BONUS HSTs

You knoiw what I am referring to...those little bits you trim off your blocks that, if sewn together, would result in an HST.  How small do you save?  I just trimmed off some pieces that would yield a .75" finished (1.25" unfinished) HST.  I guess you could sew an 1/8" seam and get a 1" finish.  Anyone use/save these tiny treasures?

I used to throw these all in the trash but I think I will try sewing up various sizes to see what is the smallest I would go for saving and sewing.  I will report back.

Design Wall Monday 6/24/2013

Do you recognize these fabrics?  These are blocks I made for a love quilt using the rectanbgles I showed previously.  I made two from Mom's stash and signed her name to them.  They are all on their way to be included in the top.

Next up is my Feedsack Patches top,  I made the inner border and have pinned the first one on to be sewn.  I broke the needle threader on my Janoime so wasted time with threading the machine.  Grr!!

I spent more time tweaking things in the sewing room.  Putting things away mainly.  At this rate I shoiuld be done by NEVER!  Ah well.  Progress is progress,  Trying to squelch the startitis and feed the finishitis!!

See more design walls at Judy's.

Quilty hugs.

Tweaking My Sewing Space

Power was out again for about an hour last night while the boyfriend continued with some wiring projects.  I made good use of the time.  I grabbed my son and had him help me put things away in the sewing room or remove items that I did not want in there.  I have freed up some good floor space and now need to figure out what is next.  Trust me there is plenty of "opportunity" in there.

Regardless of the state the sewing room is in after tonight, I will take pics to show you tomorrow.  Pillowcases are done and delivered.  Onto quilty things!

Quilty hugs.

Altering Pillowcases

WHAT?!?!???

Yes.  You read correctly.  I am altering pillowcases.  You see, I have this nice neighbor that likes to help.  She came down and helped me fold all that stash that you saw in my cabinets a few posts back.  She asked me if I would shorten her king cases to standard.  I said go get those cases and bring one the size that you want. 

POOF!!  She was gone and back with 4 cases.  3 to alter and one to use as my pattern.  I thought having a sample eliminated any communication issues.  Well boyfriend decided he needed to turn some of the power off to the house but he turned off most of the power to the house in the middle of our sewing session.  Note: dinner was on the stove as well.  Power stayed on for the stove but not the sewing machine.  He planned that didn't he?

Power back on.  Dinner eaten.  Three cases sewn for the first seam to shorten.  One sewn to French seam it.  One case delivered so the neighbor could test drive it on her pillow.  All is good.  Two more French seams to go.

Anyone see the irony in all this?  Let's add that I am ironing these cases to make sure the seam is nice and neat.  Hey, I sewed didn't I?  And no one wanted to see pictures of store bought  pillowcases did they?

Quilty hugs!

Scouts Honor

See what happens when you open one too many boxes?  I was a girl scout a "few" years ago.  I even have the belt that goes with this.  I promised no more decluttering posts until I posted a sewy post.  Here it is!  Keep reading.

I vowed to sew last night.  After running one little errand willingly and another one unwillingly I got busy cutting.  I had lots of interruptions but persevered and accomplished the following.  I realized this a.m. that I had miscut some of the background pieces not shown here.  Luckily they are too big so can be cut down.  Maybne tonight I will actually use the machine!  Come back to see what I am making.

This activity last night was a good test run for me.  I need to put more things away and probably remove a few things to a better home.  It's feeling a little crowded in there.  Taking a break from decluttering was a good thing since it shows me what I need to work on.

Boxes and boxes and life lessons

I continued to open boxes and sort and put away and toss all weekend.  My version of taking a break was to work in my bedroom and go through my clothing to get rid of things I no longer wear or is damaged in some way, etc.  Not exactly the break I needed but it was different from opening boxes.  My boyfriend took me out for a ride on the motorcycle for a little while yesterday.  Of course all I could think about while we rode were those cursed boxes! 

I have decided to move everything into my garage that is probably going into the attic or out the door or needs a bigger sort once combined with it's like content boxes that are already in the garage.  There are two columns of boxes at least 5 feet tall waiting for my son to put out there.

Here is a bit of a history,,,,,

When I lost my husband I wasn't really forced to deal with all the stuff.  I pushed myself and donated a lot of things.  No where near enough but a good amount.  When the fire happened everything was taken out of the house and cleaned by someone else.  When it came time to bring it all back I was really forced to deal with things.  I did NOT want to cram it all back into the house.  I had a garage full and two storage units full that I could work in and bring back into the house only what I truly wanted.  I set a one month goal to get the smaller storage unit cleaned out.  I met that goal but also moved some of the items to the garage or the big storage unit.

I worked on the garage and got rid of a lot of big items.  I ultimately made enough room to empty the big storage unit onto my driveway.  That was another major sort that resulted in lots of items given away and a good amount put into the garage.  At that time a big stack of boxes were brought into the house for me to work on.  After this sort there was a months long break from working on this stuff.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  My boyfriend has moved in which resulted in me needing to make room for him.  He is squeezed in right now.  I asked him to just let me know if there is a certain area he wants me to work on and I will tackle it right away.  He's only asked for two areas and both were addressed.  He knew that I was going to grab boxes that I thought belonged in my sewing room and concentrate on those because it accounted for the majority of items that needed to be put away.  I made huge progress and even had the help of a neighbor to fold all the fabric.  I am being careful not to overstuff that room and know that I am reaching the end of the available space.

