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Two years ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Magazine Issues” in which I shared my frustration with my “collection” of old quilting magazines. My system was to put them in boxes and shove them in the bottom of the closet. From there I started just stacking them on the boxes:

(to read that post click here!). Many quilters responded to that post with great suggestions on how to organize my mess, but as of 3 days ago it still looked like this photo, plus 2 more year’s accumulation! Ugh!

A few months ago we had a professional organizer speak to our guild. She helped me face the fact that I hadn’t looked at a single one of these magazines after they found a dark home in the closet. Obviously I don’t need them. What I do need is space! I’ve cleaned and organized most areas of my sewing room a time or two in the 11 years we’ve lived here, but THAT closet had not been cleaned, in fact, it just kept getting more and more stuff shoved into it. I finally reached the point that no more would fit, and I had new stuff piling up in the rest of the studio with no place to put it. Since I just finished my 5 month long competition quilt, and the room was closing in on me, I decided enough was enough. Now what did that professional say I should do???

Oh yeah! Pull everything out of the area you want to organize (that way you can’t quit half way 🙂 )

I emptied the closet during the kid’s naps last Thursday. When Trey woke up I went upstairs to get him, that’s when Mike came home – looked at my studio – and asked me who I was mad at (it was a fast and furious mess). I guess the answer would be me, for letting it get so out of hand.

Since I hadn’t looked at a single old magazine, I decided it was time to “release” them. Most of my friends already have a lot of magazines of their own, so I “bit the bullet” and dumped them in the recycle bin. Actually, there were so many, and they were so heavy, that half will have to wait until next recycle day (the boxes in front of the bin).

Well, yesterday I had an entire rainy, “non-babysitting” day, and this is what my studio looked like after one trip to the store for bins, and before Mike took me out to dinner to celebrate a hard day’s work:

And here’s the pile of stuff that’s going to my guild’s rummage sale:

There are still a few odds and ends to be put away, but many of my closet bins now have breathing room in them. Ahh! Next, I need to clean up the rest of the room once again. I think I’ll take a week off. And, oh yeah, there’s another challenge quilt I was thinking of making  😀 !

Cleaning does make one feel virtuous, but a person can only clean so much before they deserve a reward!

PS I still love quilting magazines. So, for a short while now, I’ve been much better about what I do with my new issues. I read them, copy anything I want out of them, and place the issue on the “share” table at my next guild meeting. This way I don’t have to “clean it up” later, and my friends benefit.

After last week’s post about Mary’s well organized sewing room, Lorraine Bahr sent me this email message:

“Chris, Just read your blog about how your friend Mary organized the closets in her quilt studio.  Thought you would enjoy seeing how I resurrected an outdated cabinet, gave it new life and now use it to organize my studio.

Several years ago the high school in the district where I taught was going “digital” and was sending the old card catalog cabinet to the dump.  I asked to have it delivered to my house instead.  I gave it a fresh coat of paint, labeled the drawers, and now have it as a conversation (as well as an organizational) piece in my quilt studio.  Enjoy the photos below.”

Here’s a detail shot. Lorraine is not only organized, but has an exciting color sense! Thanks for sending the pictures Lorraine!

Mike and I love to go antiquing and have done a bit of repurposing of our own. We came up with my favorite quilt related project prior to my new studio being built. When I wrote my first book our desk top computer sat atop a big, old desk and the keyboarding was so awkward that I ended up with a pinched nerve in my neck and a mid-evil looking traction device for a few weeks (it attached to a door and no – I’m not including pictures :-)). We knew we needed a computer desk, but didn’t like any of the modern ones available. So we decided to go antiquing and see what we could find. At the Columbus Antique Mall we found a pretty 1940’s enamel table in good condition. It had 2 leaves attached to the inside of the table that pulled out and into position with an ingenious use of springs. I asked Mike if he could remove one of the leaves and permanently attach it at the right level to make an ergonomically correct keyboard platform. He figured it out and I’ve been pleased with it ever since.

Have you had any quilt related adventures in re-purposing?

The Saga Continues

It seems Quiltilly’s story hasn’t quite reached it’s end.

