Progress: Planned and Unplanned

Friday morning I got up and went up to my quilt room determined to get the two quilts I did not do on Thursday quilted.  I had about half of one done, so I finished that one with no problems.  I was starting the second one when when I began thinking about binding for all of them.  For the Schnibbles, I had fabric just for the binding, but I had three others that needed some.  I got up from quilting and started poking around, looking for pieces of leftover binding.  Because, of course, I can be easily distracted when machine quilting!

Now I don't know about you, but I seem to think that the world will somehow end if I should by chance run out of binding while applying it to my quilt, so I tend to make waayyy too much, but I save the rest "in case I ever need it."  Well, I needed some leftovers, and I found two possibilities, of which one worked.  I was sure I had more extra binding tucked in.... somewhere.  I poked around a bit and then I reached THAT POINT.  Remember how earlier in the week I shifted some piles and found two more quilt tops?  Yeah.  It was time to deal with stuff. 

So I tackled the piles.  I made other piles of like things, so they could easily be put away.  Most of my stash is "filed away" on shelves, according to color.  But I have a stack of large plastic containers in the back of my closet.  The bottom one is for "misc. stuff," the next one up is Thimbleberries.  On top of that is my patriotic fabric, and then there is a slightly shorter one full of the batiks, and finally, at about my shoulder height, is the shortest one (sort of the "underbed" height) full of my hand-dyed fabric.  Since I needed to put things away in almost every bin, I carried them all out and had them spread out so I could put the correct things in each one.  When finished, I looked around very carefully to make sure I had everything.  I did, and so I humped them all back into the closet and stacked them up again.  Then I found a box of leftovers from my Aloha quilts.  I decided to pack them up together to give away but when I went through it all, I found other pieces I had pulled that would work with the Aloha fabric and now I needed to put them back--guess where?  The misc. bin at the bottom of the pile!  Needless to say, I wasn't happy and may have even uttered a naughty word or two.  So I humped them all out again, put away the misc. fabric, and put them back again.  Then I took a break to check Facebook and read blogs.  (because I can be easily distracted!)

The next task was to go through all the books and magazines.  I have scrapbooking stuff in the room, too, so it wasn't just quilting stuff.  I had some piles of papers I wanted to keep, color cards from Superior Threads, etc. that needed to be put in a binder, so I went though an old one and threw a bunch of that stuff away.  I had a big pile of giveaway stuff, as well.  After the shelves were empty, I wiped all the dust off, and filled them back up.  They look much better when they aren't stuffed full of piles! 

By the time I finished, I had two big containers of "giveaways" which I deposited out in the hall.  I only have a few things on the twin bed in there, and all the piles are gone.  Whew!  I can function again!  So I sat down and quilted the other quilt.  But I still needed some binding!  So I pulled some possibilities and auditioned until I found the "winners" and then I immediately put the others back so I wouldn't start any more piles. 

Today was a quilting bee that I attend when I can.  I loaded up all the giveaways and took them and I came home with nothing left of them!  Yeah!  By the way, in case you are wondering about the purge, I'm getting ready to move this summer and I surely do not want to deal with stuff I do not want!  Now, when I prepare for this bee, it looks like I'm going on an artic exploration or something with the amount of crap stuff that I pack up to take.  I wouldn't want to forget something, because it isn't like I only live two miles away or anything!  I took all the quilted tops and the binding and two other "bee projects" (these are things I only work on at bees, because I keep all the pieces, instructions, etc. packed up so that when I'm going to the bee, I only have to grab the package and I have everything I need.)  Of course, all I managed to do was get the binding sewn on. 

The Bee is so fantastic.  There were at least 16 or so others there and one has to walk around and see what everyone is working on.  Then there is lunch and today we celebrated a birthday so there was cake!  Three kinds, and brownies, and cheesecake....  yum.

So I got things done, and my room is clean, and I only have one more top to quilt, and...  Oh yeah, my MIL is arriving next weekend for a 10-day visit.  I guess I will be spending this week doing household chores!  (And hand-stitching all that binding down.)

Aloha,
JoAnne