The organization marches on!!!

Before I forget, I wanted to elaborate on two things from yesterday. The first was that jelly roll quilt. 

The jelly roll quilt

Years ago, when trying to figure out what to do with my scraps, I read about a famous quilter who loves to work with scraps. Cut your ugly fabrics into strips, she said! So I had a bag of 2½" strips, which never got used, and some 1½" strips, which are still unused. 

When Diane was sewing all those quilt tops, I gave her the bag of 2½" strips, and she made the jelly roll quilt with them. The quilt is fine—it's just not the most attractive—but it will provide someone with some comfort. 

Here's what I've learned about following someone else's method of sorting and organizing, especially scraps. Not all systems will work for you!! Now, when I make scrap quilts, I'm about coordinating the colors, so I'll take tons of brown and put them together or any color family. But to randomly throw all kinds of colors together? It's not my thing. 

Unless the pieces are tiny. I found that 2½" strips are too big to randomly throw together, but that's me!!! It's all about learning. 

Shoot, what was the second thing? Was there a second thing? I may have to go back and look. Oh yes, I now remember—it was quilting that quilt with the smallish backing. So why did it have a smallish backing? I had some rayon pieces and asked Diane to assemble them to make quilt backings. Yes, I've used rayon as a quilt backing before, and it works just fine, but it is fiddly to work with. 

The quilt next in line was 64"wide by 70". I had found one of the rayon backings that was the perfect match for this quilt, but those backings were barely 64" wide. However, I serged some strips of fabric to the sides to give me something to grip, and away I went. 

There was little room on either side, and I had to manipulate the quilt top as I went, but it worked!!!!

Not much extra backing

And there's the quilt. And yes, that is Murphy hiding under the quilt. The poor thing has a cough, so she needs to go to the vet, and I didn't have the heart to move her. 

Community projects quilt - DONE

While in such a busy mood, I should be replacing the leaders on that long arm. Look at the mess here. The canvas had just worn out!!!! 

The canvas has worn out!!!

This morning, I loaded the next community project quilt. And if you think it's easy to do that, think again! 

I had to piece the backing, but luckily, I was using yardage, so there was only one join. Hmmm—one sewing machine is set up for applique, and the other for embroidery. I was too lazy to switch either to sewing mode, so I used the serger. A nice seam!!!!

Use the serger to join the back

The quilt top and backing had to be pressed, and then they were loaded on the long arm. 

Next, I wanted to make a quilt bat from those batting bits. I had four pieces, which I trimmed to have straight edges and joined using a fusible knit interfacing. 

Joining the batting bits

I could buy this product already cut and on a roll, but it's much cheaper to buy the fusible knit interfacing by the yard (I buy this stuff by the bolt) and then cut it into 1¼" strips. 

Cutting the interfacing

Now I have a bunch of strips that I can use to join the batting. I use the wool setting on the iron and a muslin press cloth to ensure the joins are well adhered. Otherwise, I'm at the long arm with an iron trying to do that, and it's not so much fun. There are plenty of strips cut for the next batting. 

Strips of fusible knit interfacing

I'm in a mood to get things tidied up and organized. I mean, stuff is in pretty good shape, but the fine tweaking is what's happening now. Once I got bored with applique, I attacked Studio U. 

Two rolling cabinets and a few other quilt-related things got banished to the hallway, and they will be brought down to Studio B to be amalgamated. As I'm making progress in Studio B, I have empty drawers, so instead of having things in two places, they should all be together. I'll get it all down later today, but I ran out of time last night. Heck no—I didn't run out of time—I was exhausted!!!

Banished items from Studio U

I took all the batting bits and sorted them by width. I'm a Virgo—I'm allowed to do that!!! While all the pieces are labeled (thank goodness for that), they were randomly stacked in the closet. Now, they are sorted by width and placed so that the ones I need the most frequently are much handier, and it will take much less time than previously to find the appropriate pieces. 

