An Empty Basket

I spent some time tidying this morning. I was looking for a package of stabilizer that I was sure I had in my hand recently. Of course, I am starting to wonder if I just imagined the package. Since I go through a lot of it (bags can take 2 yards if they are large), I will order more, and then it is bound to turn up!

I did manage to do this.

The basket was full of "stuff" which has mostly found homes. I found half finished class samples, from a class I taught a couple of times. I found projects that weren't working, and that I now don't want to finish. I rescued the fabric and tossed the rest. I found the leftover fabric from completed projects, which is now filed away for new projects. 

I also found this.

It is an applique block, in need of the last petal. The fabric needs to be basted and then it needs to have the applique stitch done from the front. It is from an applique class I took some time ago. There are 8 more blocks finished. If I finish the ninth, I could make 3 door hangers or a little 9 block wall hanging. Can I get this done?

This is the front. My points are even pointy! There seems to be three seasons of flowers or leaves. As I recall the instructor had some fancy ideas for how they should go together, but I think I'll just add a bit of sashing. Stay tuned.

Emme is still mourning the loss of the Christmas tree. She is still sleeping on the tree skirt. I ran it through the dryer twice, on air fluff, to try to get the cat hair off it, and I may have to do it again.

She looks like she is daring me to take her tree skirt away.

Creating My Own Space

 We are currently being bombarded with "experts" telling us that if we use their simple method of organizing, and "decluttering" our world will be blissful. I quickly came to believe that I was hopeless, because none of it worked for me. 

A couple of years ago, I saw a TED Talk by Cassandra Aarssen. She had a system, believed her system was the best, and made a business of organizing other people. One day, she failed. Her client couldn't make sense of her method, and Cas discovered that their is more than one style of organizing, and everyone has to embrace what works for them.

Over the last couple of years, I have been working on this. It is slow, because I am inventing something that works for me. My greatest achievment so far has been storage for my fabric. No, it isn't sorted by colour, or anything like that. I wrap my fabric around comic book boards, to make mini bolts, and store them in two rows in an IKEA Drona.

It may not be the way you would store your fabric but it works for me. I have an ides, I pull out my boxes, and pick what I think works for my idea. I can even roughly estimate the yardage of a piece of fabric I have. One yard is about two wraps around the board. 

So, why am I telling you this? Because, over the years, some helpful people have tried to help me get my things organized. Some of it has helped and some of it has made things worse. Today, I was sorting through fabric that someone (not me) had decided should be hung in the closet on hangers. Since the fabric  was piled up, I only saw the outer ones and lost total track of what was there. Today, I took them off the hangers and found some lovely surprises that will be going into the boxes after I have wrapped them around boards.

I also found a quilt top, the backing and the binding, lost under other things on a hanger. 

Really bright and full of cats, how could I have lost it?  It is a stay-at-home round robin. The challenge was to start with a block and continue from there. This was my block.

It is out of it's hiding place now. I have sent a note to the long arm quilter, to ask when she has time to quilt it. With luck, it will be done soon, and brightening the wall of my stairwell.

Brrrrrr! It's Cold!

It is currently -21C outside at my house.  A good day to stay in and stay warm.

This morning, the sun was warming my sewing room so I went in to do some tidying. It is surprising how quickly you can make a difference.

I try to tidy after each project, but sometimes, I don't manage and stuff gets placed on the serger table, so my goal was to find the serger table again.

 

So the table is looking much better. The black fabric on the serger is the scrap catcher for under the cutting blades.

I am thinking that I might make the pink and white bag at the back of the table, a carrier for my grandson's art and remote school supplies. Yes, we are back to remote school, at least for last week, and this week. The carrier looks like a good choice for markers, pencils, glue and scissors. I ordered some gel pens today, because I think we need gel pens.

In case you were wondering, the stuff did get sorted onto the cutting surface, but I cleared it all away, too.

A bit more work is needed on the cutting table, but that is for tomorrow (along with the ironing board.)

I saw a posting for a test knit for a designer whose patterns I enjoy, so I applied. I checked first to see if I had yarn. This is what I came up with.

Isn't the colour perfect for a -21 C day. It is so warm and spring or summery. The colourway is called Midsummer. I was afraid the pattern would show, but it is showing nicely.

Scraps

I again did the Project Quilt Mystery Quilt along at Persimon Dreams . 

I took longer than the time she suggested, but not as long as last year. This year I finished in the first week of January, instead of the second week of February.

Here is my top.

I am currently auditioning the grey border, and I think the answer is yes. It makes it look like the flower is floating in the grey background. The great thing about scrappy projects like this is I used fabrics with bats, spider webs, butterflies and flowers and it all came together.  Now to get it quilted and bound.

I am also taking part in the Just Get It Done Quilts Declutter Challenge. I missed yesterday (because I was otherwise occupied (grandparenting) so I started this morning. I have one corner of my sewing room that has stubbornly resisted my attempts to get it back. I am determined to succeed this time. I spent 15 minutes sorting stuff into garbage, recycling and what are you doing here. I suspect that I will have it cleared up fairly quickly. 

This sticker came in an online order from last week. It is now on my tablet stand in my sewing room, and I can remind myself to just decide on what to do with my stuff, not regret how the mess got there.

This is the order. I took a risk and ordered a mystery box of zipper tape and pulls from Zipper Valley.

 Look at all the gorgeous colours of tape and coils. There is also a large selection of zipper pulls, including a Baby Yoda pull. They still have some of the bright boxes like this one left. I don't think I will need to buy zippers any time soon. However, I feel as though my next project needs to be a zippered bag.