Summer Mode

Grades have been submitted which allows me to officially enter Summer Mode. This means I am making lists for house work, yard work, home improvement projects, continued purging and organizing, as well as my normal sewing, quilting and blogging. I love to check items off a list. What satisfaction comes from making those checkmarks!

Since this blog is mostly about sewing and quilting, I will try not to bring you many of my projects from around the house. However, I will share one because I do feel pretty darn proud of a recent afternoon's efforts at tidying up my kitchen counter.

Being a clutter bug is a label I am all to comfortable wearing. Always have been. In an effort to clear out excess, I am working in small spaces and small increments. The photo below is a collage of before and after.

The upper half shows the much-used corner of the counter beside the stove; kept there are the many items I use regularly for meal-prepping. But, good grief! It was always so messy-looking. The lower half of the collage shows my newly cleaned space. Doesn't it look great? Actually, since taking the picture, I have added one thing in the corner - a small lamp to provide some under-cabinet lighting. Most of what had been sitting out is now in the cabinets above (or below, as in the case of the toaster), and I purged some silverware and duplicate salt/pepper shakers.

When I told my sister about this little victory she referred to it as "life altering." Yes, it is. It motivates me to keep it looking like this as well as to look for the next space I can do similar purging, cleaning, organizing. It's as if doing just this one little space has activated something in me; it feels so satisfying to do one little thing, so why not do one more little thing? Soon, a whole bunch of "little things" will add up to some really cool and amazing BIG THINGS!

So, in other non-sewing/quilting news, I have some audio books to share. This is my new favorite way to read. It allows me to sew while listening, and when I was driving to/from class, I would listen in the car, too. My current read (listen?) is for our book club later this month.

I read Cold Mountain when it first came out, so I am familiar with Frazier's writing. I anticipate this being quite an enjoyable read. So far, it is not disappointing!

In the past month or two, here are some others I've listened to.

My mom had recommended this author a while ago; then, I think my sister did, too, so I requested it. Gosh, what a great story! I am looking forward to reading the entire series!

The three titles listed here are from early last month, according to the dates. I had sorta' lost track. Anyway, Louise Penny is an author that every one in the book club just raves and raves about, but I hadn't gotten on board. After hearing them discuss this or that title meeting after meeting, I decided I needed to get with the program. This is #2 in a very long series about Inspector Gamache. Enjoyable.

The Geraldine Brooks novel was one I eagerly anticipated reading, as I totally enjoyed March, The People of the Book, Year of Wonders, and Caleb's Crossing. The Secret Chord, however, was not as wonderful by a long shot as the earlier ones. It was quite graphically violent, and confusing as far as names were concerned. I don't know what prompted Brooks to be so graphic in her details, but this reader just doesn't care for it. I know the times were different, and there were wars, but still. The most graphic description was a rape, and it was brutal. This was our book club selection for last month, and most of us shared our general dislike of it. Definitely not up to her previous efforts.

The Lee Child book was an easy, fast-paced thriller. Again, my sister had been after me to read the Jack Reacher series, and I finally started. After reading such a gut-wrenching book as The Secret Chord, Killing Floor was perfectly escape-style fiction. Yes, there is violence in books like this, but it is so obviously far-fetched fiction; somehow there's a difference.

Summer Mode, for today, involves some more cleaning/purging; a little bit of gardening; and some spring/summer decorating. Perhaps, I will begin cutting out some t-shirt quilts, also.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Proof

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I spent all morning clearing out my clothes closet. In the interest of providing proof of my hard work, take a look at this! Two huge garbage bags full of clothes that will be taken to the local Christian Center. I am motivated to more purging, so I hope April can be a big-time purging month. That will be so awesome.

I have to whine a bit. I have used a program called PicMonkey for about three years to edit my pictures for this blog. It is time-consuming, but I read that it's necessary, so I do it. Well, PicMonkey has recently made some changes and updates to their website, meaning I have to learn new stuff.

WAAA!! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!

Okay, I feel better. I should have cropped the photo above, and I did not attach my watermark, so rather than learn the changes made to PicMonkey, I just used the plain old picture. Maybe this weekend I will take some time to figure out the updates.

And here's some more proof - of the coming of Spring! Feast your eyes on these bright spots of spring color to brighten your day.

Short and sweet here folks. I will try to be back tomorrow with more quilt-related material.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Welcome April!

The most magical month of the year has arrived! April! All manner of wonders appear in April - red bud trees, peonies, lilacs, magnolias - I love everything about the blooming of spring in Ohio! And a big portion of it occurs in April.

One quarter of 2019 is in the rearview mirror, though, and as I look back at what I have accomplished, I have to take some satisfaction in things. My biggest priority has been to purge and organize. With that in mind, I went through my entire clothing closet this morning and purged a massive pile of clothes. A closet that had way too many things folded in heaps on the floor, hangers askew, and general disorder is now completely pared down and hanging neatly on hangers sorted with like things together. I love it. And I have a very healthy pile of clothes to send off to the local Christian Center.

