Moving and Consolidating

Just so you know, this post is wordy and does not contain any quilt pictures. 

There is a reason I have been so absent on the blog lately. I am not sewing that much because I am attempting to consolidate 2 sewing rooms into one. For an admitted fabric hoarder, this has been quite a challenging task.

HISTORY: 

We have lived in this house since September 1992. Emma was 5 weeks old when we moved in. We have a 4-bedroom house, with the 3 kids' bedrooms having had many changes over the last 32 years. The biggest of the kids' bedrooms is roughly 27' x 14', and it is the room I currently use as my sewing room.

That big bedroom was originally Emma's, then Erin's, then Emma's again, before it became mine. Only Adam's room never changed through all those years until he graduated in 2001. 

All through those first 9 years, I did not have a sewing room. I sewed out of a large downstairs closet which was originally going to be a laundry room. 

In 2001 when Adam went to college, I moved out of the sewing closet and into his room for my first proper sewing room. It worked very nicely and I was quite content here. Over the next 10 years, however, I had more "stuff" than the room could contain, and I either needed to downsize my sewing stash, or move to a bigger room. 

In 2012, after Emma had been a year and a half away in college, she initiated the move between her room and the sewing room - switching the two. The biggest of the 3 kids' bedrooms ultimately became the sewing room. In early 2013, I fixed the room to suit my then-current sewing needs, and I am sure I never imagined that I would one day fill it to the brim. Refer to this post for a look at things in those early days (scroll down to the 6th paragraph).

In the fall of 2019, we removed one guest room and moved the long arm machine in. At that point, I had a sewing room AND a long arm room! Without a doubt, quilting had taken over as a major activity. 

This summer - 2024 - I find myself once again making changes to our bedrooms.

CURRENT:

I want to once again have 2 guest rooms. With both daughters having families, and grandbabies bound to be coming for overnight stays, it just seemed senseless to have only one guest room in a 4-bedroom house. I am consolidating the long arm room into the big sewing room. And gosh, this is a huge challenge for me!

A cleaned off cutting table resulted in removing the table, which is going into a garage sale. I have no further need of it and no room, either.

All the stuff lining the walls are the tubs that were previously under the table. It's not exactly visible in the photo above, but under the window is a dresser that has been moved to the wall there by the design wall.

Here is said dresser moved to said side wall, lifted onto risers and set up to be the cutting table. I hope it works okay.

 

And this view shows the space where the dresser was before. I shake my head at the layers of stacked tubs surrounding this room. I have so much that needs to be sorted and purged and down-sized. It overwhelms me.

This picture pretty much shows things as they currently stand. DH and I installed a ceiling fan OURSELVES!! The long arm machine is mostly in place. Once the remaining bars are on the long arm frame, I will get a feel for how much space I'll have to move about. It's hard to judge with all those tubs in the way, so perhaps I will have to stack them out in the hallway before bringing the machine to the frame. Once that machine is on the frame it will be too heavy to move, so getting placement right is super important.

This is the room in which the long arm has resided since 2019. It has served me well, but now this room really needs to be a guest room again, so onward I proceed. Once I've cleared this, DH will paint and steam vac before we set up a queen-size bed and night stand. (I am reserving the option of using closet storage and dresser storage in this room for quilting room overflow.)

A master organizer would have no difficulty with a move this gargantuan, but since I am not of the organizing ilk, the task has been a definite challenge. 

FUTURE:

I still have a lot to do - First, set up the sewing tables for Sharon and me. Second, deal with all those tubs and their contents. Some will be put in the garage sale; some will be trashed; some will be given away. 

Stay tuned for further developments. I simply have to see this through to completion in order to get back to sewing and quilting. The longer this move takes, the more time lost for those more satisfying endeavors.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Stash Use

As we begin a new year, I am reading quite a few blogs whose main topic is stash reduction. I have tried really hard in the last couple of years to do this, and honestly, I feel as though I've been relatively successful in that effort.

Fat quarter purchases from January 2011.

The first year or two after I retired, I had a lot of time available for online fabric shopping. Needless to say, I bought a good bit, usually on sale, but in larger cuts. My justification was that these larger cuts could be put to use as quilt backs.

Now I had spent a good 15-20 years buying fabric, so I already had a large stash. The last thing I needed to be doing was enhancing it! But I did. It became apparent after awhile that I had to reign in the spending and accumulating.

As fabric has gotten quite a bit more expensive in the last couple of years, it was easy to decide that more fabric, even on sale, was counter productive. I needed to do some serious "stash attack" - make quilts using the gorgeous fabrics I've amassed and enjoy both the process and the finished product.

Gracie likes it when I leave the stash drawers open. She likes investigating.

It's been a good bit of fun, I have to admit. I am rather proud that I've made as many quilt tops as I've made, and most of them from the stash. I look forward to actually getting a few more of them quilted. At that point, (I hope) the larger cuts I bought will be used for backing as planned.

All that said, I don't think I am ready to join the ranks of those bloggers who are forbidding themselves from buying any more fabric. Nor will I join those who are keeping score of yards used from the stash as opposed to new yardage added to the stash. Sounds like too much math for me.

Quite a few boxes have arrived here that were full of fabric; not so much lately as there were back in 2009-10.

Since I am not forbidding myself from buying more fabric, I have established a few ground rules that I try to follow. No more wanton buying just for the sake of fabric accumulation. No siree! I have rules!

Rule #1: If at all possible, buy when there are sales.

These were great sales purchases. Theme? Making 60-degree angle table runners.
These, then, follow 2 of my rules - #1 and #2.

Rule #2: Have a definite project in mind if buying more than a fat quarter. No more impulsive purchases!

Rule #3: Take swatches from the stash that need another fabric (or a couple) in order to become a project. I have several pieces that just don't seem to go with any other thing in the stash.



This is a fabric that needs some mates. I don't have anything that looks right with it.
Alas, it was an impulse purchase.

Rule #4: Determine what new lines of fabrics I really, really love. I have an ongoing infatuation with Kaffe Fassett, French General, and 3 Sisters. I used to buy those with wanton disregard for when, where, or how I would use them. Now, I try to be extremely selective when buying from these lines, or any lines, actually.

Rule #5: Limit buying to trips or outing with my quilting girlfriends. If we are planning to go on a shop hop or to a quilt show, then I will cease buying for a few months, and save for buying while on the outing. There are generally some good deals and some new stuff.

Not a lot has been going on in the sewing room the past few days. DH is nearly done with the painting, and is steam-vaccing the carpet. I might actually begin moving some things into the new room tomorrow.

Instead of sewing or quilting, I have been reading! I finished a book last night that I checked out of the library on Wednesday -- The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory. It was a page turner, as every other Gregory book has been. I need to figure out the ones I've read and begin a year of filling in the gaps. She has written A LOT of historical fiction which revolves around the throne of England through the years. I love that kind of stuff.

I understand this is one of 4 books in a series called The Cousins War. I will try to be more careful to read books in the correct order; I fear this is the final book in the series. Ah, well, I will figure it out.

That's all for now, quilters. If you have any ideas on stash reduction, I'd love to hear them!

Happy Quilting, Friends!