Things are calmer today - sort of

We've all had those days - when NOTHING goes right. And we complain about it to everyone. 

What about the days when things go RIGHT? You never seem to hear much about those days. Yesterday was one of those days. I desperately wanted to get some IKEA bags but I had to leave work early to get my winter tires on the car (don't hassle me - they're on!) and so I wasn't going to have extra time to stop by IKEA. But I overheard my colleague mention that she was going to IKEA at lunch. Perfect. So I asked her to pick me up some of those big blue bags.  

Moments later I noticed a comment on my blog and Heidi suggested the IKEA bags with the zippers. A quick text to my colleague and she was picking up both kinds of bags. You know how it is - when you don't know the full depth of the problem - buy lots! I got 6 bags with the zippers and 10 without. OK - so I panicked a bit?

I had to leave before she came back to the office, but another of my colleagues lives not too far from me so I was able to pick them up from her last night. Now that was good timing all around. 

After I got home last night from the tire thing where I sat in the showroom and worked for a couple of hours - love that they have access to the internet for the customers. Anyway, when I got home, it was time to tackle the studio.  

It was almost overwhelming as there is/was stuff everywhere. Not only has it been the remnants of the entire year, but some stuff from before and a few things that didn't get put away in the last couple of mad weeks. 

I decided to start with the long arm. You remember the mess from yesterday's photo?

What is all this???  It's the scraps that people gave me that were to be used for dog beds. How the heck so much accumulated, I've no idea. But there is a LOT. I decided that this junky mess didn't need to be here anymore.  I used some of those IKEA bags and TEMPORARILY placed the stuff in the cold room under the front step. Yes - I felt guilty the entire time because when will I get back to it?  Part of the planning that I talk about at the end involves this. Use my calendar - use my phone - use whatever to schedule the time to make some of this stuff happen. 

Here is what it looks like morning. 

A much cleaner and more professional looking space (and a tad cleaner as well).  In addition to scraps, people donated sheets and pillowcases to use to make the beds. Not happening. I separated several large bags of that kind of stuff. I did two huge loads of laundry and I'm busy folding sheets and pillowcases. They will be given to the animal shelter as it. My dogs love to lie about on anything - even thin sheets so these will do if folded several times for the bottom of a kennel. 

I may or may not get time to do finish the laundry today, but PHEW - several large bags are ready to go!

Oh by the way - I took today off work and I'm LOVING that!! Maybe I should think of a four day week or a no-day week! 

Then I turned to some of the other areas and this is actually good timing because it's getting to the end of the year and I need to set some goals for next year. 

I started by filling a bag with quilts that I've made because of work, but that I don't really need. Some were for a demo, some were just because I designed the pattern and wanted to have the satisfaction of making the quilt. I hope I get over that real soon! Ended up filling TWO IKEA bags of that kind of project. Some don't have labels, but I'll go back and put in that tiny label of mine or since I designed these ones I might put a small label on the back. I see a sale coming on! No time to get them ready for a craft sale, although the timing is good. I think I'll see about loading them on the internet and selling that way. 

The middle bag is filled with quilts that just need the binding sewn on. The one on the right is full of completely finished quilts except for maybe a sleeve (if necessary) and a label. The one on the right is full of almost completed quilts as well and the blue bag on the extreme left - also finished quilts. This doesn't count my own personal collection which is all over the house.

Here would be an excellent goal for 2018. DEAL WITH THESE FOUR BAGS OF QUILTS. Finish the bindings - how hard is that? I'm doing them by machine. Label the other bag and load them into an online store. Quilt the other bag - most of them are small - would take an hour or so each. Seriously?   I need to get myself together here!

This is a mishmash of stuff under this table. I'm not ALLOWED to make everything disappear. It's supposed to look like a quilter actually works here. The tub on the right is filled with quilts that need to have the backing made or the border added or perhaps the binding made. Again - one or two days and that would be done!  There are two more tubs to the left of the picture - same scenario! The blue bag on the floor - well that's stuff with Northcott fabric that I want to make into quilts!  Dreamer!!!  Nothing but a dreamer!  But none of them are complicated and would be fun to make.  Leave me alone! 

The blue bag on the table is the stuff that I can find that I need/want to finish by the end of the year. I guess having it in a blue bag with The Task Master at my side - I won't forget and there's no need to have them all laid out on the tables.  That was getting crazy as I had no room to lay out a border. 

Next up - those damn books and magazines. There are piles on the floor. They are much neater now, but seriously, unless I do a major downsize, I need a new bookcase. And we're not going to go piecemeal here. I want another nice one like the original one I have. Cost - about $1500.  Just lay out the cash and STOP buying fabric!

Overflow books and magazines

 And then there is the table area. You can see that I've made inroads into getting that cleaned off. You can actually see the table top.  Now isn't that exciting???

Yes - there are tables under all that mess.

My plan is to carefully sort those projects and blue bag them - I still have about 8 bags left - hey - I'm a long way from being done!  Those blue bags are going to go UNDERNEATH the project tables. 

But here's the problem. How the heck will I ever deal with all this mess? I can't give it away because I refuse to compound someone else's situation. I do have one or two new sewers who will take some stuff, but I don't want to overload them. And because I paid good money for all this, I'm being very selective in what happens to it all. 

One thing has come out of all this. I need to STOP STOP STOP over-scheduling myself. I need to schedule days for ME. Days where I can actually tidy up the house, get rid of stuff that we don't need, pay bills or do paperwork. And then I need to schedule days to do the magazine work, days to do the blog posts and days to just have FUN!  And all while I'm trying to work the day shift!  

I'm not used to having that kind of a schedule, but I think I need it. I can be flexible, but over scheduling has caused me loads of grief in the past. I will build flexibility into it - I have to.  But there will have to be Sunday morning bike rides, there has to be time at the park for the girls and a whole lot more!  

The next couple of weeks are going to be very interesting as I try to implement all this because if I don't, I'm going to die with a whole lot of nothing done!  Or a whole lot of STUFF left over!

I need to stop shopping as well.  Thankfully Ruti's is closing at the end of the year. No more temptation!  I will have to plan very carefully any trips to quilt stores and perhaps I'll only go on my bike so I can't buy much! That's a 70 KM round trip so it won't happen every day!

And now - I MUST MUST MUST finish off that draw.  I have to do it manually in EXCEL with a random number generator and I have to tweak the lines of data before I do that.  I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN TODAY and I apologize to those that left comments for my tardiness in making this happen. 

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!

And don't forget to come back tomorrow when all is revealed!

I'm so serious about this mess, I didn't even go to Tim's this morning. I made tea at home. What has happened?