I did get a couple Christmas gifts sewn this past week, but I've done far more rearranging than sewing. Our new bed arrived, so our bedroom needed to be rearranged. We can't fit our nightstands with the new bed, and our old bedframe was much nicer than the one in the guest room, so both the nightstands and the bedframe were moved to the guest room, which, of course, necessitated moving the old stuff out from the guest room! Now the guest room has been upgraded, and our bedroom has been upgraded. We put the guest room bedframe out and someone snagged it right away! I'm glad someone can use it.
My desk got moved to my craft corner in the living room.
I'm so used to using my computer in my bedroom, that using it in the living room is going to take some time to adjust to.
I mostly use this craft area in the evening while DH and I are watching TV. I'm not very good at sitting and watching something while doing nothing with my hands. I mostly do things like subcutting strips or trimming here. pressing a zillion units usually happens here too. I've got a small ironing board next to craft table, that I take out when I need it. This is also a handy place to work when I have the grandkids, which I do this weekend. I can keep an eye on them and still get a few mindless tasks done.
This week my mindless cutting project was taking the backs of DH's scrub tops from his nursing career and cutting them for a quilt.
I decided to use this pattern for his scrub tops and all the rectangles are cut the same size. I'm going to use a darker gray for the background. He had too many black scrub tops for me to use black. I'm also going to make it rectangular by adding another row of large blocks to the bottom. DH had so many scrub tops that I had made him over the years, that these rectangles weren't going to use much of the fabric I had saved from the backs of his tops. I decided to cut 10.5" squares too, and I'll piece those up for the backing.
Now instead of a teetering stack of scrub top backs, I have some rectangles cut for the front of his quilt, and the squares I'll piece for the backing. Tonight I plan on doing the math for the background fabric, and next week I'll try to get that cut. He's been retired almost a year, it's about time I started working on his quilt!
I'm already thinking ahead to next year as well. I typically do a declutter in January, and that is my goal for this coming January as well. I'd like to get a few things rearranged in the sewing studio too. One thing slated to be done then is already pretty much done. I wanted to empty a drawer or two where I store bias binding, and move my thread cones to the space I free up. I decided to add some pegboard to the quilt closet.
I just estimated where to put the hooks, but I think if I rearrange them a bit, I'll be able to put up more rolls of bias binding. The closet ceiling is dropped, so I don't have a lot of vertical space, and because the closet is quite narrow for a walk-in, I didn't want the pegboard too low on the wall, and be walking into it all the time. One thing I liked about adding the pegboard is, I'll just leave it if we ever move. With a narrow walk-in closet, it would come in handy to have pegboard on that wall, especially if the room is a bedroom again.
One of the goals I had for this year, that I didn't do, was to make 100 pillowcases. I only made about 20. I think cutting out the pillowcases in January would be perfect, because I'll be able to get some yardage off the shelves that is earmarked for pillowcases, and I can put away some fabric that I haven't been able to put away, for lack of space. I know with directional fabrics I'll end up with scraps, but with non directional fabrics I'm hoping for some empty spaces. I'm really hoping to get a bunch of quilt tops quilted next year too, and quilt backings is where I typically see the biggest dent in the stash.
It's funny, I simultaneously try to make dents in the stash, and am so thankful I have it. I was looking for some Pokemon flannel to make a couple of my grandsons pajama pants. The cheapest Pokemon flannel I found online was $17 per yard, and I'd need 3 yards to make them both pajama pants! Yeah, I could buy them already made pajamas for far less money. I can't even imagine trying to build a stash at today's prices! I'm 58 now, and I figure my stash will last most of my productive years. It's a big stash of fabric, but I am a prolific quilter, so I'm not going to stress about the amount of fabric I have. I'm just going to enjoy using it to bless other people.