A short while after Evelyn and Quiltilly’s reunion, Chris received this message and some pictures from Evelyn:

“Poor Quiltilly was quite traumatized from her kidnapping ordeal, so we invited a new quiltsissy, Quiltimae, to keep her company.  They wanted to play with Blue Bunny, but she wasn’t in a playful mood.

So they went out into the sunshine, climbed the lilac bush, and listened to the birds sing.

They sat in the violet garden until Quiltilly felt much better.  She needs to stay here to make regular visits to her psychiatrist, so she won’t be going on the cruise to the Baltic.

Instead, Quiltimae will accompany Evelyn on her first traveling adventure.

She is very excited to be going to all the capitols of Scandinavia as well as stops in Germany, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. She will be keeping a journal and will have lots of pictures to share with Quiltilly when she returns.

Bon Voyage Quiltymae! Since this is a similar cruise to the one Wendy and Chris are leading next May, we will be very interested to learn all about Quiltymae’s first travel adventure.

My granddaughter, Sommer, is almost a year old and growing fast. She is a joy and a very easy baby to care for, which is a blessing since Mike and I still watch her 5 days a week! About a month ago she was playing with toys in the middle of the studio and I was choosing fabrics for a quilt. When I had settled on just the right ones I left them in a pile near my stash and went to answer the phone. Sommer was just starting to do a bit of crawling at this time and when I turned around she had crawled over to the fabrics and was reverently petting them one by one as if to say “great choices grandma”!

Well, she caught onto the crawling thing quite quickly and a few days later I just happened to have the camera nearby when she decided to do some exploring. She’s really into “open” and “close”. I hope you’ll indulge me:

“Sommer, whatcha doin?”

“Grandma, I think there’s fabric in there!”

“Oooooh pretty!”

“Just look at it all”!

“Gotta touch it …………….. and there’s more over there!”

“Flannel and fleece!”

“It’s so soft. Wanna feel it Grandma?”

And I did, so the photo shoot was over. Do you have any pictures of your kids or grandkids enjoying fabric that you’d like to share? Please email them to me at . I’d love to see them and it might be fun to share them on a future blog.

After posting the pictures on Monday I pulled everything off the shelves/counters and decided to really clean and organize. In class yesterday at WCTC, Cindy shared the expression “Project Creep” (referred to as PC from now on :-). She said this is when you begin doing something small (fix sewing table) and it escalates step by step into lots of work and, usually, a fair amount of unplanned expense. BINGO! She hit the nail on the head. Then Jean added that the good part is we feel so virtuous once it’s done. I’m almost there :-)!

Mike did a wonderful job repairing my table. We took the old tv to the recylcing center and in it’s place I now have a 19″ flat screen that weighs almost nothing and has a great picture, but it needed to be elevated. So Mike and I had to go antiquing (one of our favorite pastimes) and we found a great “explosives” crate with dovetail joints. It was only $25. Do I hear “project creep”? Its a handy place to keep all the essentials close at hand and provides space under the tv I didn’t have before.

But the tv was still too low, so I raised it up on an old wood case my dad (a retired dentist) inherited with his first practice. It was meant to hold the plastic teeth used to make dentures, but I discovered its a perfect place to keep my button collection! Now the tv is at the right level and I’m much more organized!

Next………threads!

My threads had been in “Matchbox Car” cases and I used to love the organization they provided, but I found I was always opening, closing and flipping boxes to find what I needed. Thus, I had to hit the store for a plastic drawer unit that went where the microwave had been. I love the ease of finding threads now! More “PC” expense, but that virtuous feeling is making it all worthwhile.

The microwave is now at the end of the counter, the counter and shelves are dusted and organized and I’ve only got that small (relative term) pile of stuff left in the middle of the room I really don’t know what to do with.

I plan to have that gone by lunch. I wonder if it’s going to cost me any more “PC” cash??? 

Thanks to Cindy and Jean for their input. Anyone else have a great organizing/storage tip they’d like to share?

(a 2pm addition to the original post)

Eureeka!!! The pile’s gone, the carpet’s vacuumed and it’s only 2 hours past lunch. Talk about feeling virtuous. I think I need a cup of tea and a piece of dark chocolate :-)!