What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Doing one task every two months is a far cry from doing two every month — I’ve gotten way off track!

But it’s high time we tackled another one, so here we are today . . .

I gave us two choices last time, and I’ve been working on both of those pretty steadily. I think I now have my bookcase cleaned out enough that all the books and magazines I’m keeping will all fit in there  — possibly with a bit of room to spare! (Because as I finish moving, I’ll probably find several random ones stashed in other ...

I completely missed posting any January tasks. I’m pretty sure my brain was frozen. We’re back into another frigid cold spell for the weekend, and I’m typing this with blue fingers, but I did at least realize that the 15th was a couple days ago, and I should really post an organizing challenge.

Since I missed last month altogether, I’m giving you two choices this time. You can pick the one you think you need the most, or do both of them — it’s up to you!

Here’s the first one:

Tackle the books and ...

I’m so glad I posted that last challenge — you all have so many good ideas for how to store rulers!

I’m only posting one challenge this month because . . . at the end of the month, we will be doing The Final Countdown! I’m always so excited for that, since it gives me a fresh start on the new year. I hope you’re ready to do it with me this time. I’m trying to dream up some good tasks.

Meanwhile, here’s our challenge for this time . . .

Sort through the office supplies

You know . . . tape, staples, paper ...

I keep forgetting to post an organizing challenge for us. I just keep chipping away at old challenges, trying to pare down the stuff some more. I hope you, too, revisit the old ones when I forget to add a new one. You can find them all HERE. Or if you simply don’t need to do the one I post, you can visit the page and choose one that you do need to work on. In fact, that was what I recommended for our last challenge, which was way back in September!

But I’ve hopefully gotten my act ...

I haven’t posted a Studio Organizing Challenge in quite some time! I’ve simply been too busy with deadlines to worry about organizing. Thankfully, the mess didn’t get too much worse while I was in the throes of all that, but still, regular organizing DOES need to happen around here to keep things under control.

And what I’m doing for this month’s challenge is what I feel is a necessary one:

Revisit a task you didn’t get finished earlier

Go back. Pick a task you never got finished with previously. See if you can get ...

Where has this month gone? I thought I’d get so much more done than I have.

I did clean out three project tubs. None of them are emptied, but they are cleaned out and I know what’s in them. Two of them are projects that should be fairly quick and easy to finish, so I hope to show those to you soon.

My ultimate goal is to have way fewer tubs, but so far, when I get an empty one, I fill it right back up with something else! Uff!

Our guild is fixin’ to have a garage ...

Well! I sure hope you all did better with the last challenge than I did. In fact, I think my cutting table actually looks worse than it did before I started!!

You can see the before photo HERE.

Here is its current state as of this morning:

Ugh! Not a lot of difference, even with Thelma’s help!

Here’s what happened . . .

Instead of clearing everything off the table, I decided to try and work my way through it all. Evidently, a terrible plan, because that takes waaaayyyy too long.

So let’s try something a bit more do-able this ...

Did you find a random tub to clean out last time? I know some of you did. It’s always fun to hear about what you find while organizing. And comforting to know that I’m not alone!

I ended up cleaning out all four of the little tubs on the top of my gigantic tub pile (which you can see HERE). Now I need to keep going and work my way through the boxes and larger tubs as well. I still have a lot to do!

But meanwhile, it’s time for the next task. And I don’t ...

I have an after photo to show you from the last task we tackled! Look at this! You can see the before photo HERE.

It feels so much better. Almost all of it was simply stuff that needed to be put away where it belongs. Why do I let it pile up???

Another question it raises is: Will I be able to find those things next time I look for them? Haha! I have a habit of quickly putting things away and then not remembering where I put them!

I’m hoping that, as time goes on, I have less ...

Well, I did it! I stopped procrastinating, set in on that messy corner, and here’s what I ended up with!

I haven’t had my hand-quilting frame set up for nearly 11 years! The poor quilt that’s in it has been languishing for that long! It’s not a hand-quilted quilt, either — it’s a quilt that I’m tying — so I should be able to finish it up pretty quickly, if I’ll just take the time to sit and work on it a little at a time. And then it desperately needs to be washed after ...

