A NEW YEAR!

Soooo, what are you doing?

It's a beautiful sunny day here in Northeast Ohio and we have a fresh covering of snow!

Very cheerful view if you overlook the 9 degrees F.

I'm tidying my studio and from the looks of my Instagram feed, I'm in good company.

Apparently, lots of us trashed our stitching space (as usual) in that big push for the holiday gift giving season.  I'll be at it all week.

To begin -- this is going to be a year of eliminating ancient UFO's!!

Okay, so it's going to be "another year" of dealing with UFO's but the number has shrunk steadily over the past few year.  

However, this year I am determined to finish up or throw the oldest ones overboard!

Watch my #noancientUFOquilts hashtag on Instagram in 2018!!

As we speak, my APQS George has this beautiful blue and yellow one under the needle!

I could be binding this during the first weekend of 2018!!

Pieced around 2004?

   I started at the north end of the studio by plowing through the UFO shelves.  I emptied every shelf, reviewed every bundle keeping a tally as I went of just how many are there!!

I'll reveal that number next week . . . . maybe!?!

It looks like I forgot to do the top shelf doesn't it -- argh, what is lurking up there?

The bottom shelf is mostly large cuts of fabric -- first stop when looking for a backing!!

All four shelves were stuffed with UFO's 10 years ago -- progress!!

I sorted out a half dozen projects that have been malingering in the piles -- I'll pass off them off to my gang to re-purpose for donation quilts. 

 I pinned notes to each UFO about what needs to be done -- it's so much easier to pick up one for a fast finish if a quick review of "the note" tells me I need to add 4" borders and piece together the rest of the stack into a 48" by 62" backing.  

My brain says -- "that's all?" and I'm in business!!

On an intellectual level, I understand that working in a tidy space is more comfortable for me, but my inclination to start a new project at the drop of a hat means I'm often leaving a mess in my wake -- "can't put that pile away because I need it for that project".

When I left the studio yesterday, I was 75% finished with the area around my sewing machines so that's where I'll start today.

The original purpose for this little shelf unit was to keep things handy near the machines but it's grown quite a few "layers".  That box lid on the top had all sorts of "treasures".

Funny, I was just thinking about this quilt the other day?  And here it is!?!

Pretty sure it's my oldest UFO!

Started it after I opened my shop (1979) and lost interest in hand piecing when I started teaching machine piecing ala Mary Ellen Hopkins (1982).

It's now in the re-purpose box and will meet my quilting gang later this month to be finished into a useful lap robe for someone!!

The flat surface (known as the cutting table) is too large for my own good.  

When I had a shop, my desk was the catch-all for anything and everything -- someone found a cartoon and left it on my door that pretty much summed it up.

Mother to child -- "I want you to clean off your desk."

Child to mother -- "I have a desk?"

That's my cutting table!!

(This picture has not been edited.)

I'm tidying it in spurts and hoping it gets completely cleared off except for my tools.  It's tricky though because each little pile requires "decisions" about what to do with it or where to put it.  Do you have a decision-making threshold?  I certainly do and I've learned not to try to exceed it!

My incentive/reward for staying focused is to work until I can't make another decision, then I can stitch!!

This is my version of Lorena Uriate's Opal Essence.

I'll finish setting it together this week and prep it for quilting next week.

 It's my annual workshop during the Lake Metroparks Farmpark Quilt Show in mid-February.

(Interested in joining me?   Details are HERE.)

Time to go back at it!

Here's to a new year of reaching towards our goals!!

Happy New Year!!

Mary

My Workspace

Yesterday, I stumbled into a "linky" where stitchers are sharing their workspaces and it was fun to visit each of them and see how they organized the work area and the storage.  All of them were quite tidy, too!

 

One of the bloggers shares her space with her child's play area -- or does her child share his space with her??

It reminded me of the room just off the kitchen in our first house that my three children and I shared.  One wall was lined with toy storage and I got (okay, took) the big closet for my stitching supplies.  The floor was always in chaos but we shared nicely.  Since it was open to the kitchen, it was easy to keep an eye on the kids or just pop over to stitch up one more seam while the muffins finished baking.

