Creativity Month Week Two

For the second week of creativity month I decided first to repair a UFO crazy quilt piece of mine from the scrap bin so I could make it into something.

Fromy my UFO bin I took these two blocks, which I put together from scraps to make into a gift bag, so I could finish what I'd started.

Another UFO I worked on was this orphanned patchwork block, which was already quilted and just needed binding.

I got out a box of beautiful materials I collected in an inspiration box years ago and finally got to work with them.

Some mini totes and a stack of orphan patchwork blocks turned into two projects.

I also did a scrap bag challenge, which was to use this bag of scraps and patchwork from my stash to make as many things as I could in one day.

Now that I'm halfway through this month's challenge, some observations: I'm definitely happier, and much more motivated (I'm also keeping up with my calendar mood crochet project.) It feels great to accomplish so much; for a while this summer I was a bit depressed over how little I was getting done. This is a great mood booster and self-confidence builder. For me it's not so much about making heaps of things as it is having something new to look forward to and tackle every day. It's absolutely made me feel a lot better about August. :)

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Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...

Valerean

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