Well, it didn’t take me long to fill my cutting table back up after I cleared it off, but I’m *this close* to finishing two more quilt tops, so I hope that mess is only temporary. And after I cleaned and oiled my machine, it started skipping stitches. I was ready to pitch it out the window, but it finally got itself lined out and started behaving. I had to change the needle a second time — uff!

So my “organizing” has been more work than I intended lately. But I go through spells, so I’m not surprised ...

Hey, there! How’s your main work surface looking?

I’ve been trying to clean mine off by working through the piles, and that makes for really slow going! But I did finish two quilt tops last week, so I got to put away a lot of leftovers, and got rid of a few piles Here’s what it looks like as of this morning:

Better, but still too many teetering piles! I’ll keep working through those, but in the meantime, it’s time for another challenge. And I know just what needs to happen around here, so I ...

How did you do with the paper clutter last time? I got rid of quite a bit, and one of my tables is clear, but there is always more I could do, so I’ll keep at it.

Meanwhile, it’s somehow past time for another task, so before the month gets away from me, let’s pick something, shall we?

I’ve been under the crunch of several massive deadlines lately, so I have quite a “craftermath” to clean up, and I also need something easy since my brain is nearly fried, so . . . let’s:

Clean off your main ...

Well! I completely dropped the ball on a second organizing task for February. I didn’t even realize until today that I forgot to post a second one, and I’m already late with the first one for March! What have I been doing?

I guess I’ve been so busy sewing that time has gotten away from me. Today is the start of Daylight Savings Time, which I also forgot about, and woke up wondering why the dogs slept in! And next week will mark the beginning of spring, altho it’s still drifting between cold and tolerable weather ...

Well, here’s my bag of scraps. Not empty, but I’ve sure made a dent in it. And not much of it has gone into my pre-cuts! This bag had mostly really tiny pieces in it, but I use a lot of tiny pieces, so it works out great for me.

From this bag, so far, I’ve cut pieces for NINE scrap quilts that I already have going, sorted the triangles for my friend, Barb, put the strings into the string bucket, and thrown away whatever was seriously not usable. That means that when this bag is empty ...

Well, all I managed to get done with the last task was clean out the drawers in my sewing machine cabinet, and thankfully, they weren’t too messy. But now I have fresh bobbins wound, all attachments are back in place, I bought a new bottle of machine oil to keep on hand, and all my machine piecing thread is gathered up in one place. So it’s a small step in the right direction.

And honestly, the rest of my notions aren’t in horrible shape, so they’ll wait for me to let this task come around again ...

Did you all survive The Final Countdown?

Ready to tackle even more organizing?

I’ve finished a few quick-to-finish things already this month, which means I’m already starting to check some things off my list, and I’m still chipping away at that pile in my spare room. This is a BIG downsizing year for me, and I’ll tell you why a bit later on, but I’m looking at everything again with new eyes to see what else I can do to get things more under control around here.

I’ve made great strides the last few ...

Here we go! This is our last organizing task before The Final Countdown! It’ll give us a small head start.

I like all of your ideas for the areas you planned to work on for the last challenge. I’ve continued to improve on my new handwork area, moving some things closer because that’s where I’ll use them, going through boxes and sorting projects, etc. It’s left a few empty spots in the sewing room, which I’ll have no problem filling up right away!

I’m making this task fairly easy (at least it will ...

Mid November already?? And winter has hit us. There’s snow on the ground and ice on my windows as I sit here at my desk typing this.

I’ve done a lot of sewing this fall, and I’ll be back later with more about that, but for now, it’s organizing time. I guess we can call it “fall cleaning” if that makes it easier to deal with!

Did you find something last time that you had been procrastinating on and get it done? How does that feel? Good, I hope. Sometimes, things lay around in the wrong ...

Before I offer up this next challenge, I encourage you to go back to our last organizing challenge post and read the comments. There are so many good suggestions on thread storage AND other organizing tidbits you can pick up. I’m happy that you all seem so excited about this!

I only got to spend about 30 minutes working on my mess of embroidery floss. I did get several more skeins wound onto bobbins. I can tell I need to purchase more bobbins, so I’ll have that on my next shopping list. After getting it all wound, the ...