Organization is almost finished

Good evening,

I cannot believe how well the organization has gone in the sewing room. Downsizing has helped tremendously. There are a couple things yet that I have to talk about and go through but it is really coming together. I feel I have a lot more room in my closet and all the things that were cluttering the room are almost gone.

The last week or so I have been trying to organize fabrics. With most items that I have downsized so far, I have given away or sold the extra items, but the thought of parting with fabrics does not appeal to me. I guess for a couple of reasons, one is I really like my stash and the second the price of fabric keeps rising.

My fabric is all stored in Ikea units. It is organized by color, it took me 20 years of quilting to want to organize it by colors instead of by fabric collections.

Fabric that was stored in cubby holes or in the basement has all been sorted and is all in the sewing room now. These fabrics for instance that were in bags below are no longer there and I can actually open up both closet doors 😂😂I am really trying to challenge myself to use up my stash, so far I have not bought even a fat quarter of fabric this year. Hard to believe I have made it three months, I don’t think I’ve ever gone that long. The real test will be at Shipshewana in another week. Below is a picture of three projects I have packed for Shipshewana. I will make sure to post plenty of pictures in a smile, box when I return.

More organization soon, the next subject will be books.

Take care and I hope you find some time to work on a special project.

Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter,

Rosemary

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Organizing the quilt room closet and Happy National Quilting day

Dear friends,

I cannot believe how fast I have accomplished most of my organization and downsizing. So happy to be sharing the clutter in my room with so many. This week I chose to work on my quilt room closet.It’s been in disarray, it contains projects and some odds and ends, it was time to take everything out and reorganize.There’s plenty of Snap ware in my closet that contains projects that I have forgotten about over the years. This project has been in my closet the longest, I am not sure why I haven’t finished this quilt, Matter of fact there are enough blocks in the box to probably make two or three of them. The next box is filled with baby quilts, all of them are already cut, seems like it would just be really simple to put them together but I bet that box has been in the closet for at least 10 years. These two boxes are full of tumblers, I love tumblers, you don’t have to think when you put them together. They are a perfect project for going on a retreat. There are definitely enough tumblers to make two full-sized quilts.The next box contains squares that were cut quite a while back, the Fabrics are from the Michigan State Museum collection. I decided ever pull that box and leave that out this week and start putting those together. So far I have turned them into some beautiful 16 patches. I am thankful that I don’t have many projects that I haven’t finished over the years. Most of the projects I have completed along the way, not even sure why these boxes were passed over. It was fun to revisit the closet, and hopefully over the next couple years I will finish the boxes that need to be completed.

Now the closet is re-organized, not everything was put back in the closet, somethings will be downsized as there is no need for them. I’m glad that I have inspired some of you to do the same, it is good to know that many of my things that I am not using or I don’t plan to use in the future are going to good homes.Today is national quilting day, and I hope that you find time to work on a special project. Here are a couple photos from this past week, I finished the first Forest Park friendAnd I finished another birds of liberty block. I am loving how these blocks are coming together.

So maybe perhaps you have not looked in your closet lately, maybe one of your celebrations for national quilting day today will be to do so. You might be amazed at what you find.

Happy national quilting day,

Rosemary

Projects and continuing organization

Good morning,

We have had a really easy February here, definitely not much snow and warmer temperatures. Spring is definitely around the corner.

Organization continues at our house, continuing to have fun every week as I pick something to re-organize and downsize. So far we have gone through

Quilt kits

Magazines

Notions

Thread

Cutting tools

Patterns

Scissors

Rulers

Scraps

It has made a big difference, even choosing a small item in your sewing room can make a difference. Today we are choosing bags, how many of us go to a quilt show and we come home with a new bag, before we know what, our collection has grown. Seriously, how many bags do I need. Here are just some of my bags.

I have a favorite bag, I love it because it is so large and it is fun to travel with. Definitely comes in really handy.

Some bags are just very colorful and will be harder to part with but then again do we need all these bags. No, I am going to pick and choose and take my bag collection down to three or four. Again it will make more Space in my sewing room.

Somethings I have sold on eBay or in a Facebook group and somethings I have just given away. It’s funny, I probably have made over a thousand dollars getting rid of things that are just taking up space that I’m never going to use.

I am continuing to work on the Di ford sampler blocks, total is now up to six. Each one is like a separate adventure.

I added to my embroidery projects the Park forest friends, such darling little embroideries. 10 different patterns, the little grandchildren will love them.

And I can’t even tell you how much I am loving English paper piecing with the hexagons and pentagons, everyone of them seems to be a different adventure with picking out fabrics. I think I could make them forever

I also ran across a book when the cold wind blows, One of the quilts in the book has blocks that are 28 inches, I immediately started that new project.. just in the process of drawing out the patterns, but it certainly is going to be another wonderful adventure. It is fun to have so many projects that inspire me, it is hard to choose every day which one I want to work on.

Until next week, wishing you some time to find something special to stitch. Happy stitching,

Rosemary

Paper piecing and the next thing to downsize.