Sorting the batting bits

It's all stored back in the closet - the batting bits are on the right-hand side. I already have a stack of batting bits in Studio B for the smaller community projects in that laundry basket. So that was a good thing, and it didn't take long to tidy up that area. That is the beauty of having "like" things together, which is how most of my stuff is. Now, I can fine-tune the storage to make it even easier. What will I do with all my free time? 

The closet of batting bits

Studio U is still being used for storage and I must find a home for these items. This is the stack of wall hangings that need to find a home. 

Wall hangings

Here's a stack of all the Trend-Tex challenges that I've purchased over the years. I will blog about them one day. 

Trend-Tex challenges

A stack of mini quilts that have to find a home. 

Mini quilts

As well as a pile of table runners. 

Table runners

And this is a stack of larger wall hangings. 

Larger wall hangings

And there are two tubs of journal covers, cushion covers, etc. 

Miscellaneous samples

What I need to do now is sort through them all and determine what I will NEVER use in a trunk show or for a class. I don't think there are too many that would never get used for either of those two things, but I need to sort them out. And then the rest? I have no idea what to do with the stuff. 

For the moment, I might make some big covers using bed sheets and shove them under a bed. I'm not a fan of shoving things under beds—we have nothing under our beds at the moment—but it would be great to keep those items flat, so I'll see what happens. 

Then, I need to come up with a work schedule system. All day, I wanted to write a list of things that needed to be done. But I did not. When I have time, I'm working on that applique for Cabin in the Woods, which presents a problem. Do I continue to work on the applique day in and day out until it's finished? Do I assign myself a specific section of applique each day so I can "finish" and allow myself to do something else and not become totally bored to death with applique? I still have a ton to do, so I must figure that out later today. 

But here's some of the applique stitching I accomplished yesterday. 

Blanket stitch applique 

Both quilts' bottom borders are complete but need to be trimmed before they can be stitched on. 

The bottom borders for Cabin in the Woods

These are some things I found upstairs and brought down to deal with. Do NOT let me purchase another ball of yarn! I'm contemplating purchasing some yarn for an upcoming project, and I'm waffling. I really like this type of yarn (velvet), but I don't have orange, and I need orange. 

Stuff on the cutting table to deal with

Because I'm bringing down TWO rolling carts full of stuff, I need to switch a few things around here to make space for the stuff in the carts. I also have some empty drawers in another rolling unit, so all is good. 

Switching stuff in the drawers

I'm not sure what I'll do with the rolling units—I think I'll keep one and let the other go. I have one area in Studio B that could use a rolling cart (maybe), so before it goes, I'll hang onto it. 

The other one can go. Oh yes --- I'm trying to eliminate as much stuff as possible. And so far, so good!!! As Elle mentioned in her comments, I could almost call myself a minimalist if I look at what the house looks like today compared to 10 years ago. Not quite, but close!!! And you know what? It feels so amazing. 

It's astounding how much time I spend managing the stuff I have. I can't even begin to think about the "wasted" hours I spent accumulating this stuff and then having to get rid of it again. I'm sure the number would be staggering. But in the long run, dealing with this now while I'm physically and mentally able is going to make my future life so much easier. I can't wait for the day when I move; there won't be much left. OK -- I can wait -- I'm happy where I am!!!!

So, go onward and upward to get rid of this stuff. I've got it somewhat under control, and best of all, I have a plan that I'm actively working on. All is good!!!!!

On my afternoon walk, I decided to stop by the thrift store to see if anything piqued my interest. I had no shopping bag and only my waist belt with my phone. I must have looked suspicious because this one employee spoke to me as soon as I walked in. She said something to me that I did not understand. And then, she proceeded to follow me around the entire store. She spoke several times, but I couldn't figure out what she was saying for the life of me. Dare I go back today to buy what I spotted? 

On that note, I'm going to write out that list of things to get done, and I might back off on the applique as I have a couple of things that need to be sewn and can't be done on the serger! 

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!