Company's coming.........

Oh dear, I got a text yesterday morning asking if I was going to be home sewing all weekend. I said "Yes - do you want to come over?" She said YES.

Now I have loads of room in my studio to sew, but things were just getting out of hand and there is nothing like company to make you tidy up!  Besides the front room had become a dumping ground and there was stuff everywhere!  I'm happy to report that our front room looks like a normal front room again - well almost. there is one last thing in it but it's going to the retreat so no sense in taking it downstairs and then back up again.

If you're normally exhausted from reading my blog, you better rest up. By the end of the day yesterday, even I was exhausted and fell into bed! Although I didn't go to sleep until all the fireworks had died out.

I started out by tidying up around the ironing board.  Again, there was stuff sitting everywhere on the floor and all it needed was to be put away.

Tidy up time around the ironing board

 But look at that corner - it's a total disaster.  Stuff literally got dumped in that corner and well - it's got to go.

Look at all the stuff on the floor!

 For the moment, I can't use this nice sewing table. The machine that fits the insert is at work. I did try my other machine, but the base would not fit. So this table is now designated as the processing table.

The processing table!

 There are the work tables that I am supposed to share with my guest today. A bit messy.

The current work table - not much room to work!

 And then there is this disaster.  Yes there are four 6-foot tables under this mess.  The tables are heaped with stuff.  I'm not touching this at the moment. If anything, it will get worse!

The pile everything here tables

Let's just say that there was a bit of dust everywhere so I grabbed a dust cloth from the laundry room.  Only to find as I peeled away layers of stuff, that I already had a dust cloth.  Oh well - you can't say, I didn't try before!

Two dust cloths - one for each hand!

 The first order of business was to move the sewing machines together.  By the time you add in the embroidery units, boxes, covers, that is a lot of stuff.  I only grouped the sewing machines together - those that I'm not using at the moment. There are four!  I have one more in my work office and one on the work table, besides the one that I'm reviewing at the moment. No danger of not having a working sewing machine!

Sewing machines grouped together

 Then I started to tackle that pile of stuff in the corner and OMG - look what I found!!!!   Yes - these were plates that I picked up in MARCH when I went to Lancaster.  I hadn't unpacked a thing!

License plates from Pennsylvania

One more plate from Pennsylvania

 They are now safely stowed with all the plates from 2016.

Back to the mess.  I wasn't just packing stuff into a box and stowing the box. No, I pitched and purged and sorted and well, essentially I put some of it away.  Some (things I want to work on, or a work in progress) did get put into two laundry baskets and are now on the doomed tables!

Look at how inviting that space is now!

Oh yes - I forgot that a while back and I was going to have a big show n tell about it, but I had a computer desk in that spot.  It was moved to the office a couple of months ago.  Trying to keep all the computer/paperwork stuff in the office and all the sewing stuff in the studio.

Now if I take a bit wider shot in that same spot, there are a couple of things on the floor that need to be processed. Like the bolts of fabric from Misty Pines.

A few more things to process

 And as the day progressed, I added a few more things!

A couple more things to process

 The cutting mat isn't in that bad of shape, but it could definitely get a make-over.  But I wasn't worrying about it as I have room to cut.  Half of the table is clear - I'm working on pet mats here.

The cutting table

 Oh here's another angle of the ironing board area.  Trust me, this looks amazing!  And it's so easy to walk around!  I could positively have a party in all that space with dancing!

The area is positively tidy!

 And of course, stuff got put on the stairs to be moved into either the at-home office or the at-work office.

Stuff on the stairs!

But I did manage to produce a couple of things as well during the day.

One pet mat - DONE

Three more prepped and ready to stuff

 And how is the situation this morning?   Absolutely read for the guest.  She gets one table and I get TWO.  The stuff I need to work on today is on the far table. I have been putting this project off for a while so this will be good discipline to get it done.

Work spot ready for the guest!

 The processing table is a disaster as well, but a lot of that will get cleared up quickly.  And I must say that as I went through the paperwork, I found a few things that I had been looking for.  I'm still missing one pattern, well actually two, but I have one more bag to go through and hopefully both of them will be in that bag.

The processing table

The table of doom!

 And once that was done, it was onto more prepping for the retreat. How long is this retreat anyway?  OH - five days. Well, there might be a snow storm and we'll be snowed in!  At least, I won't have to prep for a long, long time when I come back!

I'm going to tell you about this current project tomorrow!

Prepping another project for the retreat

More stuff for prepping

Yes, if the cutting table were a tad clearer, I wouldn't have to use the ironing board for part of the prepping process.  Once I get that processing table cleared, the stuff on the cutting table is going there.

Now here's the thing.  Why did the room get messy?  There was a home for a lot of that stuff, I just didn't have the time and quite frankly, I'd rather be sewing. But I can't let that happen again.  Too much time is spent trying to find things.

If the past, when I've done a major clean up like this, the moment, the guests have gone, I've pulled stuff out of the closets or wherever it got hidden away.  I do NOT want to do that this time.  I want to have a nice clear area to work - I've got FIVE borders to put on a quilt and I need the space. Plus in my old age (OK - older age), I'm trying to focus on one project at a time.  I know that isn't going to be possible for me, but I'm going to try and have one project that I can just mindlessly sew at any given point. Like the Tonga Rhapsody which is on the wall. More on that tomorrow as well!

Wish me luck. It's kind of like trying to quit smoking or losing weight. You have to really really want it to happen before it will.  And I really really want this mess to go away.  The sheer quantity of it is starting to scare me!

On that note, I have a few errands to run before the guest arrives and then we'll be sewing all day!!!

Have an awesome day!!!!

Ciao!!!