Organizational Plan

Over the past several months the studio has become more and more just a place of clutter.  When I want to do something I have to clear a spot to work and the clutter has made it even harder to use what little time I had.  So yesterday I devised a workable, I hope, plan to de-cluttering and yet having sewing time, too.  Since I have several applique projects going (all machine applique) I will applique one block and then spend the same amount of time putting things away.


So yesterday I appliqued three of my Funky Chickens.  Don’t those needle holes look big?  But experience has taught me that they will shrink back to size when the quilt is washed so I don’t worry.  Besides, the needle is really not that big.





Anyway, these three are finished and ready to be a quilt once we have all 12 in our chicken coop.  I do most of my applique with invisible thread and a zigzag stitch which seems to work really well.










In between chickens I cleared off the ironing board and started whacking off the top of the fabric mountain that has grown on the cutting table.  One bad thing about having a large table is that I can leave stuff there and move on to a new project and it isn’t in the way until there are 6 or 7 projects worth of fabric, rulers, and other assorted tools on there.  I finally was using a 2’x2’ space to do all my cutting and fusible drawing.





I did take some time off to document the rain we had (30 hours of it).  This gauge only shows the last 4”, the first 3” were accidently dumped by the dogs. 













I don’t know if you can see but we are on well water and our pump is about a quarter underwater.  I have always wanted to live on the water so I just pretended this was a lake.  When the rain stopped it only took about 2 hours for all of this to be gone.











However, while it was raining it was like living inside a waterfall. 











I put the plants in a semi-protected area so they got mostly the splash of the water falling on the outside area of the deck: I won’t have to water them again for a couple of days. 









Yesterday I received the panel I won in a giveaway from Kate of Life In Pieces.  The panel is about 4’x3’.












Although I don’t plan on using these blocks with it, I think that a layout something like this would work for it.  I will be putting it away for now but probably get it back out next summer when I begin working on Christmas stuff again. 







Along with the panel Kate sent these note cards and tweezers (I apologize for cutting the head off of the tweezers: will get a better picture for DWM).  I didn’t realize until I opened the cards that Kate made them and they are beautiful.  As for the tweezers, they are great.  I already have a similar pair that I use all the time and now I can have one at another sewing station.  When I got the first one I thought it was just cute (she has red hair) but they are long and get into places my fingers can’t and they hold tight: excellent.

Now I better get back to my organizational plan.  I am currently waiting for the Direct TV person to show up.  He called to tell me he wouldn’t make it until after lunch and then I just got a recorded message saying he will be here in about 1 1/2 hours.  Who knows!?!