This whole process has been very frustrating and I ultimately agreed to put a large number of things from the garage into the attic so that I would have room to move around and I could continue to sort.  This resulted in over 2/3rds of the garage being emptied.  Now I find myself putting things back into the garage and feeling like this is a small step backwards.  I realize it isn't but can't help feel that way.

So there is a life lesson in here?  Are you ready? 

When my Mother passed away I took some clothing of hers, her jewelry and her sewing stash and patterns.  I was able to bring home the things I cared about the most in 2 13 gallon bags and a paper grocery sack.  There are two sewing machines that I will retrieve at a later date but that really isn't that much.  She has lots of nice, pretty things but when I was told by my father to get what I wanted because he was getting rid of everything that is what I took. 

This led me to talk to my kids about what is important to them in my belongings.  Apparently not much so my editing eye has really been opened and changed on what is important.  I let the kids know that just because it wasn't important to them didn't mean I was getting rid of it.  My daughter is ready to haul ALL of it away. 

Before Mom had passed I had already been through the contents  of many of my boxes and had chosen what was important to me.  Now I am going through these boxes again and some of the things I thought were important have lost their meaning to me.  I like many of these items but I just have so many.  I am really ready to let go of a lot more.  It has gotten easier to make these decisions.  I think that is the progress I should mark and be most proud of.

So this week I will still be sorting and culling and putting away but I am going to feel more relaxed about it.  I AM going to sew a little too.  Because that is important to me too.  No more talk of boxes unless I have quilty pics to share.  I promise!!

Quilty hugs!

Out of Balance

When I do something I usually focus on that one thing to the exclusion of everything else.  Right now I am sorting out my craft treasures, decluttering and organizing.  This is really a sub piece of the overall task of cleaning out the garage of all the boxes.  I eat, drink, sleep and dream opening boxes.  I have been at this task for going on 2 weeks now (on the most recent iteration) and quite frankly I am feeling burned out.  I am quite cranky too.

Last night I decided to take a little break and drove over to meet the group that sits and knits/crochets at the REC center.  When I got there they were not in their usual place.  I asked if they were still meeting and was told it was next week.  I left frustrated because this was to be some fun time for me.  I went back home and pouted for a minute, had a wine cooler on the patio, went to visit the neighbor for a short time and then returned home to cook and then work on organizing my bathroom and bedroom area.  While eating something came up that took up quite a bit of time and caused a lot of unhappiness.  By this time I was so frustrated I just went to bed and did nothing else.

I know part of my problem is that I get pretty inflexible when I set my mind to a task.  If I have something planned I want to follow that plan to it's completion.  I don't usually allow for anything else when I get in this mode.  I am sure a few of you that know me personally might be surprised but then again maybe not.  I don't show this side too often.

So what is the answer?  I think it is that I need to allow for interruptions because they always happen.  I need to schedule in some fun time through the process but not get upset if it doesn't happen.  Honestly when I get on a roll I am quite happy to stick with a not so fun task as long as I am accomplishing a lot.

You will probably find me hard at work on that garage this weekend with no real change to my original plan.  I will try to take my breaks sitting in my chair in my sewing room.  Maybe something will catch my interest enough to make me forget all these boxes and want to sew instead of declutter.  Who knows.  I just want to be done.  Should I post some before pictures to keep me motivated on the decluttering?  You know that will just make me more determined and set in finishing that task and not doing anything else.

Am I a strange duck or are you like this too?

State of my Stash

When you walk into my sewing room this is what you see.  Most of my stash has been folded and placed neatly on shelves.  I have containers here and there with FQs in them, a few odd pieces here and there and then my mother's stash.  I want to keep hers separate so have to decide how that will be accomplished.

What an eye opening experience this has been.  There is a shelf on the far right at the bottom that is fully visible in this picture.  There is also some fabric sitting on my chair.  I am not sure if you can see it but this represents all my self made kits.  I know that I probavly would not make all that in a year.  Let's assume that I could though.  I have 7 more shelves full of fabric that is GREATER than my kit shelf plus all the FQs stacked in the center.  I'm going to not sweat it and just use what I use and give what I give.  I know that I have NO desire to acquire more.

I will be sorting through all my quilting paraphenalia and storing that in the coming days.  My hope is to know where everything is and sew like crazy.  There is plenty more from other hobbies that something has to be done about.  At this point I am going to store what I can in my sewing room without junking it up.  I will be creating a staging area where I can get easy access to the rest.  We'll see how that plan works out.

I hope to be sharing some of my work with you very soon.  Trying to get the rest of the house back into some semblence of order.  Organizaing and decluttering sure is messy work!

Quilty hugs.

Another Project

I received two "sleeves" last year as a gift.  There were instructions on what to do with them.  I immediately recognized them as "hot dog" pillowcases.  I've been grabbing things randomly and sewing them.  I need to stop starting and start finishing.

Here is the reveal after step 1.  Aren't they pretty?  After a good pressing I will French seam them.  A quick, fun project.

Quilty hugs.

Swooze

Stash Report and a Sewing Machine

I haven't added anything since I inherited my mothers stash.  I've sewn some this week so progress on using it up.  2 months or so ago I bought a 1/2 yd cut of a sale fabric just because.  I look at that piece of fabric and do not feel happiness over possessing it.  It will serve as a reminder to me to buy by need only because I have plenty that I already love.

The machine you see above was bought for me by my DD.  I didn't know her plan.  She bought it because it was pretty.  She spent $50 on it.  There is no bobbin, bobbin cover, spool pin or foot pedal.  I'm working with her to contact the seller to see if they have any if these pieces.  If DD doesn't care if I use it or not I will just shine it up and put it on display for now.

Quilty hugs.

Swooze