Changing and rearranging

I like to be organized, as my regular readers know.  I'm always aiming for the perfect organizational system.  I will make changes that please me, and will feel that I'm finally "there".  Then time passes, my mind goes off in a different direction, and the organization no longer feels "right".  So I make changes and do some rearranging, until things feel "right with the world" again.

And so I've been reorganizing my left side bar AGAIN.  Putting projects in hibernation has never felt quite right.  It made me feel like I was "forbidden" to work on those projects.  I know - I can be very silly at times.  So I put returned the list to its former arrangement, and feel much better about it.

As many of you know, for years I was addicted to buying "kits".  Thus the list of 65 "Golden Hussies" on the sidebar, which really should be longer as I know there are some that never got added.  This list has been bothering me more and more.  I rarely buy "kits" any more - they defeat my goal to reduce the amount of fabric on my shelves.  And I have no place to store them.  Currently there are four large totes full of "kits" upstairs under the longarm, with more piled on top and to the sides of the bins.  I need this space to store yarn and fiber!  So one of the goals I've set for this year is to drastically reduce that number.

The majority of those "quilt kits" include applique.  So I've pulled many of the kits and prepared them so they are ready to be stitched whenever I pick one up.  I've already reduced the list by 23 kits!  Thirteen are currently sitting on the dining room table ready for tracing.  Since we rarely use that table any more - except as a junk mail catcher - I've set up a production station.  I'm thoroughly enjoying tracing and cutting out each pattern while I listen to audio books. 

So far, as soon as I prep half a dozen patterns, I've completed the applique and then the quilt top.  I will finish those currently in the sewing room, and then I plan to switch to quilting and piecing when I'm not preparing applique.  I've spent the last month doing little but applique, and I'm beginning to feel the pull of the machine.  I want to get back to my "shoofly" blocks, as well as my 30's baskets and my Civil War Diary.  I need to make blocks for another 30's swap.  Not to mention binding the five quilts that are currently waiting for their finishing touches.