I Can’t Do This, Until I Do That!
As I go through my air-conditioned August, my goal is to finish up some of those odds and ends of projects in the effort to have a beautiful streamlined studio (like Melanie’s). I try to do a little bit on several different projects each day, sticking to a schedule of “stints” (as suggested by Kerry).
Unfortunately I have run into some obstacles on the straight-and-narrow road to organization, and multiple temptations.
With my old photo database, I had the bright idea of using my family photos as an aid in dating other photos that I have purchased. After all I know that Great-great-uncle Gerrit and Great-great-aunt Minnie got married in about 1907, so that will show me what people were wearing that year, and then I can compare their clothes to other, undated pictures.
About 1907.
The trouble is that all this family information was put into Family Tree Maker in 2004, on a computer that is stuffed away in the closet, and I am going to have to pull it out, transfer the information, and then update the program.
So instead of doing that, I thought I would move to a different project, and work on a quilt for my grandson. I had found this fabric in a drawer, and thought it would be cute as a quilt backing in his space-themed bedroom.
Quilt backing.
For the front I decided to do a very simple design of appliqued circles, to suggest planets. I would satin stitch the edges and use up lots of thread! I started by using the fabrics I dyed back in April for the block backgrounds, and loved how they suggested nebulae and galaxies.
Four planet blocks, just laid down together, not yet stitched together.
What I think it will look like when it’s done. (I copied and pasted the 4 planet picture over and over, playing with the colors.)
But I have already run out of those darker pieces, and have had to overdye some of the lighter pieces, and I have to let them cure before I can go on.
And then, tempting me away from those two projects, my mom gave me a quilt my great-grandmother made for us in the 1950s.
1950s quilt, tied and very lightly quilted.
The batting is an old wool blanket, and the blocks are just tied in the middle, and then hand-stitched around the edges. It needs re-binding at the very least, but even as a child I didn’t like that green sashing, so I want to take the blocks apart and put them back together with cream-colored sashing.
Added to that, my brother moved, and he does computer work for a fabric design company, so he left 4 boxes of fabric samples and pillow forms, etc., with me.
Then my mother-in-law has passed on to me part of a wonderful fabric stash that she collected in her trips around the world, including this fantastic batik and some Chinese silk,
Fabric stash.
Batik from the 1980s.
Chinese silk from 1982.
which I will probably never do anything with. I will just hang them and enjoy looking at them for inspiration.
But the other fabrics she gave me are American made, from the 1990s. so that means they are great quality, and I can’t wait to use those.
She also gave me a cathedral window quilt that she started, and all the pieces cut for another one.
Some cathedral window blocks.
And then someone at quilt group passed on all these Christmas fabrics, pre-cut!
I don’t usually do Christmas quilts but I can’t pass up pre-cut pieces!
And THEN someone had the bright idea for all the little quilt shops in the area to come to a centrally located fairgrounds, to have a mini-shop hop all in one place. And there was a lot of cute stuff. So now I want to do something with all these new and new-to-me projects, right now!
And my husband has decided it is time for us to update our bathroom and laundry room (because if it’s August in Texas, you can be sure you would love to have a big renovation project going), and possibly to tile the whole downstairs. So we will have to stay in the guest room upstairs, so everything I usually keep in the guest room, has to come back into the sewing room.
So instead of diligently clearing out and organizing everything, the stacks are building around me. But they’re such lovely and enticing stacks!
So many wonderful things to play with! And of course, even more fun, “a big renovation project” in August. Sounds like the perfect way to set up a meltdown! Our daughter is about to move into a new home, which has undergone substantial renovation. (And still is. They move Thursday and won’t have a functional kitchen for a couple more weeks.) Meltdown, anyone?
Thanks for the link. Glad I can offer some inspiration. 🙂
Yes, I get sympathetic looks from everyone who hears this renovation plan. We have been together almost 40 years and we have probably done two projects a year, so I am inured to the situation by now. We were going to a home improvement store, and as we pulled up in the parking lot, we saw a couple where the man was trying to load two doors and a window unit AC into a truck by himself (the wife was very tiny). We jumped out and my husband helped load, and the woman said under her breath to me, “We are renovating instead of building new and I am about to kill him.” I commiserated with her a little while, hopefully long enough to give her sanity a boost.
When we moved into this house, the kitchen was upstairs, but our fridge would never fit up the stairs, so it was downstairs for 2 years, until we moved the whole kitchen down there. You can tell that to your daughter when she can’t stand it another minute. 🙂
Jim and I have a lot of renovations in our past, too, including kitchen, torn out to the walls. We did almost all the work ourselves, so it was a slow process. I talked myself into being grateful for running water. I talked and talked, for months prior to the reno, and all during. We always had running water (except for moments, of course,) so there was always something to be grateful for. It made the whole process much easier to manage.
Wow! What wonderful problems to have! Except for the bathroom renovation, of course. I’ll bet you’re just sitting in the middle of all that beautiful fabric and smiling!
