Sunday Turned Into Monday

I don't know how it happens. I wake up on Sunday morning with all of the good intentions- exercise, meditate, market, cook, Sunday things, write on blog, etc... The next thing I know -the sun rises again and it's Monday!

So here is the real deal. I spent the whole week cleaning my studio. For some strange reason (unknown to myself), I just work and put things in a pile that I plan to come back to at a later time. One day I look around and I have umpteen piles that I don't want to get rid of nor do I want to take the time to sort through them. I made a promise to myself that I am not going to do that anymore. Not sure how that promise is going to work but I think I have a plan along with the fantastic organizing system my daughter has put in place. 

When we first started this organizing project, I proudly proclaimed to my daughter that I did not need a lot of space for yardage. "I don't keep much yardage," I boasted. I guess quilters (aka fabric hoarders) don't realize how much fabric they actually have. I obviously had no idea. We started folding it and putting it on the shelf. The shelf started filling up but I could see that I had a lot of room for growth. Almost as if the Universe were listening, a friend gave me three large bags of yardage. Our next door neighbor cleaned out her mother's things and I inherited another boost to my yardage shelf. Then Cousin Leola, who had been a seamstress all her life, was moved to a nursing home and more sewing goodies poured in. I started finding fabric that I forgot I had stuffed into some totes in my rough past attempts at organizing. I found that out of sight meant out of mind. The more totes, bins and boxes that we opened, the more I realized that my sense of how much fabric I really had was totally off.

The button display turned out to be more a work of art than a storage system. I never turn down buttons. We always salvaged buttons from old clothes before discarding them. So I had a wonderful collection of old buttons that my oldest daughter spend her childhood enjoying. Buttons are the one thing that I inherit the most when people are cleaning out their mother's belongings. I love collecting those buttons.

When did I buy all these beads? When I first started making quilts, all one needed was fabric and thread. Then quilting warped into the arena of fine art and embellishments became the rule of the day. I kept the beads in a container, then I added another container and a box. They became another thing that was out of sight/out of mind. This beautiful display makes adding embellishments playful.

My favorite organized spot is the thread shelf. It makes my work so easy. I used to dread changing the thread because I kept the thread in another room. I would have to stop what I was doing if a change was required. So I compensated by doing as many things with one color thread before I changed. I would have several different projects going at one time because they all used the same color thread. Now all I have to do is stand up from my sewing chair, grab the next color and keep it moving.

This wonderful organization did not happen over one week but a big push this week make it just beautiful. And all in all, I finished the Crown Royal art quilt. I named it "Friday Night." And the owner of both the art quilt and the bed quilt was super super happy. 

Finished

Last Sunday was garbled up in the holiday. I thought I would come back on Monday and write but it slipped away as well. I finished three things that I had been working on. So happy to say that the Crown Royal bed quilt is finished. I can't wait to see what the owner thinks about it. 

I originally thought I could get away with leaving the crowns off the back of the bag. That didn't work. My niece looked at it and said, "what happened to the crowns on the bags?" I told her I was trying to leave them off. She said, "well maybe you can make some kind of design with them. Like just putting a few to a make a design like a diamond shape." I am sure that was her kind and silent way of saying, "are you crazy. That looks a hot mess." LOL. Making a design with the crowns proved to be more work than to just add the crowns to each bag. If I had known I was going to add the crowns, I surely would have done it before I started sewing all of that together. She was right. It was not the same without them.

I also finished a couple of other quilts. It would seem that since I finished those two plus the crown royal quilt that I would be down to two open projects left. That is not how it goes. My brain starts ticking away at the next quilt before I can finish the one I am working on. So I am back up to five on-going projects. Whoopi!

My workshop at The National African American Quilt Conference is Scrap Easy. I've been working on a smaller version of the quilt for the workshop. It turned out the same as the big one.

The time went by so fast when I was working on it that I was able to do two of them. I am going to try and get the technique and time down so that we can have some finished products when the class is over. It is going to be a fun filled class. Check out the website for more info on the conference at http://www.naaqc.org/

I still did not finish the Crown Royal art quilt yet but I am in the home stretch. I am putting the binding on. I'll show you next week.