Happy New Year 2018!

It's a new year this morning. Funny how fast 365 days seem to go by. Time to reflect on things of the past and what the future will bring. I'm just super thrilled to say that I finished that binding on that last quilt. It was 7 PM when it got done!! Yeah!!!

I posted a quote the other day - something to the effect that owning less stuff means you have less stuff. You have less to organize and thus more time to do what you want. Well, I'm trying to get rid of stuff. While M is here, I'm getting her to go through what she left behind and either flag it for keeping to be sent to her at some point, or tossing, or recycling (donating). So far we have one garbage bag of clothing and there will be more. I would like to get through everything, but I don't think that is going to happen!

Then I look at my stuff. This morning I decided that I wanted to start the year with a fairly tidy studio so I would want to work there. I can't really complain because it's been in pretty good shape for the last 6 weeks. And I have a sit n sew day coming up in two weeks and we will need a load of spacer that day. So I did some tidying up. 

The work tables are clear.

Work tables are clear

Well, they were first thing this morning. As I tried to clear up some stuff, I decided to bite the bullet and do some more tidying in one of the storage rooms. So now there is a wee bit of a mess on the table. But not much.

I had to laugh because I pulled a box of paperwork from the storage room. Hmm - old receipts. What are these from? Oh - everything we bought in that year. What was the year?  1999-2002!!  So why do I still have these receipts? No idea! But I had a laugh as I found book orders for M when she was in Grade One. I found the bills from when the handyman who installed my quilt storage shelves in our old house and my design wall!  I think it was the same guy that installed my shelves in my current stash room. They are very sturdy!  And I found two (could have been more) withdrawal receipts from George R Brown. Anyone know what that is? It's the convention center for Quilt Festival in Houston!  The dates October 19, 1999, when I pulled out a $100 at 10:00 and the second one on October 22, 1999, when I pulled another $100 at 7:30. Hysterical - those ones just jumped out at me. Well, all that paperwork is happily in the shredding or recycling box. There is still more to go through, but that's all I could manage this morning.

I also found the receipt from when we got our Sparky! Sparky was our dog from well, she was the before Lexi dog. June 28, 2001. We paid $175 for her from the Mississauga Humane Society. Her name was Dovey! I think I'll keep that one. It's a cool memory. I always had intentions of making those picture books and this would be neat to include.

Let's see - does anyone remember this quilt? A Canadian Quilt - Gosh - I just spent a lot of time trying to find this on the internet - NOTHING!!!  I'll chat about that one tomorrow since I'll need to take a picture of what I have.

It wouldn't be the end of the year if I wasn't trying to finish stuff off.  I got one last customer quilt done!

Customer quilt - DONE

 I still have a few remaining customer quilts to get finished - not sure I'll get them all done before my long arm goes to the spa. I still have 7 magazine quilts that I'm working on and all are due very shortly. Three just need binding. The blocks are made or mostly made for two of them and two haven't been started! Guess what I'll be doing today!


Then I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of the studio today so I could compare in one year! I piled all the current stuff that I'm currently working on the old cutting table. Yep - it looks like a disaster, but there are twenty-one tuffet foams that need to be organized in the next couple of days so that won't look so bad by the end of the week.

Current stuff!

 Here's a shot of one of the project shelves. Yikes - there is so much on there and even if I were to do 12 UFOs in one year, imagine how many years it will take to get through all this! Of course, I plan on working on a lot more than just those twelve. The trick is to NOT start anything new that doesn't have to be started. It really would be a wonderful feeling to know that some of this mess is under control at last!

A project shelf

 I zeroed in on the shelf with the dirty dozen for 2018. Hopefully this time next year, this shelf will be empty! There are two big projects that I've challenged myself with this year - one involves embroidery and one involves applique. That means there won't be time to just whip those final blocks off in a month, those are going to be ongoing projects for the year. The key is to get the prep done and then carry the blocks with me to get them done! It can and WILL happen!!!!

The dirty dozen for 2018

 And here's the pile of stuff from 2017 that didn't get finished, but it's also on the list for 2018!!

Not quite finished 2017 UFOs

And here's the last binding for 2017 UFOs!!!

Binding on the 4th construction quilt

So from a Motivational Monday perspective what did I learn from last year's experience?

1. Do NOT group items together - one UFO per item.
2. Try to avoid doing the UFO as a side project. I worked on some of the UFOs so long that I was very bored of them and it was only because it was on my list that I persevered.
3. If you don't get everything done, that's OK.
4. Be flexible.


I'm super excited to start working on a "new" UFO project today. Well, after I make a little bit of progress on the magazine quilts. They need to be in a box by Thursday! Well only one of them, but the rest all need to be done by next week, so I'll be plugging away on those. They are all super easy except one - of course, the one I haven't started yet!

Here's something else I learned about the last week. I essentially took the week off. I didn't do much e-mail or paperwork over the week. I mostly sewed and then in the evening, I read. Because of the cold, I didn't' get out much. Guess what? I was bored!!!  I've learned that while sewing all day is exciting, it isn't so much when you do it every day, all day and by yourself. I need to pace myself and hopefully, that means that we'll get rid of some of the clutter in the house as I take a break from sewing!

On that note, I'm out of here to brave the cold to take the girls for a walk!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!


PS -- I think Lexi wants to wish you all a Happy New Year as well.