Dear friends,

MS is a really weird disease, for a long time I wasn’t able to do much by hand, many years matter of fact but lately I have been given a gift and I have been able to do hand work again. I am feeling very blessed and right now I am working on a English paper piecing project.

I am just having so much fun, I am in the process of making many pentagons and hexagon flowers. I’m amazed at how each one is like a miniature adventure, so much fun to chose the fabrics and put them together. I certainly have enough fabric in my stash to have a big variety of flowers.😂😂

So what is the item for downsizing this week, kits. I really was kind of thrilled that I didn’t have that many kits as I thought I did but I have many I know I will never do. Out of these kits, only one of them I am working on currently and that is the birds of liberty which I just love. The blocks are preprinted embroidery and they are printed in color, so much fun to work on.So I decided that I’m going to go through my kits, there definitely are some that I’m going to keep and finish some day but most of them I wIll part with and list for sale. There are over 25 kits here, and I’m going to try to downsize to about 5-7 of them . Will I miss them, absolutely not.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for all of you that have emailed me how I have inspired you to downsize and go through your stash. I have absolutely loved reading about your downsizing and suggestions.

Happy stitching,

Rosemary

Plenty of snow this week, A nine patch quilt, Organization of magazines

Dear friends,

It has been very snowy here in Michigan, I think we received about 20 inches of snow since last weekend. It looks like we will have a break for a while, it will be nice for some of this snow to melt.

Remember all those scraps I cut up in January, plenty of strips, this big bucket of strips. Well…..A group of us from the Shipshewana retreat decided that we would make a nine patch quilt that was a reproduction of one that was hanging in a church cabin in Shipshewana. The quilt consisted of 30 blocks that each had 9 nine patches in them. So I began a journey and started using up some of the strips to make nine patches. It looks like I didn’t make a dent in the bucket, it looks like the strips even grew.

My quilt finished 81 x 96. Simple but a fun pattern to work on.

So now to get to the organization and destashing for the week. Magazines, I’ve never really collected many quilt magazines except for the Australian patchwork and quilting. I love that magazine, I love the full-size insert.

I spent many years collecting them, from the first issue on, I stopped a little while ago and I now have over 170 of them. They sit in a very neat pile in my sewing room, do I ever use them? Not really, I have a couple of times.

It is time to part with the magazines, it will make more room in my sewing room and that is the whole object of the re-organization. I have really enjoyed taking one item at a time every week for re-organization. It is making a difference.

Have a great week, Happy stitching,

Rosemary

PS: if you are interested in purchasing my collection of magazines, please drop me an email ryquilter1@msn.com

Organization of notions and foxes are finished

Dear friends,

How many of us have notions that you have no idea what they are used for and have never used them. I certainly do. This large jewelry chest was my moms, my dad gave it to me when she passed away. It definitely has become storage notions and everything else I don’t know what to do with.

Drawer upon drawer of disorganization, Definitely time to sort through everything. Hopefully once they are organized I will be able to find what I need.

I Purchased these see-through trays that are stacked up on one another and I use that for my every day notions.

I started a box while I’m going through this organizational period and everything I don’t need or I’m know I’m not going to use is going to the box. I will be taking it to the next retreat and put the words free on it and anybody that wants anything in the box may take it home with them. I already am finding that I need a much bigger box because I have quite a few things to go yet.Another organization task that I did this week was I finished cutting all of my fleece scraps and odd pieces into 6 1/2 inch squares. I now have over 300 6 1/2 squares and no scraps left. I thought they would be a wonderful thing for the grandchildren to sew together. My favorite thing of the week was finishing the foxes, each quilt finished 76 x 92. Love how they turned out.

Hope that you’re finding some time to organize your sewing rooms.

Happy stitching,

Rosemary

Next item for downsizing, Thread

Dear friends,

Just an update on patterns that I did last week, the winner of the six patterns was from New Jersey for guessing that I have nine grandchildren, number 10 is on the way this summer. As a bonus because I had so many patterns In my stash, anyone that guessed the right amount after the winner was sent a pattern from my stash. So I am thrilled to say that the extra patterns in my sewing room are gone.

What I didn’t give away I listed on eBay and other sites, I am having so much fun picking something else every week, even though it might be a small item it is making a difference and it is definitely helping me to downsize my sewing room.

So this week I chose a rather simple item, Thread. I don’t know if I realized how many different types of thread I had. I really only use one thread for my machine, Gutermann, and usually use a white or off-white thread.

I’ve had the box of thread, silk thread and others sitting around for a long time. It will is time to part with them and get organized.I really want to order a set of the new Aurifil thread for appliqué.

So I now have this cabinet with the pull out drawers full of Gutermann thread. The rest will be sold or given away, again it was a simple item but it will be nice not to have a Tangled mess of threads and not have threads laying around that I don’t use..

Next week I will talk about notions. It will take me a while to gather them all. One thing about getting rid of things, I actually have made about $125 so far with my downsizing.

Update on my projects this week, I now have 160 Foxes finished waiting to be put in quilts.

Happy stitching,

Rosemary