Not much sewing going on

For some reason I went on an organization binge this weekend. I know - many people think I'm already really organized. But gaps in that organization were really starting to bug me. My UFT's (unfinished tops) were scattered her and there throughout the cubbies in my island, and it seemed like I had to pull open every door and check every cubby every time I wanted a particular one. Murphy's law was in operation of course - the one I wanted was always in the very last of all the cubbies. Magazines were stuffed anywhere there was a bit of space - three ring binders likewise. Thread was so far from the machine that I had to get up every time I wanted a new spool. HSY's (haven't started yets) were also scattered throughout. It looked OK, but took forever to find what I wanted.

Saturday morning I tackled reorganizing the cubes with a vengeance. Now all the UFT's are together on the door side of the island, as are the hussies. The drawers are along the bottom so I can pull out a drawer instead of getting down on my hands and knees to peer into the cubbies. All the thread is in one cube stack easily accessible from the machine. All the magazines and notebooks are together (though I still need to label the notebook spines). Drawers containing oddball stuff - like the glue gun, teddy bear joints and other tools, paint and stencil brushes, etc. - are all together beneath the notebooks. I know exactly where in the island everything is stored - what a great feeling!

This carried over into the closet, the shelf above the ironing board where I was wasting a lot of space, and the fabric baskets where the top baskets were threatening to fall over because there was so much stacked in them. I resorted the fabrics the way I use them now - I pulled out all the reproductions and put them together in three baskets. The non-reproductions - mostly all my older fabrics that I'm not using right now - are still sorted by color now I don't have to dig through them when creating a copy of an antique quilt. Large florals are all together now in their own two baskets. Large pieces of Jo Morton fabric are now with the rest for use in her "Little Women" quilts. The baskets are still stuffed, but nothing is in danger of toppling over and burying me. The shelf next to the ironing board is now cleared of all the VCR tapes related to sewing - I put them in the bedroom where our only remaining VCR now lives. This allowed me to move the remaining plastic boxes down - now I can reach all my scrap boxes without a step stool! I carried three more empty plastic boxes upstairs to store under the longarm - I've emptied 11 total now by making scrappy tops! I reorganized my DMC machine embroidery thread and moved it from the floor of the closet to the top of the ironing board shelves.

I think that's about it - I knew it took more than half the day and I felt I'd had a workout by the time I was done. I'm sure the pictures aren't very exciting to most of you, but I posted them anyway in case they help one of you with more organizational ideas.

I finished the day doing actual quilt related things - that was nice! I finished the stitching on my first mid-century album quilt block, and prepped three more for appliqué. I also cut all the background fabric I had into 18" and 10" squares so I can prep several more blocks when I have time. I finished piecing the last couple Heirloom Stitches blocks and started the stitching on the last of the appliqué blocks while watching the first few episodes of the last season of West Wing. I'll save pictures of those until I can show you a finished top (minutes the borders) - hopefully by the end of the week.