Cleaning with intent

I should say "organizing with intent" since technically that's what I'm doing. I've been hauling bags of projects upstairs to get them out of the basement for the "big move". I need to follow up on the situation today to find out what's happening.

Those big IKEA bags of stuff are now sitting in the upstairs hallway. Not a very neat or orderly situation and I'm just going to end up with a big mess. Which is exactly what I had downstairs. While I love those bags for carrying stuff, they're not very efficient for storing things. As I lay in bed this morning, a GREAT idea came to mind on how I can deal with this stuff. I didn't have time to take photos so that will have to wait for another day.

But here's the thing. I'm getting tired of managing my stuff. How many times am I going to have to move it? This project is going to be a good temporary solution. It's temporary because my goal is to keep working on those UFOs to get them under control. I'm doing an OK job with that. I do need to spend more time like I did last year. OK - so going to have to haul a sewing machine into the gazebo. I've done it before!

The good news in all this? No new projects are being added to the list. That's excellent news!!  I can visualize the day when I get up and I can just sew. No more organizing, no more hauling stuff around. It's going to happen. If I can visualize it, it can and will happen!!

Stay tuned for that. Even though I have a ton of work to get done, I HAVE to get that organized today. DH is coming home tonight and I know he'd have a heart attack if he saw the upstairs hall. The spare bedroom is just as bad. There is stuff EVERYWHERE and I'm not done hauling it up either.

I'm sorting as I go. A pile for me and a pile for my project that I'm going to share with you at some point. Still waiting for some answers to a couple of questions. Better follow up with that as well and I had better get that darn basement back together or the plan won't work.

I've been madly quilting the last couple of days. I'm pretty much caught up with customer quilts, except one and it's a custom one. It's currently on the long arm. I do hope to get it done by the weekend, but with this little tidying frenzy on the side, it may be early next week. I've been getting myself organized in that area as well. I have a list of quilts that I want to have completed by the end of June. A couple of customer quilts, a couple are quilts that I promised to quilt for organizations for various reasons. A couple of the quilts belong to me. There are 13 quilts on that list. By the end of June - I think it's very doable. Plus there will be two magazine quilts thrown in the mix.

Here's what I've been doing in the wee early hours of the morning.

The first customer quilt. What a great way to use up scrappy half square triangles.

Customer quilt - DONE

Here's a detail of the quilting. This is a pattern that could NOT be done by hand. Well, you could, but those circles aren't going to be perfect. I love this pattern.

Bubble pattern which is very cute

Customer quilt - DONE

Customer quilt - DONE

Those three quilts are trimmed and ready for delivery next week.

Here's another customer quilt. It's quilted and I'm supposed to be putting the binding on this one. Has to be done by the weekend!

Customer quilt - DONE

This next one is a community projects quilt for a local guild. Remember - I had two quilts that needed to be done as I pull myself from that organization? So this is one of them. It's huge with some applique. The intent was never to do custom quilting for the applique. I did an overall pattern and it looks just fine.

Community projects quilt

 Here's a close up of the quilting. The overall pattern is not that distracting on the applique. It will likely go to someone who is not a quilter and wouldn't know the difference between custom and overall quilting. When working on a new project (both pattern for piecing and for the quilting), it's very important to think about where the quilt will end up. Spend your time, efforts and money accordingly.

Detail of quilting

The second quilt that belongs to this organization will need to be custom quilted. It is filled with dimensional flying geese and you cannot do an overall on that. Oh - I could with the computer while I babysat the dimensional edges, but I have no intention of doing that. So I'll custom quilt it. It's also huge.

Here's the last customer quilt that I did. Six quilts - 3 intense days!

Customer quilt - DONE

Detail of quilting

The quilt was supposed to have a big snowflake appliqued on it. The customer didn't do the snowflake so we put snowflakes in the quilting pattern. These last two still need to be trimmed and I'm going to put the binding on the community projects quilt. No rush at the moment for that one.

My long arm has been working just fine. And then on one of the quilts, and only on one row - it went totally crazy. THREE times, it had issues. The worse was when I went to change the bobbin and the computer didn't want to go back to where it had left off. It wouldn't let me manually place the stitches either. It was being very naughty. What to do??? I tricked it!  And that worked. No one would know what happened.

I'm thrilled that I'm learning how to fix problems like that. Oh gosh - I think I mentioned that yesterday? Or was that in an e-mail to my Dad? Yes - I have a love/hate relationship with technology. But I found another very creative way to use some smart technology yesterday. I'll take a picture and show you! 

Almost done cleaning up the kitchen table and the kitchen counters. Can't have DH come home and think that I'm a slob!! And how many times do I have to sweep the floor? I sweep up all the leaves and dirt that Miss Murphy tracks in and then I turn around and oh boy - I have to sweep again!! That dog needs a hair cut! A healthy hair cut!!!

I found something else yesterday that is to be given away. It's a hard plastic sewing box - for notions or whatever. I don't want it so it's up for grabs. Again, if you're not local, you'd have to pay for shipping. It's brand new - still in the plastic. It measures 11.6" by 9.8" by 2.75". 

Sewing Organizer

On that note, I'm out of here. Another crazy take of writing, editing, taking pictures, and quilting. All in the name of blogging! You'll see all that soon.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!