The perfect sewing space

 

Have you ever had one of those days? I did NOT sleep well the night before, and it was a struggle all day. I can hear you asking, "why didn't you just have a nap?" Well, this happened. I went to spin class and enjoyed the steam room. Then home to have breakfast and walk the dogs. I was only partway through Murphy's walk, and I got the phone call that MIL's new fridge was on the way. Since DH is out of the country, it was my job to get to the apartment. 

Instead of 30 minutes notice, we got five! As I arrived at the apartment building, I saw the truck driving away. The fridge was in place, and I helped her remove all the tape and plastic. That's a LOT of tape and plastic. Even though this fridge wasn't cheap, it's a BASIC fridge. No split shelves, no fancy stuff whatsoever. Then the superintendent came later in the day to connect the water and plug it in for her. 

M went over later in the day, and all appears well. It doesn't quite fit the space as one of the doors can't open past 90 degrees because of a wall. That means that one drawer won't open all the way. But it'll have to do. 

Back home and the cleaning lady is here. I can't have a nap while she's here, so I had to wait. In the meantime, I walked to the grocery store and finished an article that needed to be written.

And at last, it was quiet. I crawled onto the couch and took a nap. I needed to get M somewhere, and it was a rainy day by that point, so I grabbed a snack when I got home. I curled up on the couch with the dogs, and after my snack, I had a GREAT nap. And I confess that I spent the entire evening on the sofa with the dogs and my book. 

Dogs? On the couch?? 

The dog bed is beside the couch, and Lexi has taken to jumping up there to escape Murphy. But only when we are home and on the sofa. Usually, she snuggles up to DH, but he's away, so she jumped up to keep me company. And then there's Little Bear, who is always ready for a snuggle. And YES -- Murphy's nose was out of joint, but there wasn't room, and she is definitely NOT allowed. 

Me with Lexi and Little Bear

Before going to bed, I peeked out the window to see how much snow there was. OK -- does this not look like a secret message to you? It's the hood of my car, and I've no idea what it says, but there must be some pattern under the hood, and the heat of the engine came through? Pretty weird - -could it be someone from a parallel universe sending a message? 

A secret message

OK --- so you want to see the perfect sewing space. Since I didn't do much the previous day, I was fired up this morning, and this is what happened. You are going to be SHOCKED. 

Keep in mind, this was all done within ONE HOUR, so it wasn't that bad, but just little things needed to be done. 

Here's the main table in my Zoom area. No extra stuff on the table, and the surface is clear. 

My main Zoom table

Here's the table behind my main Zoom table, and it's also clear. 

The table behind my Zoom table

And this table is in pretty good shape. It's the one that holds my supplies for making samples. Weird stuff that I've collected that I want to use. It's like a current project table for sample making, and I'm good with it looking like this. 

Supplies for making samples

Speaking of the current project table, this is what it looks like. YES -- a bit of work to be done for sure, but it's all in one place, and I can deal with that for the moment. 

The current projects table

This is what still needs to be sorted from Pandora's closet. I'll continue to work away at that, and it WILL get done. 

Stuff from the closet to sort

This is my area for my monthly sewalongs. It looked much neater as I went back and regrouped things. I'll take another picture later. But it's all in ONE spot. And in a couple of months, this space should be almost empty! OK -- by June, a lot of this will be gone!

The sew-along projects

Let's have a look at the scrap area. These are the baskets of flannel scraps that need to be dealt with. I put the basket of red scraps on the current project table. 

Baskets of flannel scraps

And I moved the rest of the baskets into the storage area for the community project quilts. No sense seeing all that mess every day when it'll be months before it's all cleared up. This area is nice and neat, and everything is easy to get to. 

Storage area for community projects

Then I moved the chairs out of the way and put the table that usually sits in that corner, back in place. I won't set up the table as I don't need it now, and that corner is nice and tidy. Even the baseboards got a dusting!

An empty corner in the sewing room

OH -- before I move on, here is the stack of scrappy flannel blocks. All 72 of them. Trimmed and ready to be stitched into a quilt. Yeah!!!!

Blocks for a scrappy quilt

And there's the binding as well. It's in a bag and now resides in the storage room until Diane needs more quilts to sew. That was a LOT of work, but the satisfaction is beyond words!!!!

The binding and blocks for a scrappy quilt

And here is my ironing board this morning - CLEAR!!!!!

The ironing board is clear

Here is my sewing machine station -- CLEAR!!! The bits of fabric are my enders and leaders for when I sew later today. They are the hourglass units, marked or pairs matched up! Everything else related to the hourglass units is back in the appropriate storage tin. 

The sewing area is CLEAR

And here's my nemesis - the cutting table. I'm happy to report that it's ALMOST clear. There's a piece of embroidery that I need to deal with, some serger samples that need to be put into page protectors, and the pet mats where I need to finish off the serged seams. That's IT!!! I can easily do all that later today. 

The cutting table -- ALMOST clear

I have to say that as I was doing this, I was getting excited! Oh my -- this is how I want to keep the space. I want to pop down and sew and not worry about the mess. I love that it didn't take me long to get to this point. 

Going forward, I need to be VERY DILIGENT about pulling out ONLY what I'm going to work on that day. No more - no less. It shouldn't be too hard since this is what I've wanted for a long time and see -- I was so close. Yes -- some spots need attention, and I'll get to those in the next couple of weeks. I can only do so much in an hour! 

But look at the entire sewing table -- it's not just the area around my sewing machine -- it's the ENTIRE table. 

The entire sewing table is clear!

WAIT -- I'm lying, as it's actually the THREE tables in that area that are all clear!! There's a sewing machine and an embroidery machine set up!! Now, doesn't that speak to you? It makes me want to rush down there RIGHT NOW and do something. 

Three work stations ready to work

What's even better is that I'm almost done creating my monthly requirements master list. Homework for the sew-alongs, samples that need to be made, and writing assignments. It's all outlined on my monthly master sheet. OH MY --- I can't wait to get started today. Well, I have a few things on my TODO list that have to be done, but I should be able to get downstairs by lunch. 

And here's the design wall - well, one of them. This needs to be tackled as the blocks are now pretty messy since I had to remove one of the boards for something else. 

The hexagon scrap quilt

The blocks that fell off are on the sewing table, and I'll put them back up today to continue to sew. 

Blocks to put back on the design wall

The kitchen is neat and tidy, as is most of the rest of the house. OK -- so the office is a disaster, and I'm OK with that. One day - it too will be spic and span!!!

WOW --- I feel like a million dollars today. Rested and clean spaces -- I can TACKLE anything. I know that M wants to do some journaling today (making journals), but that's OK. We now have lots of room to work. 

So that's what is going to happen to you. You plug away at small areas of your sewing space, and then one day, you realize that you are there!! I know there might be days when I'm in the midst of something big that it's going to get messy, but I can deal with that. And I know that I still have to clean up the current project table and finish sorting the stuff from the closet. But it's all contained in two spots, and it will happen!!!

On that HAPPY note, I'm out of here. Time to get the day moving and hopefully be a bit more productive in the sewing area than yesterday. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!