Step One…make a mess. Step Two…make it bigger!

“I’ll just reorganise my stash a little better“

I don’t even know what prompted the thought that popped in to my head, other than I had about an hour or so to spare while waiting for DH ~ we were heading off for a couple of days R & R. Also I had just bought a new light-box and didn’t have anywhere to put it so maybe these two events merged into the need to make better use of space, I dunno.

Anyway within a very short time this was what I was looking at.

Now I know I’m impulsive, 50+ years on this earth have taught me that much about myself but…Really! I needed someone to shout STOP/WAIT/PLAN. Those are skills I need to work on.

And that’s the mess that was there when DH and I left and when we came back.

I decided to change the fabrics into groupings of how I would USE them and that they ought to be more in styles & eras rather than colours (although in my shelves there are still some piles of colours, that’s just the way some are selected)

Here’s the work in progress, across the top row are categories Turkey Reds, Overdyed Greens, Indigoes, Cheddars, Prussian Blues and Madders ~ I guess Double or Cinnamon Pinks could also go in here but I don’t have enough to pinks to warrant a separate pile, nor space.  For me it’s easy to find any pink in the pink pile.

The second row gets more interesting.  Florals late 18th to mid 19th c made sense to me, so in here I have florals of all scales but they must be of that era.  I have another pile of florals that have a picotage ground as it helped to keep the piles more manageable. Ombres, Serpentine, Vermiculate & Eccentrics, Fine Stripes and Ribbon Prints make up this row.

 I also had eight tubs which took all those bits of fabric which are too small to go on the shelves and they were in colours, so when I was looking for a piece of red I would up-end the tub and rummage through the pieces from iddy biddy bits to fat 1/16 size just to make a berry.

Eureka! A berry tub, add leaves and make it for all those bits that are too small to do anything else with…or would just make great berries

I did the same for other fabric pieces and thought about how I would use it rather than its colour.

 I re-rolled as many tubes of fabric on to half bolts as I could, the tubes did look great leaning against the wall but I found that they were a pain to cut and put back…for me if it’s not easy to put away, it probably doesn’t get put away. Embarrassment much.

And now the whole room is all tidy and organised and it feels great.

I finished another quilt top, gotta love that.

As an aside…Lisa you may remember that fabric in the centre…you sent that to me a while back So this quilt reminds me of our friendship x

And in one last bit of news… it’s been a little bit ssshhh until now… but I can finally show you what I, Irene Blanck and Jennifer Murray have been working on for many months.

It was a great honour to be asked to design and make a quilt for our State Quilting Guild and we are just so pleased with the result…we hope it sells lots of tickets.  Apart from the four seams to join the blocks, and adding the border the entire top is by hand! Lots of applique and English Paper Piecing…techniques the three of us love.

Oh what the heck.. a couple more close ups!!You’re doing well to still be reading, what’s another minute

Sorry it’s such a long blog post, I just had so much I wanted to tell you.

happy stitching

until next

Margaret