I tackled a project this week that has been grinding on me. Look at the picture you see below. Do you see anything odd?
I sure do. I see it all the time. I see it every time I use the bathroom on the main floor of my house and every time I see it I kick myself for not just “doing it”.
Did you see what I see?
The sleeve on that quilt NEVER got sewn down. I made this quilt YEARS ago…likely more than 10 years ago. I made it as a club piece from Country Threads. AHH!! I made it right away when the pattern came out. I just never sewed that sleeve down.
In my defense, it’s been hanging on a wall…with pins. So it was no big deal. Then over a year ago, I bought this little ladder at the thrift store for $4. I took the quilt off the wall and hung it here. It’s been like this ever since. AHH.
Every time I passed it I was reminded how I don’t get things done that need to get done.
So…On Thursday the neighbor girl came over here for childcare. I don’t do regular daytime childcare for people anymore but I will take kids on occasion to help out. The neighbor girls are super nice and they go to school with my daughter Kalissa’s boys.
Anyway, I sat by her at naptime and I stitched the sleeve down. It took me 15 minutes…WHY OH WHY haven’t I done this before? Countless times I’ve beaten myself up over it and it truly took me 15 mintues…AH.
I just love this wall hanging. Here it is all laid out…
It was a Country Threads wall hanging. It’s a favorite of mine. You can find the pattern in THIS book.
Whew…much better.
Thanks again Ila for the spice cabinet. I just love it!!
I worked some more on my leader and ender project. I’m just making blue nine patches. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them. I only know that I had lots of blue and white strips from when I made my True Blue quilt and this is a great way to use them up…
Ila, my blog reader friend, sent me a bunch of turnover pieces from American Jane fabric. I’ve started them as a leader and ender too… No, I don’t need another project but I’m such a sucker for simple and easy.
I’m going simple and plan to just sew them together into half-square triangles and then sew them all together. I’ll use it as a charity quilt. It will be bright and cheery.
Not a lot of sewing got done this week. It was a busy week with lots of starts and stops. It was one of those weeks that I didn’t get a big segment of time to really sit and sew. Instead, I ended up with half an hour here and there. When my days go like that, I tend to only sew on something that doesn’t require decisions and thinking…
Thus my leader and enders and star blocks saw some time.
I did get my sewing room tidied…not all the way. I still have a few baskets of scraps that I need to cut down and sort but that can wait.
I sorted through my pieces for my grandson Anders’ baby quilt. I wrote a blog post a couple of days ago about that. If you missed it, you can read about that HERE.
I am off…I am writing this on Sunday and have some time to myself for just a bit so I’m going to try to get my hourglass quilt bound. It’s time. I’ve loved working on the quilt but I really want it finished!! 
Fingers crossed I can get it done AND photographed AND a blog post written about it this week. If I can, you’ll see this in the Saturday morning post…I think I can…I think I can.
What’s your goal for the week?? Please leave a comment and let us know…and by the way, did anyone else get their sewing room tidied up?
Well, I’m in the process of tidying up my sewing closet. Everything gets thrown in there when there’s no room – dog food, cat food, stuff that’s been sitting around and we don’t know what to do with it. I also have two tubs outside that I need to do something with – either send them off for donations or actually make a quilt. I also want to try my hand at a rug using jelly rolls and 2 1/2 inch batting.
I’ve got to do something as we’ll be back on the road in April!
Looking forward to seeing how you did your hourglass quilt – so pretty!
Ah – the life of RVing – I want to do but have no more room…sigh. :-D
Love and prayers
It feels so good to finish up those little details!
Since my sewing room is the first thing someone sees when they come into my house, I have to keep it pretty neat all the time
I had a productive day yesterday. Quilted and bound a baby quilt, 2 10 minute table runners made and I finished a cross stitch piece. This week my goal is to organize my sewing room and start a new cross stitch piece that has a 4/1 deadline. Thanks for the motivation!!
So why do we do that – many of us do it? We know something just needs a simple fix and we ignore doing it! My sister is the opposite, and I know she shakes her head or rolls her eyes when she sees something like that in my house. Oh well, we have the right. Beautiful quilt!
I’m in the midst of Karen Brown’s De-clutter Challenge that started Jan. 1. My sewing space is already much better (and dusted) and I cleaned and oiled my machine. Some things are cleared out, things have been put away, and as I move things, I dust and vacuum. It’s a good start for 2023!
I’m right there with you, Jo. This past week, I put on my big girl panties and patched a hole in the drywall where a railing had torn out, and reattached the railing a couple inches away so it was into a stud. I spackled and then sanded that and another two spots on the same wall that had been spackled but not smoothed out–wait for it–25 years ago when we moved into this house! On a roll, I bought paint to repaint that area (after I recovered from the cost of a gallon of paint, aye-yi-yi). Congrats on getting your quilt stitching done!
I hear ya on the cost of paint!! This last summer we had extensive remodeling done to 3 rooms and I was shocked at how much a gallon of paint was…$50!! Seriously??? The bathroom paint was even more! YIKES. I remember when it was $5.99/gallon. Haha.
It was over $60 a gallon for me, and that was with my “Paint Perks” discount plus 30% off the total!