 

In this house, I've moved the studio around looking for the best fit.  It started out on the first floor next to the dining room, but when my son came back home for a couple years, I moved it upstairs so I didn't hear him coming and going late at night and he wasn't bothered by me being up and stitching in the early morning.

 

I tried both bedrooms upstairs and settled on the (biggest) one across the front of the house. 

(It's also the hottest one in summer and the coldest one in winter.)

You've seen glimpses of it off and on, but today I'm taking you on a full blown tour. 

****Caution - this studio was not prepped for your viewing and the pictures are unedited so some viewers may be appalled that I can work in this space!?!

 

As you come up the stairs, you are greeted by a Huey wall of fame. 

Ancestors, kids, family portraits. 

The door is often closed because it's the hottest room in summer and the coldest in winter but I already said that didn't I?

Push open the door and there it is!!  It's interesting to me how immune I am to all this clutter.  That first corner of the cutting table is a constantly changing stack of things that just arrived or that need to be removed.  The front windows are being replaced in the next couple weeks so the curtains are stored away for the moment.  That board between the windows is my secondary work wall and is currently collecting blocks for Lucy Carson Kingwell's Smitten which is my February APQ Resolution project.  We'll take a closer look at those in a week or so.  The ironing board is strategically positioned so I can keep an eye on the street and the neighbors -- (-"

Look to the right and you see the business part of this room -- my machines!  I'm devoted to a Bernina 1031 for my piecing -- it's about 25 years old and recently earned a new set of feed dogs as a reward for lots of hard work!!

That laundry basket is almost unpacked from my retreat at the end of January.

And the artwork is Charley Harper bird posters.

As I sit at the machine, I can see my primary work wall.  It was an accident that it's organized this way, but I'll never change it -- even if I'm not working on that project, seeing it every time I look up keeps my subconscious focused on whatever the next design decision is that I'm seeking.

Just around the corner is the shelving unit where I keep the UFQ's.  Not many there these days!!  I recently moved all the BIG hunks of fabric to the bottom shelf.  There was a time that all four shelves were crammed full with UFQ's.  I'm impressed!!!

In the summer I open that window which looks out over a little wild zone in my yard -- I can see the nest box which is usually home to a pair of chickadees and enjoy the fragrance of the lilacs bushes that grown along the fence.

I use this end of the cutting table is as a stand-up desk -- lots of blog prep happens right there!

The other end is the real cutting area.  I "keep" the rulers in one of those slotted things in the middle so I can reach them from both ends -- though they do have a habit of not being there more often than I like.  There's a constant need to tidy up this end but I'm getting more regular about it.

One of the reasons I cut at that end is because the WALL OF FABRIC is right behind me and I can turn around and pull out dozens of pieces of fabric in the blink of an eye (I wish they would put themselves away).  The pieces hanging down are "inspiration" -- the ones on the left are the foundation of the Smitten blocks and that wonderful piece on the right is a new treasure that is fermenting!

When I squish back into the corner and aim the camera across the room diagonally, you can see how big it is.

There is one tidy zone -- this antique shelf I found 20 years ago is full of treasured books, family memorabilia and little hoards of things -- buttons, hankies, old candy tins.  I love this piece and it's going to the "home" with me!!

The one thing that is missing from my studio is a comfy chair for hand stitching (or reading).  Once the new windows are installed, I'm going to figure out how to remedy that.  I do more hand stitching these days and would enjoy having a space for it in the studio.

 

 I also want to add some lighting to eliminate some of the dark corners during winter days.

 

So you might envy the amount of space I have, but I hope it put your mind at ease about the need to have a very organized and beautiful work space.  If I had one of those, I'm not sure I'd work -- I'd be afraid to mess it up.

 

For a look at some other (tidied up) studios, visit Simple Simon HERE and click on the big LOVE badge to access the link-up.

 

Now go stitch, please!!

 

Mary Huey