Organizing

Why do we organize things? Well those of us that do organize things - why do we do it? There are a couple of reasons - one, the area in question looks much neater (usually) and secondly, it takes way less time to find things.

And how many times does it take to scramble through a mess before you think - "I have to organize this!"

That is my issue with my quilting patterns for the long arm and my quilts to be quilted.

Long arm patterns

There are THREE categories of patterns -
1. very specialized patterns that I use on rare occasions,
2. common easy to use patterns,
3. ones that I don't really like or very dense ones that I will use occasionally

If I sorted them into those three categories, imagine how much time I would save by going directly to the category that I need instead of having to go through the entire mess looking for one specific pattern. And that brilliant idea only took me eight years!!!!!    Hey - I'm a slow learner!!!


The other area is my buckets of MY quilts that need to be quilted.  I just popped the lid onto the eleventh box. I know - eleven boxes of quilts (all have the backing and the binding included).  Makes me a bit sick to look at them which is why they are hidden in a corner.

EIGHT buckets of quilts to be quilted (MY quilts)

Three more buckets!!!!

So the next time you ask - "what do you do with all your quilts?"  There is your answer - they go in a tub waiting to be quilted!!! 

A while back, I got myself somewhat organized and put labels on the outside of the boxes.  Yes - a good idea, but I still find myself having to look through the entire list (on each box) to find a particular quilt that I need for show n tell or demo purposes.   I was thinking it would be better if I grouped them into "like" categories. I know - that is pretty sad when you think about that concept!!!!   But table runners could all go in one bucket. $10 quilts in another, paper pieced ones or whatever. But they need to be better organized so I can label the box TABLE RUNNERS (and then list the runners). That would be way easier. Oh - it is like the filing cabinet - I need FOLDERS. Each box is a folder, but I got to put the right paperwork (quilt) into each folder.  

Yes - that is an excellent idea. And as soon as I get over my immediate time crunch situation - things are looking up so that is good - I will tackle the "TO BE QUILTED" buckets. 

And every time another quilt rolls off the long arm, I feel that much better. These days, there is MORE going out than coming in. Thank goodness, although I have two more coming in   - make that three more coming in that need to be done. For the most part - they were on the schedule (just delayed by the customer). However after looking at the situation here - I am going to have to be FIRM - very FIRM about the next scheduling of dates.  I am booking September. And that's it!!!!  

Speaking of quilting - I got another quilt done last night.

Customer quilt - DONE

Oh yes - today is the LAST day of the Etobicoke Quilt Show. I went on Friday and it was AWESOME.  I apologize if I was short with anyone - I didn't have a lot of time and I wanted to make sure that I saw everything. There were some amazing quilts - I took TONS of pictures which I need to sort through. Bought raffle tickets on their gorgeous applique quilt, bought tickets on the mini-draw (and I WON something) bought a few things in the member's boutique which I will share in a day or so - they are treasures to me, but not to most people. Can you guess what I bought?   Picked up a couple of things in the vendor's marketplace. Oh boy - everyone is making me feel guilty - as soon as they see me even looking at fabric - they start to bug me about buying more. I wonder why?  NO ONE gets to see the stash so no one really knows how big or small it is!!!!


Anyway - the show is worth going to - so if you have time - check it out.

On that note - I have a bit of a chaotic schedule again today.  

Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!