It's good to be back home...............

 I have a Spotify playlist, and we often listen to that at the retreats. It's over 10 hours long and has a variety of songs on it, including a bunch of John Denver. OK -- so I was "in love" with him when I was much younger, and I still like his music, and well -- it just seemed appropriate to call the title of today's post after one of his songs. 

I do not understand the algorithms used by Spotify to shuffle through those 10 hours of songs, but it seemed that John was often serenading us. Let's just say that I don't think the playlist does a complete shuffle before it repeats songs. Not a big deal -- I keep it in the background as white noise -- I don't think it really registers with me. 

I did get a bit more sewing done in the morning and was going to leave in the early afternoon, but then I had to turn my car around in the snow-covered parking area, which was a challenge. I have ZERO clearance on that car and had to do a bit of shoveling. We had an early lunch, and we were out of there by noon. We made good time to get home -- I have to say that I love the place because of its location -- it's only 1 hour and 15 minutes away. And the house is charming as well. I think it's my favorite retreat house! 

So if you want to go, check it out - Retreat at the Farm, but she is booking up FAST, so if you're thinking about it -- book now!

Let's say that two excited girls were waiting when I got home. WAIT -- that's a total lie. ONE girl was excited, the other was "Oh -- you're home! Why did you leave us? Let me outside - Dad not's here, and I need to be in the backyard!" Murphy, on the other hand, wanted to get in the car. That's all she wanted, and it took a lot of coaxing to get her back in the house. 

I quickly put everything away, or at least in the room where it needed to go. Food back in the fridge, clothes upstairs, and all that. Then I tackled the stuff that got returned to Studio B. Wow -- I was having so much fun that I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up. 

Let's see what happened. 

I found strips of binding in pink flannel for the pink scrap (flannel) quilt that I made at the retreat. You'll see that later this week. Then I recounted the other scrappy blocks that I made and made up three kits. The two pink ones consisted of 42 squares (scrappy!) and a note in each about the configuration of the quilt. I found a piece of fabric in my stash that could be used for the binding, and those kits got put in the storage room, waiting for someone to say -- "Hey, I need something to sew!"  I did the same thing with the purple blocks I made and found purple strips that I had cut for the binding. So three kits are waiting to go. 

So that's the good news in all this. The bad news is this. Here are the remainder of the flannel scraps, and they are all sorted by color: blue/red/green/brown/yellow and black/white. 

More flannel scraps

And I have a bucket with oddball colors. 

Odd colored scraps

I was fired up, so I grabbed the SMALL bucket of yellow scraps and decided to make headway on it. I cut everything so it will be ready for the next retreat or the next sewing session when I want something relatively mindless to sew. 

Dealing with the yellow flannel scraps

And it's all packed up in one bag. I bet there are enough scraps in there to make one small quilt top. And the other containers? Well, we won't go there. Let's say there are a lot of scraps still to deal with. 

Another scrappy quilt ready to assemble

Remember that those scraps have accumulated over many years, so it sure feels good to deal with them. And while it's time-consuming, it's also rewarding to know that it's not going to waste. 

You know that I could technically get rid of all or most of my yardage and sew on scraps for the rest of my sewing life, and I don't think I'd be upset! I'll keep that in mind when I need to downsize. 

All the retreat bags got unpacked and dealt with, and I was still fired up to do more work, so I tacked the mess on the floor from Pandora's closet. 

Stuff to deal with Pandora's closet

And I found another bag of flannel scraps leftovers from some flannel quilts I made years ago. Most of them were blue, and they are now sitting in the blue flannel scrap box. Thankfully the bag wasn't too large. Yeah!!!! 

A bag of flannel scraps

I have to say that opening that closet was scary, but it was good. I knew it needed to be cleaned, but I had no idea that I could actually do it, and while nothing that I'm uncovering is new -- I had forgotten some of the stuff. 

I found a bag filled with these fabrics. This time, there was a pattern in the bag, and I really loved the pattern and still like these fabrics. However, when I grabbed a container to put them in, they wouldn't fit properly, and too many to fit in the box. 

A grouping of black fabrics with bright colors

So while listening to a good audiobook, I cut the black. I needed two 6" squares of each print, and I was short, so I went into my stash and found exactly what I needed. There's a bit more cutting to do, but I put everything in the project box and will deal with it when I start to sew on it. For now, the bag is gone - well, I put all the flannel kits in it. The box is now on the shelf in Pandora's closet. 

Cut black squares

I puttered some more and cleaned up more, and this is what's left to deal with. I have to say that I'm making excellent progress, and while it's tempting to just throw it all back in the closet, I'm going to keep plugging away. The even better news is that I'm dealing with each project. It gets pulled apart if I no longer want to make it, or it gets tidied up, so it fits neatly in the closet in a closed container. NO MORE BAGS!!!

Not much left to deal with

And here's what the closet looks like right now. This is the view to the right, and there is still room on the shelves!

Inside the closet looking right

And here's the space to the left. Yep -- almost three full shelves to fill.

Inside the closet looking left

And there is still a stack of containers for me to use. 

Empty containers

My ultimate goal is to remove ALL the stuff from the current project table and only have the stuff that I need to work on there for a given week. In other words, I would plan the work for the week and place those things I need to work on, on this table. That would leave the cutting table completely free. Oh yes -- I think I can make this happen. 

This was the current table before I started. 

Current project table - before

And, this is the table now. I'm making progress as I've started to put some of the stuff in the closet as well. I don't want to get too happy about moving things until the rest of the things in the closet is back in, but I know I have room for everything. And it will be neat, and I'll be able to find anything the moment I want it. 

Current project table - after

I still have room on the project shelf in the community quilt storage room, so that's good news, and I may need to sneak a project or two back there to get them off the table. And if I could make backings and quilt some of the quilts stored in that community project space, then I'd have loads of space, and it would be out of sight!!! 

And once I'm done with Pandora's closet, there's a shelf of projects in Studio B that is a hodgepodge of projects and various shaped boxes. That also needs to be dealt with the same way I did with Pandora's closet. 

Another project shelf

I know there is a lot of stuff on that shelf that probably can be put back in the stash room. 

Sorting through these projects has been loads of fun, and it was so worth the time I took to make that happen. I do have a few labels to make for the projects I put away yesterday as so much got sorted and put into a proper container. WOW -- I'm so happy with my progress. 

I had to do some computer work last night, and I was exhausted. So much that my eyes were tearing up because I was so tired. BUT I got the assignment out, and I was happy. I had a fabulous sleep and am already back at work this morning. It's Monday sewing, but I have work to do after that. 

OH -- this was that kit I tried to get rid of two weeks ago. I pulled all the tags off this morning and shelved the fabric. The book is on my shelf. One day, I need to start culling those books, but they are neatly stored for the moment, so it's not a priority. 

WOW -- One of the reasons I love going to retreats is that I get fired up and motivated. And I'm motivated to get stuff done, and the week is reasonably free, so that's all good news. I still have e-mails to catch up on, one last registration to take care of, and prep for classes this weekend, but all is good. 

OH YES -- I keep forgetting to mention that it's Virtual Retreat this coming weekend. So that's Saturday, January 29 from 6 PM - whenever and Sunday, January 30 starting at 11:30 AM until whenever. 

I'll be posting the links later this week, so watch for those. 

On that note, it's time to get out and walk those girls!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!