff that I don't remember anyway when I need it and whole shelf of notebooks that was once an orderly way to keep things but has mostly become a useless redundant mess. I am going to go slowly this time, really, and get it all done.

But first.................

I am going to sew!







Almost ready to sew again

I am almost ready to put my machine back in it's table  and sew again. I have not sewed a stitch since the Jellyroll Race last Saturday and I have worked at sorting and purging all week. Once I moved everything around and make a more orderly workspace I made a lot more  progress. On Friday I thought that all  the boxes had been gone through and sorted but I found 2 more baskets on top of my bookcase that had stuff in them. One had Friendship  blocks which I am going to use soon. Really! The other one was a real mess. It appeared to  be something I swept off my cutting table to get it out of sight because I had company coming, in fact, I know that is exactly what I did. There were wrinkled pieces of various sizes, all smallish ,and squares that had been cut and 2 inch and 1 1/5 inch strips that I had cut. I was tempted to shove it all in a bag and get back to it later or, better yet, I was tempted to dump it. However there is that part of me that thinks maybe there is that 2 1/4 inch by 4 1/8 wonky scrap that is the last shred of my most favorite of all time fabric and I can't live without it. It took a long time to go through it but it is done and even though I didn't find that shred of favorite fabric I did find some things that I am glad I didn't throw out. (even though I know I would never have missed them).

I decide to give up my box of squares and rectangles for the Donna Poster pattern and I found a taker. Yeah!!!!   

I also  decided to give this up. These trays hold my 2 inch squares of colorwash fabrics. I have little stacks of 2 inch squares of each fabric and I keep the trays stacked up with a strap  around them so they stay together. They only take up abut 20 inches in width on the shelf. These are five of 8 trays of 2 inch fabric.  I found a taker for these today too. I am a happy quilter!!!!

I also have 5 trays of 1 1/4 inch squares that no one seems to want. These 3 little post card quilts are about 4 x  6; they are made with 35 of the little 1.25 inch squares (finished size is 3/4 inch. I made a bunch and these are the only ones I have left. They are up on the bulletin board in my sewing room. When I cut 2 inch colorwash squares I used to throw away anything less than 2 inches. One of friends used to pick them out of my wastebasket and save them. I thought she was crazy. One day I found myself doing the same thing because what I saw when I looked at them just sparked something. I made quite a few small pieces and experimented with different ideas. They did  present a challenge when sewing them together because the  pieces were so small. However I did have fun with the post card size as it was quick and easy to arrange the squares. I hung on to both of these size squares for a long time  but I have not made any thing with them for  years. Time to move on.

This last photo shows 1 of three sections that I put together at  least 3 or 4 years ago, using my box of 3 and  3 1/5 inch squares. Because it is large I planned to quilt it in 3 sections and then quilt the borders and add them. These 3 sections have been hanging behind the door to my sewing room and I was going to give it up but as I was looking at it I realized that I really like it and it has fabrics that go back to my quilting beginnings. It has tons of florals from my colorwash collection. It probably has fabric from every quilt I made for family members up to that time; for that reason alone I guess it is a "treasure". I think I have to keep finish this one. 

Back to Organizing

Yesterday I spent most of the day getting everything  except my desk and bookcase moved around just to  make it easy (not to mention safe) to work on sorting and purging. I took my sewing machine out of the sewing table and raised the shelf it sits on to make the top flat for another horizontal surface. I raised one of my 2 foot x 4 foot tables to match the height of the other one and moved it so they are at right angles. With the table raised to a new height I can put my little blanket chest underneath and make room under the window to put my little sewing chest and stack things I am finished sorting. Did you catch the word FINISHED. I am making progress.

The large box holds all kinds of blocks from years of demos for classes. They are all bagged up by size etc. I wish I had tackled this box before THE RACE I would have used a lot of them for prizes. The box on the top of it is full of blocks that I actually plan to make into quilts. The other 2 boxes are 1.5 and 2 inch log cabin strips that I sorted last evening while watching  NCIS reruns. On the floor next to the chest  is a stack of empty boxes. Yeah!