I’m still fixing up my sewing room. Hubby put up a new light I got at Habitat for $4 and I bought a bedroom dresser for fabrics. It’s looking good. I made a quilt from Jordan Fabrics using a jelly roll that had only 5 different prints, and it turned out so cute. I’m getting new light bulbs for the light as I prefer bright daylight bulbs. I have fabrics ready to cut out tomorrow for a quilt that comes from a book for ‘romantic quilts’. I think it will be pretty.
I am going to start on a quilt my friend wanted me to make for her daughters baby. I’ve been waiting for a stretch of time to work on it because the cutting looks a little complicated. Once I have that down I hope it goes fast.
My goal is to finish a charity quilt top..just need to sew borders on, layer another charity quilt together after I find batting pieces to sew together, work on a quilt with dog faces, only 25 blocks and I have on3 done. My biggest goal is to get Bonnie Hunter’s Chilhowie quilt finished and that’s a time intense. I think I can get these done as long as I don’t get distracted by something else which is usually what happens.
We let those little things go – often because there are more pressing matters to deal with at the time. Yep – I’ve done the same thing, more often than I’d like to admit.
Tidying up the sewing room is going on here, basically because I have 30+ relatives coming this weekend and it will turn into a bedroom for someone. It’s really more of a “stash that stuff out of the way” project – hope I can find things later! LOL! The same goes for other parts of the house – gotta make room for the guests. I’m also baking and freezing pies etc. for the weekend plus making sure everything is organized. So – it’s a busy week with no sewing and very little cross-stitching, but there is a promised reward of having a blast with the family! (And a long winter’s nap after everyone leaves… :) )
I HAVE to rearrange my sewing room. It has been used for a “half storage” area for over 6 years and now the big pieces, which were being stored, are going out the door!! That’s a huge win for me! I get to claim a complete room as my own for 2023. So the tidying & organizing is part of the process. I am considering even painting the walls for a fresh start & would like to find a shelf storage solution as well.
I’d love to see pictures when you’re done. I’m sure it will look great!!
Check out Connie’s sewing room, space and shelving on Country Threads Chicken Scratch! Connie got her shelving at IKEA. I love those units!
I have been organizing my sewing room too. Went through some of my fabric. I am giving several pieces of fabric to Threads of Love. This group sews and crochets for babies in ICU for premies and Dell Children Hospitals in the Austin, TX area. I donate my crochet blankets and quilt blankets to them. I have more fabric to go through. It was such a good feeling to clean out my bins. I also finished two quilt tops, found backing for them and ready for them to go the quilter. Made room for my many projects in the closet. Take care of yourself. Love seeing everything you.
You all are inspiring me! Have to get to the mess in my sewing/guest/Christmas present staging room. Yup: all one room. The good news is my fiance bought a special lamp to brighten my sewing machine area. Yes, a fiance. The special man in my life proposed in December, so at 76 yrs old I have a fiance! I was widowed at 69 and never imagined this would happen. I am also a fairly new quilter. Thanks, Jo, for all the helpful info and tips.
Congrats!! Enjoy life together!!
I’m going to try to at least pin 2 quillts that need to be finished! My sewing room is pretty much cleaned up & comfortable once again.
I came down with Covid on Dec. 15. Today is my first day without feeling exhausted and needing a nap! As soon as I get done with my grandson’s birthday tomorrow, I will start working on my disaster of a sewing room. Last year I participated in the Just Get ‘er Done January quilt blog’s 21 day cleanup. How is it possible for me to have accumulated so much stuff on every horizontal surface , including the floor? I can’t wait to get it licked into shape so I can enjoy sewing again!!!
I recognize that American Jane fabric! In fact, I have a quilt cut out from it…for probably 4 years now. I made a quilt for the grandson for Christmas and after looking for marking devices in about 20 places, I decided I needed to reorganize my sewing room. We moved twice in 2 years and it’s just never gotten to where I want it. So I made a large purchase of Art Bin containers and while starting to pull things out of the closet, I found the afore mentioned quilt. And 3 others in various stages. I had forgot about all of them. One is going to my brother when we visit him in February so I’m working on that instead of cleaning and organizing. My grandson did have a lovely time playing with my buttons and an empty Art Bin box yesterday while I sewed.
I straightened up my sewing room a little bit. But then, SQUIRREL!!!! I saw a table runner I just had to make. Hopefully once I get that done, I can start cleaning my sewing room.
HA!! Awesome to know it’s not just me that does that!!
I enjoyed your article. Thank you for listing the pattern for the top quilt on the ladder. Would you share the pattern for the quilt on the bottom rung? It looks beautiful!
I’m putting together a blog post about this…
Have been working on studio for 2 weeks. No sewing!!! BUT I can see some of the table tops & floor!!!??? Finished the “KIT” inventory (self created), it was over 100, now 87. Re thought, culled fabric, re imagined. OH JOY. I’ve lost abut 80 lbs., in stuff, not my weight. Jo, your studio issues are workd wide in any artist’s studio. I have 3 Q’s planned which are influenced by you. Can I guilt you for my lack of direction to back projects, HAHA? Keep warm & safe all.