Will the sorting ever end?

 I should schedule some time to go through ALL my quilts and take pictures of them, whether they are finished or in the "to be quilted" stage. Then I need to zero in on the details of those that are noteworthy! That would save me digging through all the tubs! But then I must also search through all my existing photos and tag and sort them. But I don't have the time for that! So I must sort and file the ones I take so I don't have to retake those. 

I'm pretty good about it, but it does take time! It'll all work out, so I'm not worried. These are things that you wish you knew BEFORE you put things away or before you started randomly filing photos. Finding anything would be a snap if you began to tag them from day one. 

And that's my SAME suggestion for any quilters out there. If you are new or don't have a lot of stuff, you MUST start labeling, sorting, and keeping "like" things together. If you do, you will avoid ending up in a huge mess that will seem insurmountable. 

And then you're so busy having fun that you don't worry about organizing until it's too late, and you wish you did. So I'm just letting you know. I saw somewhere on Social yesterday that one of my readers did a tidy-up! We got to see the before and after, and she knows who she is -- shoot -- I should have asked if I could share the photos, and I can't be presumptuous and just use them without asking. 

Once you get those places tidied up, then it's necessary to keep them that way. 

With all the prep and travel of the last four weeks, my place looks out of sorts and changes daily. But I'm working on it. 

There's one serger left on this table, which I'll leave as I need it next week. The other serger is being returned tonight. 

A serger on the extra table

The Zoom table is looking good. I have yet to deal with all the paperwork generated from the Zoom calls, but the paperwork is now where I do the paperwork. 

The Zoom table is looking good

Oh my -- the ironing board is clear! That's because I needed to iron something and needed the space. 

Wow -- the ironing board is clear! 

The cutting table started out as a disaster, but I'm happy to say it looks much better this morning. There are still a few things that need to be put away, but I now have room to cut fabric or trim quilts.  

The cutting table was a disaster

There's still a pile in the middle of the floor, and most of this just needs to be put away. I don't think there's anything for me to work on. On a happy note, it's smaller than it was. 

Things on the floor to put away

I unpacked the boxes and the suitcase at the bottom of the stairs, and I found a couple of baskets to put the stuff in, and it sat on the floor yesterday but now resides on one of the work tables. 

The suitcases and boxes were unpacked

There is ONE work table that is the current dumping ground. It's a horrible mess, and now that I added those four baskets, it looks even worse. But my goal is to get everything off the floor. Do you know how much lint and dust collect? I'm swiftering daily, and vast amounts of dust and lint are picked up! 

The work table is a bit overcrowded with stuff

This is the serger table, and it's filled with serger stuff. Some of that can be put away, but I need to serge some things, so most of it stays. The bottom line is that I'm sorting and putting the "like" items together, making it much easier to deal with. YES -- I'm lucky to have the space to have different stations, but if I didn't have the room, I'm not sure I would do all that I do. I'm not sure that I could!!!

The serger station

I fixed the bobbin winder for the sit-down quilting machine. Wait -- I didn't fix the bobbin winder; I read the manual and assembled it correctly! So it's now working like a charm instead of the thread mast waving all over the place. Now that manual could be filed! 

The quilting table is clear, and I fixed the legs. I didn't take a picture this morning, but if you remember, I had used those big chunks of flooring under the legs to level them. Well, I now have nice little feet, and it seems to be OK. I'll be quilting later today, so I can judge whether the new legs work. 

The sit-down quilter

And this was the pile of stuff on the stairs that needed to go up. The stairs are now bare, so don't worry -- there are no tripping hazards. It's mostly on the kitchen table (except for the suitcase, which is in the closet where it's supposed to be), and I'll get the samples upstairs later today. Thankfully, stairs are not an issue, as I don't know how many flights I do in a day! According to my Fitbit, I did 72 flights yesterday! That sounds reasonable! 

Stuff to move upstairs

There's no doubt that the more stuff you have, the more you need to manage it, and if you actually use it, you have to dig it out, and then you have to put it back again! If I had known, I might have given a second thought to the accumulation issue. But that's OK- I have most of my quilting stuff under control. At least, for the most part (except what I unpacked from that last trip), my stuff is sorted and stored neatly on a shelf. 

Even with all that tidying, I managed to get a customer quilt done. It's trimmed and ready for pickup! It was a nice change to work on something small! The next quilt is loaded and ready to be quilted this afternoon. 

Customer quilt - done!

I even got some writing done. I have one Zoom call to do today, and I need to look over the presentation, but I think it's pretty much ready to go, so that's a bonus, allowing me to back to writing. I got one assignment almost completed yesterday, and my goal is to send it off before lunch today! 

I had both girls on my morning walk because of going to spin class. It's a timing thing. I will say that both of them are getting better when walking together. They used to get their leashes tangled; now, it's rare that I have to untangle them. So did they learn? or did I? 

We took a slightly different route for part of the walk, as I knew the forest would be very muddy, and I wasn't going there. We passed this house which I've seen many times, and I always marvel at how ornate the garage doors are. There's some kind of pattern on each of the squares. 

Ornate garage doors

Then I looked up, and OH MY  --- the front windows are also covered in a pattern. Somebody likes patterns in this house!!

Patterns in the windows

While there is practically NO snow anywhere, even the snowbank beside our driveway is a mere shadow of itself, there was some snow along the edge of the deck in the backyard. I realized that Murphy's stress bear was stuck in the ice! OH, NO --- that's why she hasn't been carrying it around. I decided to dig it out of the ice for her. When she realized what it was, she grabbed it and tried to pull it. We freed the stress bear between the two of us, and she immediately ran off with it. 

Then she set it on the deck while she sat in the dirt and leaves (of course). What you can't see in this photo is the WIND! Her fur was being ruffled around, and she was quite happy. 

Murphy and her rescued stress bear

Shoot -- I need to get better at taking pictures. This is a pair of teeny tiny boots, and of course, it doesn't look as cute when you don't appreciate the scale. But who would buy that kind of boot for your little kid? OK -- so lots of people would because they are super cute!

Teeny boots

It was senior day at Bulk Barn, and I needed some stuff. When I left the mall, I wasn't sure I would be able to walk home. The wind was so strong that I could barely walk! I think I should have gotten double steps for that walk! But I made it home quickly and then returned to work. 

Well, it's another busy day. At least my days are busy and varied. I'd be terribly bored if I did the same thing every day! Even my walks, which I look forward to, vary depending on which errands I need to do! 

And with that -- I'm off! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!