Déja vu?

Hmmm . . . it seems like I've been here once before. These pictures seem VERY familiar. I think this is the view of my sewing room just before the redo. Nope - these aren't new Crumb Chaos blocks. These are the same ones - blocks that are almost finished but not quite. And remember my joy at getting through all those 1 1/4" and 1 3/4" strips? Short lived joy indeed. During the redo I discovered I'd grabbed a few handfuls of each and stuck them in one tub to work from, as I didn't have room for two tubs. Here is the glaring reality - still a large drawer of each size strip. At least now I have room to put both drawers next to the machine while I work, along with the basket of partially finished blocks. These won't get done today - in fact need to stop working on these for awhile and get to the two customer quilts that need completing. One for sure needs to be finished today, and the other one sometime this week. I had a sneaking suspicion all along that longarming for others probably wouldn't really be my bag - I have too many of my own things that I want to do. Even though I've never advertised at all, however, the customer quilts wander into the studio at the rate of a couple a month. At least I can use that to justify the machine purchase - to me anyway. Fred doesn't need me to justify it at all - what a sweetheart!

All my fabric is now put away. I've washed and ironed all the pieces from the splurge shopping of the last few months. Shopping I justified by telling myself I was spending my bonus, which was just like a gift. You may have noticed, however, that the fabric diet badge is gone - I just couldn't keep it in good conscience when I'd bought so much. Now the buying must come to a halt however. I have a small amount of room in two places on the shelves - the 19th century reproduction section and the Jo Morton section. That is it! And when I put away the fabric that currently resides in baskets under the island - fabric for my two Eileen Trestain reproduction classes - there will be no room whatsoever left on the shelves. I think this is a good thing. It's going to force me to use up fabric before I can buy more. And at the rate I'm going that will be just this side of forever, since sewing up all my scraps doesn't make a bit more room on my shelves!

Guess I'd better get busy now as I have several goals for today. I want to get a pedicure - it's so hard to bend over these days to cut my toenails and they really need it. I told Fred to leave me the truck as I want to continue the garage clean out, so I guess I'd better have at least a few things tossed by the time he gets home from golf. I have that customer quilt to do, I need to run to the post office, get to B&N to look at the newest Quiltmaker, as it has an article about Jo Morton, and I need to find something for dinner. Two things I can say with confidence - I'll never, ever run out of things to do in my life, and I'm never, ever bored!

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Gratitudes:

1. Continued cooler weather for us - highs in the very high 70's and low 80's

2. A riot of colored blossoms in my front yard

3. Space to move around my sewing room

4. Exactly 200 more working days before retirement!

5. Fat free hot dogs and whole wheat high fiber hot dog buns - it's been so long since I've had a hot dog!