As far as sewing and quilting goes, I need to get focused on something specific. I have no direction at the moment, and I fear I am wasting time "piddling" when I could be much more productive. I will firm up some plans and report soon.

Hope your Monday and your new month is off to a bang-up start!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Clean-ish Space

When the year began, one of my main goals was to clean, purge and organize in my sewing room. That's a big order, for I am known to work amongst the clutter and piles and messes. Tidiness is not my forte, in other words.

The picture above is a typical look. This hinders productivity, doggone it. I know this, and since the key part of that is "productivity," the need for some serious clutter-busting has been necessary.

The best cure for a messy space is to have company, and last month Sharon came for a day of sewing. She told me beforehand what she wanted to work on, and I knew she needed table space. So take a look at this!

That clean table was the result of a lot of hard work, and already I have it somewhat cluttered up again. (But not so bad that a few focused minutes couldn't take care of the existing stuff.) A table as clean as the one above simply screams of project creating! A mental weight is lifted when a space is tidy and organized. I would do well to remember this.

The space does show areas that still need to be addressed; I have marked them with arrows. The first arrow points to a stack of empty tubs, baskets and boxes that have been freed up in recent weeks. I need to find a place to store these for future use.

Number 2 arrow is the top of a dresser where many pre-cuts are stacked up. I need to put these in a drawer of the dresser, or use one of those empty tubs. Whichever route I go, the space needs tidying and it would be an easy, fast fix.

Number 3 arrow will be an involved endeavor - a pile of scraps that should be sorted, pressed and cut to a useable size. Of course, 2.5-inch strips or squares is the preferred size, and that will always be my go-to for dealing with scraps. But oh lord, how time-consuming it will be!

Seeing these pics with the clean table make me realize I have never shared the Chock Full O' Charms quilt that Sharon finished when we were last together; perhaps that will be coming up this week. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Purge and Organize

In the last post I alluded to the purging going on in my sewing room. In the course of this clear-out, I am rediscovering things that had been buried and forgotten for awhile - years, in some cases! You will have to plow through rather a lot of material before I get to the treasures, so please be patient. *grin*

Because I did not take any before pictures of the mess I am currently working on, I scrolled back through all the photos on my phone to see if I had any old ones that would work. The two I found are from 2-3 years ago, evidence that I have done very little in the way of chaos control in ages. Don't judge!! I have always been able to work amongst the chaos; my desk at CHS was always in a heap. Here is a mantra I grabbed from Instagram - @trudi_wood - 

I know, though, that the excessiveness of all this has inhibited my productivity, and with that in mind, I decided that my focus for 2019 is going to be...drumroll, please....PURGE AND ORGANIZE!!

And, then almost as if preordained, I saw this on Instagram via @sweettreasuresquilts (who credits it to Better Homes and Gardens/January issue) and had to snatch it as well!

The idea of straightening up this room is totally a daunting one if I think of it in terms of the whole. It absolutely has gotten out of control. I am in a purging frame of mind, so I must strike while the iron's hot!

I am focusing on just one part at a time so the task won't be so darned intimidating. Therefore, this past week the bit I've dealt with is the area behind my sewing desk. The two pics at the top are of this exact space. On the desk are piles of paper, notes, lists, mementos, and all manner of whatnot that has been moved around and stacked for years. In the boxes stacked against the wall, I have all my grandmother's sewing things, and gobs of crap piled in front - mending, unfinished projects, school stuff, bigger mementos - honestly, my sewing room becomes a dumping ground, and I just climb over the piles to get to my machine. Shameful.

It occurred to me that I ought to be able to pare down Grandma's stuff into tubs that would be less messy looking. I went through every one of Grandma's boxes and combined items, pulled items that will go into a donation or yard sale pile, and, yes, threw out some, too. One entire box - and a large one at that - was full of white and muslin scraps. I will never use those! I sorted through, pulling out any bit that appeared to be sizeable yardage, and discarded the rest.

While sorting her things, I came across two boxes with projects she never finished. One is so far along that I am going to finish it this week.

These pleasing patriotic fabrics were stacked ever-so-neatly (Grandma was a neat-freak, a quality I sadly did not inherit). Do you see some blocks that are constructed? There are 9 finished blocks and 4 finished sub-unit blocks.

Nine of these. Hand-pieced, of course.

Four of these.

Because she had all her fabrics stored together, I know exactly what to use as sashing strips for these blocks, and a finish should be fast and easy.

This post has morphed from purging and organizing into finishing one of Grandma's UFOs. If you have any experience at all with organizing things, I suspect you know how projects present themselves.

I will finish straightening up this area this week, and post an 'after' picture to share here. I have a sewing day planned at Terry's on Wednesday and will work on Grandma's project. I will have pics to share of that, as well.

Hope you have a productive week! I begin my spring semester tomorrow; I must update my syllabus next. Busy, busy!  Have a great Monday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!