getting organized

That right there is a Frankenstein photostitch of my quilting cottons stash.  While having it all folded and visible like that makes it less overwhelming to see, it doesn’t make it any less obvious that I need to continue my no-buying efforts and get started on some stash-busting projects pronto.

Getting all of that fabric folded somewhat uniformly was part of last weekend’s organization effort.  The husband was away for a good portion of the weekend, so I spent the most of the alone-time working on random house projects.  I used the stud finder & drill quite a bit and hung a lot of utility hooks on the walls.  Now all the garden tools have a home and the ladder is off the laundry room floor.   We also finally have curtains in the bedroom thanks to 2 Dwellstudio for Target shower curtains and my ability to sew a semi-straight line.

Next project in the queue for me is a complete reorganization of the laundry/utility room, including adding shelving to take advantage of the higher ceilings.  We never really thought through what having a finished garage would mean when we bought the house.  At the time, our tool collection could fit on one shelf, so we didn’t really think that we’d miss having an actual garage.  Now that the tools are overflowing the garage shelving we keep them relegated to, we’ve realized some organization strategies are in order.

catch up

Nope, I didn’t get sucked into a worm hole, I just got lazy.  So, let’s play a little catch up.

December:

• The dogs were very bad.  I’m pretty sure they were trying to break me.
• Took a 2 week road trip to see my folks in South Carolina and the boy’s grandma in southern Georgia.
  • Visited my living grandparents. Met my brother’s bulldog, Belle. Met Austin’s grandma. Ate a lot of low country bbq.
  • Only took 1 photo the entire trip – in Thomasville, GA.
• Embroidered and sewed 2 doll quilts for my SILS – beets & unicorns. Finished the granny squares for the holiday garland that I never assembled.
• Went to sleep extremely early on New Year’s Eve.  It was so nice to be in our own bed again.

January:

• Joined a gym. I both hate it and love it.
• Adopted a new kitty. He’s 9 months old and his name is Alonzo. He & Nitro get along really well.
• Joined Stash Pact 2011, but I already fell of the wagon and bought some Lizzy Dish.
• Hosted an Axis Powers themed dinner party / book club meeting at our house where we paired sausage & kraut with sushi. It was delicious.
• Signed up for 3 quilting/sewing swaps – 3×6 Mini Bee, Urban Home Goods & Doll Quilt Swap 10.
• Sandwiched and basted a t-shirt quilt I started this past spring. I’m hand quilting it while watching tv.

i can’t get no… motivation

The heat & the lack of circulation in my craft room has made sewing and ironing just seem unbearable, so I haven’t been getting much accomplished in there. Though my stash could desperately use some thinning as my fabric hording has gotten just a BIT out of control.

And I’ve only been working on my doll quilt for the swap in small increments. Progress is being made. Slowly, but surely.

The living room isn’t much better, with no ceiling fan and a vinyl sofa, but we do end up camped out there in the afternoons watching reruns on the Roku.  So, I have managed to finish up a knitting project that I’ve been working on for almost 2 years – socks for myself!

crafting as chore

I’ve been something of a crafting machine lately. I’m still trying to finish up some quilts that I started last summer, which involve cats, dragons, deer and flamingos. Not together, however. That’d be too much even for me. At this point they are very late christmas gifts, but I’m hoping to have them all done by the end of the month. They’re on the back burner until the end of the week while I hurry to finish this beauty up by Friday. I’m gifting it to a coworker who is gifting it to his partner. It’s my end of the trade that got me out of least favorite job duty.

I did take a short break from the furious knitting to sort through my vintage sheet stash and select a few prints to contribute to vintage sheet fat quarter swap that rosey little things is hosting. I could seriously sort and fold my sheet collection all day. I love the smell and rediscovering prints I forgot I even had. This swap has encourage me to finally cut into a few prints that I’ve been hoarding for a while. The majority of my vintage bedsheets are actually still in one piece and I am hoping this swap will be the motivation I need to get started on quilt with all the beautiful vintage fabric.

Oh, and while running errands on Saturday I ran into a crochet superstar at the LYS – Linda Perrman! I owe her an email, so I better get on that before I forget again.

strip quilt top

I finished sewing this together back in May, but I’ve had the hardest time figuring out where to photograph it. I still didn’t get a great shot, but it’ll do for now.

I am totally in love with that wavy stripe fabric, but I could only find 3 fat quarters of it. I was trying to evenly space the 2 stripes of the multi-colored fabric, but I ended up adding a few extra strips to the bottom of the quilt and now it looks a little off. I may end up moving the lower wavy stripe in order to balance it out. This quilt is intended for our queen size bed. I had hoped to have it quilted by the end of the summer, but since I’m at a loss as to what to do for the back and may end up repiecing the top, that doesn’t seem likely. I’m still really happy with the turquoise, brown & mustard combo, though. It’s good for me to step away from green every now & then.