This is one  of the big problems in my sewing room.It looks untidy no matter how I try to make it look neat. It also takes up a space I could use  more efficiently. Not sure what it would be because it is one of those things that I never move. Most of that stuff I could do without. The bottom 2 shelves are papers that I put into different notebooks and magazine holders. I could probably get rid of almost everything on the bottom shelf and all but 2 or 3 of the notebooks. I am not going to get into that now however as it will be a "whole 'nother mess" when I do.

This is one little area of my sewing room that is pretty much in order, a little oasis of calm. I really need to have this to look at as I walk by or into my room. 

The snow has arrived and I will be staying in all day so I am planning on another long working session. I do have quilting tomorrow with my church group  so I am hoping the streets have been plowed and are passable by then. If not maybe I will have to stay home.

We'll see. 

More on The Race

I am beginning to regret the way I started going through all my stuff. I am in such a mess right now that I am having a hard time finding anything, including a place to sit. I am now in the process of trying to make some order out of the chaos so I can continue. I have come to the conclusion that what I have does not qualify as a stash. I  have so few pieces of fabric anymore that are large enough to use for something more than scrappy blocks that if I want one cohesive fabric to pull it all together I will have to buy something. Of course, this was my ultimate goal.

Those empty shelves would lead you to believe and am making progress and I guess I am actually getting somewhere.

However......

This is what the rest of my room looks like. I  will not show you the other 3 side of the room as I do not want to end up on TV.

When I mentioned that my intention was to get rid of things Lori, our Jellyroll Race hostess, asked me if I would  put together some prize packages. I cut a lot of  5 inch squares for Notso Packs (not so charming squares) and also not so charming 10 inch squares (Mudpies). I cleaned out a box of leftover and packaged up in zip locks Ninepatch Colorwash blocks. I also put together a bunch of not so great ugly brown pieces. I made up an "Insanity Quilt Kit"  with the little triangles I cut off when I inserted solid bone colored spacers between my Jellyroll Strips. I sewed them together and trimmed the blocks  to 1 1/2 inches. "guess who  is insane). There was more but I have already forgotten what I put in the bag to give as prizes. I guess I will never miss it.

Lori also put together a few  things of hers for prizes and this is what I got as a "Thank You" for all my work, along with that chopped up piece of fabric hanging off the table in the above photo. (I am quite sure that I had added that to one of my prize bags to give away.) I have weeded out the two brown fabrics and put the green with my landscape and housing elements and the rest will be cut into log cabin strips. Who knows where they will end up.



First Place



The Final Finisher



Here are  the first and last place finishers. Lynn was  the recipient of the brown fabrics and I am not sure what fabric prize Fran received but they

both  seem to be more interested in the topiary they receive than the fabric  prizes. 

As I said before a good time was had by all.

Getting back to normal

Here it is Friday and  progress has been made. The tree is down and everything is put away and my Christmas dishes are back in the cabinet and the hand painted china is back on the hutch with no mishaps. For the first time that I can remember Jack helped take the ornaments off the tree. All the Christmas quilts are back in the closet and everything is back to "normal". This all happened on Tuesday and I have been busy since with decluttering.

This is the first time I have gotten things together to actually leave the premises.  Usually when I attempt to declutter I end up reorganizing instead; that never frees up any space. There is still a lot more to do and I find it to be very tiring so it is going slow but I am making progress. I keep repeating that to myself.

This is one of the things I am having a hard time letting go of. It probably has enough for a king size  quilt or 2 twin size. I dated it Feb 2010 and that is the last time it was down off the shelf. Those are 4 1/2 inch squares, 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 rectangles and 6 1/2 by 2 1/2 rectangles. They are scraps I cut over time for 12 inch scrappy quilt blocks from a Donna Poster pattern. I really like scrap quilts and I particularly like this pattern as there are no matching seams within the block. The fact that it an easy pattern and the pieces are all cut, makes it hard to let it go. The box is 13 x 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches deep; that doesn't take up much space and there are some other boxes the same size so  they will stack nicely. I guess I want to keep it but deep down I know it will sit on the shelf till next year. We'll see how it goes.

