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.