Just glad I still have a very skinny path to the computer and sewing machine! My cutting table is actually set up two rooms away on the sun porch.
lots of exercise! 😉
Sadly, the calories burned going up and down stairs never came close to the calories consumed finding snacks in the fridge. 🙂
Mmm, thank goodness for air conditioning, think you are going to need it. Fabulous fabrics and I love the quilt with the green!
Yes, from here until we finally get a cool spell, I will be staying inside and sewing, guilt-free! 🙂
Your future has a lot of quilting yummies! All the 90s fabrics plus the cathedral Windows and the smashing remodel, boy howdy!, you are gonna have so much fun!
I won’t be able to go hide in the sewing room, because it is right above the area we will be working on, so he would hear me up there. It will be so hard to ignore the Call of the Fabric while we are working! 🙂
You’ve really had a run on gifted fabric. Best of luck pulling all the pieces together.
We remodeled when our boys were 4 and 7, but had it professionally done. We did a number of projects together pre-kids. Now I’m happy to pay to have things done instead. It’s so disruptive though.
We always swear we are going to pay to have it done, but then my husband will say, “You know, it wouldn’t take any time at all to do the demolition,” and before you know it, we are deep into another project. I am hoping this will be the last one we need to do — we are running out of house to do it on! 🙂
My husband is also handy and inclined to say similar things. It’s more repairs though, so for that I should count myself lucky.
I wonder if I were to give up all the textile crafts, he would also give up projects! It may be his way of keeping me away from fabric and yarn stores. Does your husband help you with all your gardening projects or do you manage those on your own?
Funny you should ask. He just helped me gather up all the pruning and clipping from the weekend so we could carry it together to the street. We have yard waste pick up, which is then converted into mulch. I have two small compost piles myself, but I’m currently out of room. He always says “let me know if you want me to dig holes”, meaning he’s the brawn behind the operation. Since foot surgery last year, I’m especially careful not to dig big holes. I think we work well as a team, but generally speaking, he’s not a gardener and I’m not a handy-person. It all works out. 🙂
Brawn is good, especially since you have to be careful!
🙂
LOL, yes, I DO know……well, I can’t do that until I do this!! No wonder nothing get done in this house !! And I am trying to give/toss whatever lots of fabric samples i have. Just have to get behind and under stuff to get to them 🙂
Oh! I forgot to say that part! I went to meet with my quilt group, congratulating myself for decluttering a little by bringing 2 lap quilts and 2 wheelchair bags to donate, and 8 magazines to share. And then I went home with more than I left with! That always happens!
This reminds me you asked for a floor plan of my studio. Perhaps something to do today to avoid seaming the last sleeve on my knitted jacket? LOL
Well, I do want the floor plan, but only one more seam? Maybe you should finish that first. Think of the huge sense of accomplishment you’ll have!
(OK, I have to admit I know nothing about seaming knits. I was just trying to be a cheerleader.)
I’m ridiculously averse to sewing things up. I have no idea why, it’s not logical at all given my other interests!
This, my friend, is the downside of having a lot of skills and a curious and agile mind (and a husband!) But what exciting possibilities! It’s funny–I just came across the pieces of an unfinished cathedral window quilt, too, and remembered how much I liked that stitching. And my husband is engaged in big project–building a lighthouse–but at least he’s working ourside!
That is a good way of looking at it! I remember as a teen-ager seeing that saying “Creative minds are rarely tidy,” and quoting it to my mom about my room. Now instead of thinking maybe I have Craft Attention Deficit Disorder, I am going to tell people it’s evidence of my curious and agile mind.
And — a lighthouse?? Miniature, I hope. Out by your Adirondack chairs on the shore? Have you written about this? Cause if so, I missed it and my curious and agile mind wants details!
Oh, and I love that you’re doing stints! I still am, too!
Yes, for me it is the only way to accomplish things. In some cases, I could easily stick to one project and just do it for days and let everything else go. I have to make myself work for at least a little while on un-favorite projects to get to the favorite ones. That way everything stays pretty balanced.
OK, if you’re going into a renovation project, then I suggest working on hand sewing/ripping projects, which means taking apart that old quilt and sewing cathedral windows. If you’re like me, any new project you start with all that yummy material will get strewn about and you’ll spend way too much time trying to remember where you put those pieces. And isn’t it funny how all that computerized stuff ends up being outdated? I lost the first family tree I made as the LDS folks stopped supporting that software. By lost I mean I couldn’t update it, so I had to start over.
I was so afraid I was going to have to start over too! I had printed out the stuff I had but I still didn’t look forward to inputting all of it again. Now I am updating and adding pictures, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to save it to the cloud in this format. I read that Family Tree Maker will not be supported past 2017 either. I guess they just want you to upload all your info to Ancestry, where everyone has to pay a monthly or yearly fee to access it. I miss the days when buying a program meant you paid once.
I like your advice about using the renovation time to do some ripping. That always helps with stress, too! 🙂
Yikes!
Yup I have stacks all around me right now. I have been trying to get to them and get some things finished. .
It is just never-ending, isn’t it? As soon as I clear out one thing, someone gives me three more!