My goals for last week were:
- Re-stash everything I've deemed re-stashable.
- Finish piecing the top of the low-volume quilt
- Ditch anything I'm not finishing and isn't donate-able.
- Decide where to donate what can be donated.
It took me about three or four hours all-in, but I set aside a lot of fabrics for donation, and re-stashed fabric that had been set aside for, and/or UFOs of, projects that will never get done. And yes, I tossed some stuff altogether. I don't feel guilty at all. I feel liberated.
I didn't think to take a "before" picture of my fabric shelves, so this isn't quite as impressive now, but boy does it look a lot better!
The fabric has always been sorted in piles like that, and by color, but the last couple of years took a toll on how neat it all looked. Also, in the process of re-stashing and donating, I looked at every single piece of fabric I own. There were a few that I thought, "Wow--that's really pretty! I'd forgotten about that one!" So I'm a little less bored with my stash at this point.
And what did I get rid of?
1. A grand total of 41 1/2 yards of fabric (not all shown in this picture). That's a big WOO!!!
2. A whole bunch of scraps--those will show up in future quilts by Charlotte Hawkes, just you wait! That's the bag you see leaning against the stack of fabric--I'll be delivering it to her next time I see her at our build meeting.
3. Some scraps of pieced borders and such--things where I ended up with a whole lot more than I needed, so I'm taking them to our next guild retreat. If someone thinks they can use them in a project, fantastic. I'm just done with them and have no reason to have them hanging around any more.
4. And this. This comes under the heading of "What was I thinking?" I bought this (4 yards) to make a jacket. Have I said enough times that I hate garment sewing? That is SO not happening.
It's a little on the "loud" side because I needed something fancier that had a certain mix of colors in it--it would've worked well in my work life. But it's not something I would probably wear otherwise. And have I said, I hate garment sewing?
Someone in my guild will probably love to make a table covering or something out of this. Fortunately I bought it at Joanns so it wasn't all that expensive.
My next organizational step is to tackle my books, but that's going to take awhile. Still, I have the deadline of my May guild retreat, which is when I'll be able to donate whatever I'm getting rid of (we have a silent auction), and I always work better to a deadline.
I had a lot of 1/3 yard, 1/4 yard, and large scrap pieces that I want to cut into 2 1/2" strips or other pre-cut sizes to make them faster to use in projects. I started the process last week and still have a stack of them left to do. I'd like to get that done sooner rather than later as they're taking up space on my cutting table--plus, I'm a firm believer in "putting the time in at the front end saves time at the back end." If I've got a little time here and there, I'd like to break fabrics down into easy-to-grab-and-use projects.
Now, on to the UFOs.
I "offed" several of them, as I'd said I might in the last list. Of those that remain, I only have a few that have solid deadlines attached. If you want to see the results of my choices on the UFO list I posted last week, go to my WIP page on this blog: https://quiltingfortherestofus.squarespace.com/wips/. I'd sort of forgotten about that page for a long time but I just updated it with the current information.
I decided to enter into my guild's two UFO-related challenges this year. One is just a straight-up UFO challenge, in which we list 10 that we want to complete. To enter, we create our lists and then put $5 into a kitty. Those who complete all 10 by December get their names in a drawing at the end of the year to win the kitty. Last year, no one won, so all that money went into this year's kitty. (I don't know how many participated last year--I only got to one guild meeting last year because of school.)
The other is a "Quilt Three" challenge, in which you list three UFOs that are at the quilting stage. You have to quilt them yourself--no sending them off to a quilter. (It's meant to encourage people who are nervous about the quilting step.) As long as you quilt them yourself, you can have the same three quilts on both UFO challenges. Woo! For the Quilt Three challenge, the entry fee is a fat quarter, and whoever finishes all three gets their name in a drawing to win all the fat quarters. Someone did win it last year so it's a fresh start for 2018.
So, my Quilt Three Challenge list is:
- Baby quilt #1
- Baby quilt #2
- Autumn Jelly Roll Race
My UFO Challenge list is:
- Baby quilt #1 (would like to have done in February)
- Baby quilt #2 (would like to have done in February)
- Autumn Jelly Roll Race (no deadline yet)
- Shabby Chic Jelly Roll Race (which I will likely quilt myself)
- Low-volume quilt (with deadline in February)
- Pillowcase for toddler (deadline in February)
- Halloween BOM (deadline by next Halloween!)
- Jelly Roll Sampler (will send out for quilting, no deadline yet)
- 2008 Guild BOM (will send out for quilting, no deadline yet)
- African Star (Might quilt myself or send out--haven't decided yet, no deadline yet)
So, for those of you playing along at home, that means that last week I finished goals #1, 3, and 4.
Goals for this week:
- Finish piecing low-volume quilt. (Goal #2 from last week now moves into #1 status.)
- Finish cutting fabric for scraps.
I'm keeping my goals limited because I'm not sure how much more piecing I'll have to do on the low-volume quilt. There's some figuring-out-as-I-go involved. Stay posted for more on that one.