Spring Clean your Studio 2020
This is such a good bloghop, my studio definitely needs a clean!
I think it’s getting a bit out of hand ….. time for a spring clean.
My machine is looking a bit tidier. Not too tidy, or I won’t be able to sew!
I have a tendency to finish a project and move rapidly on to the next project without doing a thorough clean and tidy in between.
Cutting table and fabric drawers…. not too messy!
This time, however, I have my (adult) daughter staying and one day when I was at work, she decided my fabric drawers needed work. Now, I classify fabric by colour and style: I have the bigger pieces folded at the front of each drawer and the debris shoved in the back. Apparently this wasn’t working …. My daughter refolded all the big pieces and put them back in the drawers. But then we had to iron and fold all the debris and sort it by colour into plastic boxes. Really? My drawers appear to be still full, but now I also have 16 ten litre boxes as well. How did that happen? She argues it will make scrap quilts and applique easier, and maybe it will. She also changed my classification system so now I’m confused, Roughly I have drawers for black and white; yellow, orange and brown; blue and purple; red; green; reproductions; special occasions; international; and, baby and novelty.
I don’t even want to think about how many quilts my scraps will make….. I need to live forever.
So, finally the holidays started and I kind of crashed. I’m just picking myself up again now. I’ve cleaned the windows, replaced the mozzie screens, tidied the stationery drawers, thrown out a lot of old hardcopy school worksheets, done a thorough vacuum, increased the size of my design wall, and found a spot for the two rolls of wadding I ordered. My sewing room is not very tidy, but it is organised, and this year, that might have to do. I even got to do some sewing yesterday.
My rearranged wall. The cross stitch was done by my grandmother or my great aunt. I need to work it out. The owl was made by my daughter with free machine thread work, and the farmhouse is my grandparents farm on my fathers side. It’s all very special to me.
The other big tidy I had to do was due to reorganising the whole house due to my other daughter coming home for a period because of the virus. Basically I had to turn the office which housed bookshelves, PC and desk back into a bedroom, which meant the computer, at least, had to find a space in my sewing room. Now this happened at the same time as an elderly friend passing on: the funeral was one day before the government passed the rule about only 10 people at funerals, and we went up to the internment, just before the state borders closed. It seemed like one weekend where everything changed, but I was dealing with the change to teaching online and so on. So... the computer got moved and then everything left ‘til the holidays. We can’t even visit my friend who lost her husband, though she too has an adult daughter now living with her and working from home. Lucky we have phones and internet and so on!
My grandmother’s sampler.
I decided to frame some textile items and hang them on the wall so I could enjoy looking at them. One was a sampler made by my grandmother. She had sewn it as a child in 1920, now it’s finally finished and framed in 2020. Another is a tiny little 16 patch hand sewn doll’s quilt that I had made for my sister when I was a child. I had no idea what I was doing, but had carefully fussy cut a little blue chambray print with tiny flower sprigs, and hand sewn squares together. It’s 3.5 inches square and was for her doll’s house. The fact that it survived is testament to my mother’s preference for passing things on rather than throwing them out.
3.5 inch dolls house quilt that I made for my sister when I was about 14. The little white flowers have rubbed off leaving the blue leaves.
The projects I’ve left out include a baby quilt my daughter is quilting, some linen to make pair of trousers, some cotton/linen to alter a dress, my slice quilt which needs the sky and sea to be added, but this is a slice quilt and I need to be sure my piece will fit with its neighbour that someone else is making.
Lots of little bits and a few handy gadgets: binder, label maker, laminator, iron.
I know it’s the same for us all, but this tidy up has taken me weeks of doing a few things each day and I’m just stunned by how hard it’s been. Even writing this blog has been an exercise in interruptions. During the day I’ve also made some tab top curtains for my daughter, helped my mother get on Zoom for the first time, helped another quilting friend get on zoom, chatted to friends (phone, facetime and zoom), bound some patterns, refilled ink in the printer, folded the washing, made some bone broth, panicked because I thought the blog was late(!), vacuumed, cleaned the mirrors, did dishes, made tea. Anyway, it’s all good, my studio is tidy at least once this year, and tomorrow I’m going to catch up with my online courses, start writing next terms lesson plans and maybe even sew. Well, I think I’ll try to do at least some of each.
What are you all doing? Is your studio looking the best its ever looked? Are the ufo’s getting finished and the fabric folded and the machine cleaned and oiled? All the best to everyone and isn’t it lovely to have quilting friends across the world to connect with.
A spot of tidying up makes me feel much better.
Don’t forget to check out the other blogs and enjoy the creative spaces.
April 1 - Sam Hunter - http://www.hunterdesignstudio.com
April 2 - Bobbie Gentili - http://www.geekybobbin.com/category/blog
April 3 - Jennifer Fulton - http://www.inquiringquilter.com/questions
April 4 - Martha Wolf - http://Www.pinwheelprodns.com
April 5 - Jennifer Strauser - http://www.dizzyquilter.com
April 6 - Steph Carton - http://www.theelimonster.com/blog
April 7 - Simone Fisher - http://www.simonequilts.com/blog
April 8 - Kate Colleran - http://www.seamslikeadream.com
April 9 - Carlina Moore - http://www.alwaysexpectmoore.com
April 10 - Jen Frost - http://www.faithandfabricdesign.com
April 11 - Leanne Parsons - http://www.devotedquilter.com
April 12 - Becca Fenstermaker - http://www.prettypiney.com/blog
April 13 - Sarah Myers - http://www.quilted-diary.com
April 14 - Mitzi Redd - http://www.reddhomestead.com
April 15 - Jeanette Larson - http://www.Jenonthefarm.com
April 16 - Camille Ainsworth - http://www.stitchinthenw.com
April 17 - Becky Philips Jorgenson - http://www.patchworkposse.com
April 18 - Marian Pena - http://www.seamstobesew.com
April 19 - Janellea Macbeth - http://www.janelleamacbeth.com/blog/
April 20 - Lisa Ruble - http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com
April 21 - Debra Davis - http://www.tuning-my-heart.com/blog
April 22 - Rona Herman - http://www.Ronatheribbiter.com
April 23 - Sue Griffiths - http://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com
April 24 - Sarah Ruiz- http://www.saroy.net/
April 25 - Jessica Caldwell - http://www.desertbloomquilting.com/
April 26 - Tammy Silvers - http://www.tamarinis.com
April 27 - Ebony Love - http://www.lovebugstudios.com/blog
April 28 - Cheryl Sleboda - http://blog.muppin.com