The Mess That Is My Sewing Room

I said I'd show the process of rearranging the sewing room. This is never a pretty sight. I tend to dump everything in a big pile, and sort as I put things away. I am sure when I get to the putting away point, a few things will be purged, but I had a huge purge last year, so I don't know how much I'll part with this year. I thought I'd be farther along in the process that I am, but this week has been unusually busy, so the workbench still hasn't been moved out of the room, which means I can't set up the new cutting table, you know it goes. Here is where I am now.

This is the view from the doorway.The far side of the room is piled with quilty "stuff". Underneath some of that stuff is my Singer 99 in a cabinet. See the workbench, right in the middle of the room. This is getting passed to DH, and hopefully it will be moved out of here this weekend.

Here is my Juki cabinet. I just lowered the back flap down  about an hour ago. I've quilted three quilts in the last three weeks, and I am ready to take a short break from that and have the Juki cleaned and serviced. I realized the other day I haven't had that done on the Juki since I bought it, and I bought it in February 2009. Oops! The sew and vac guy who services my mechanical machines is quick and reasonably priced. I really have no excuse for waiting so long. Once DD#2's bookshelves (on the far right hand side of the photo) are moved out my sewing room, I will move the Juki cabinet forward and keep the back flap up all the time.

My Bernina cabinet is now against the wall, (well actually about an inch from the wall, I needed space for my chain piecing to be able to hang down) and I've yet to sew on it since I moved it. I will be using it while the Juki is in the shop getting its spa treatment.

DD#3 only has six more days of this college semester left. After that I should have a bit more time for sewing until fall semester starts in August. She and the twins live with us, so I'll have 2 two year olds underfoot no matter what, but I won't be their primary caregiver during the summer.

I have been trying to come up with summer goals, since I will have some extra sewing time. I tried to do a quick count of where I am in my projects and although I could have missed something big with the mess, I think my projects are at this point right now.

2 quilts quilted - bind this summer
2 quilts pin-basted - quilt and bind this summer.
4 quilt tops done, 3 of which have backings ready to go - I'd like to finish all of these this summer as well.
6 or 7 quilts with the blocks done, waiting for assembly - I'd love to get these to quilt top stage, but won't stress about it if I don't.
I also have several projects in just the piecing stage, not even completed blocks. One of those I'd like to finish this year, but the other ones are just long term leader/ender projects.

As far as deadline quilts go, two quilts I need to finish by the end of June, one of those is in the pin-basted category, one is a quilt top. Those will be my primary projects when the Juki comes back from the spa. I have one baby quilt to make, but depending on the sex of the baby, I may be able to use one I already have made, or possibly just finish the one I have as a completed top now. I need to start three wedding quilts, one for a wedding in November, two for weddings without dates as of yet, likely next year. For the November wedding, I could just take the "easy" way out and give them my "Easy Street" mystery quilt, which is at block stage. I am debating a few patterns as well, something that uses my pre-cut strips or squares. I likely won't decide for sure until I get a few projects crossed off my to do list.

We have two trips planned for this summer, so I won't have all summer available to sew anyway, and DS the Elder and his family will be moving here to Tucson in two weeks, so that may take up a bit of time too, just helping them get settled. I also will be finishing the rearranging of my sewing room.

Overall, I think things sound good, a couple deadlines to keep me motivated, several projects getting close to completion, and lots of ideas, but not too much pressure. It should be a good summer.