Today was a beautiful, sunny, 53 degree day, remarkable for January in NE Ohio; I would be happy to have this weather for  the rest of the winter. Jack got out on his motorcycle so he is happy. I would also be happy to look at this every day at sundown. This was on Tuesday and the second photo was 10 or 15  minutes later. It sure is better than gray. I took this without the flash through my window. As usual the photo doesn't come close to the real  thing.

Tomorrow is the Jellyroll Race with the "sewing in the basement" group.  It has been a long time  since we last met and I  am looking forward to it. My sewing machine and supplies are all packed and ready to go. I  better go and pack my camera so I will have some pics to show tomorrow. 

Decluttering

I have started going through my boxes and I  am finding that most of my stash is not much to my liking anymore. Every morning as I have my coffee I read my mail and go through my list of favorite blogs. Many bloggers have posted collages of the  quilts  they have finished this year and as  I  am seeing them I realize why for the  most part I don't like what I have on my shelves. Look here http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2011/12/goodbye-2011.html and here http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/01/02/a-look-back-at-2011/ and here http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/2011/12/year-in-review-and-looking-forward-to.html and here http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/12/2011.html


Baby quilt

 Those posts will give you an idea  of  why I am unhappy with my stash. I am drawn to the light and bright and what I have on my shelves is mostly not light and bright. I do have a lot of bright scraps and I love working with those; that is what I am going to keep for sure; all of the rest is up for consideration as to whether I will keep it or not and I am thinking right now mostly not.

large throw



I am showing some of the quilts I  made this year that feature the type of fabrics I want to work  with.



place mate and pot holder














Braid

 I still like  all of the quilts I have  made over the years but reviewing what I am presently drawn to  confirms my opinion that if you make a quilt with fabric you like you will always like it but if all the wonderful fabrics sit on your shelf long enough pretty soon you will not like them so much anymore. So in view of  that I  am getting  more ruthless in my purging and I am only keeping what I really want to work with now. 

This is not a resolution; it is an immediate goal that I am working toward right now and I am not going to quit  until I am finished and have half of my closet freed up.

In the meantime between decluttering session I will put away the Christmas dishes and Christmas quilts and take down the tree. I am already a day late on the tree. 

A need to declutter

 I have a serious need to declutter and purge. Yesterday was our Friendship meeting and I received 2 more sets of blocks that I requested in my month, October. I asked everyone to trace their hands on their favorite color fabric and fuse them on a 12 1/2 inch background and also to  make their favorite 6 inch block  in any color. I decided I would photograph them all  today. Well, I got the ones I received last night and then looked everywhere for the rest. They are still in the logical safe place where I put them. For some reason logical  only remains so until I have a need  to find something  again and things are never in the most logical places.

I did  find odd blocks almost every place I looked, which is interesting  because I have an "odd block box" where I thought I had all of the leftover, practice, and demo blocks. I  also came across 4 stacks  of blocks that are destined to go in 4 different quilts when I get a few more of each made or I get around to putting them up on my design wall in preparation for sewing them. As I went through everything I put all of the blocks I found in a stack and put them all in a plastic box I emptied last week, so much for the empty box.

This picture shows the top of my sewing room bookcase. Before we  moved to this apartment I had a shelf about 6 feet up that went across the length of the wall; and I bought 8 of  those baskets to hold current projects. I only have these 3 left in my sewing room and they did not contain current projects. There were scraps, bagged up leftovers from different projects, odd blocks, 4 stacks of blocks destined for those 4 quilts and stuff that I was not able to identify for what reason I had them sorted out and bagged up or tied up.  Two of them are now empty and the other one has all the scraps and unidentifiable  parts. In the past 2 weeks I have come to realize that I have  boxes of scraps everywhere supposedly sorted out in a logical way.

For now I am going to put everything in apparent order (only I will  know what a mess it really is). In  January I am going to start going through every shelf, box, drawer etc. and get rid of what I will never use. I am going  to put all the various boxes and bags of scraps all together somehow, and give away or throw out what I don't  want or that I have had an not used for years. I have done this before but always think I need to hang on to something that doesn't see the light of day until the  next "organization". I  am going to set some goals and do my best  to stick to my plan.

I am already showing  some good logical common sense in that I am  not starting this project today.