I've been a little checked out for the past month and a half. At the time of my last post, I had learned of my baby brother's death. I was in denial at first but slowly the reality sank in. And I kind of shut down. I struggled with doing anything but going to work and coming home. Which made it difficult to celebrate the holidays. But with the help of my husband and children, we not only made it through, it turned out quite well.
During my shut down period, I didn't do any housework, organizing or crafting. My studio has always been the dumping ground of things that need a home so without me going through it for a month and a half, you can imagine what it looked like. The kids were fairly decent about keeping the rest of the house picked up.
So I as I was starting to mend so to speak and get my life back on track. I was watching a Just Get It Done Quilts video. Karen Brown was doing a Q&A. One of the participants mentioned that she was having trouble getting back into sewing after a death. Karen suggested that she take her time and grieve. Which was what I had done. But now my studio was a mess, my house is a mess and I was (am) overwhelmed. In answer to another participants question, about organizing and doing unpleasant tasks. Karen suggested setting a timer. She suggested 30 minutes. Just work for 30 minutes. I took this suggestion and ran with it.
Starting on New Years day, I started to do house work for 30 minutes. Then I organize my studio for 30 minutes. Then I sew/quilt for 30 minutes. I have been doing this just about everyday with the exception of Sundays. Has my house gotten miraculously clean? No, but it has gotten better. Is my studio organized? No, but it is getting better. In fact I have done a few things that I have been putting off doing. Have I finished up any UFOs? No, but I have made progress on a project that had stalled. In fact I frequently do more than just one round of 30-30-30. If feels wonderful to be accomplishing something. And it is helping to lift my depression.
Messes - Part of my mess trouble is I have too much stuff for my space. That is household stuff, crafting/quilting stuff, and plain old living stuff. In doing this 30-minutes of cleaning, I am deep cleaning. That means getting rid of stuff. I've thrown out expired medicines, worn towels and sheets, and junk. I'm donating clothes, crafting supplies that are in excess of my needs, and anything someone else my use. If I haven't used it in the past 10-1 years do I really need it? I am really trying to not bring in more stuff as well.
That being said. One of the first Just Get It Done Quilt Videos I watched was about using your stash. In it Karen has advised us to inventory your stash. This week I started doing just that. I've inventoried about 90 percent of my pre-cuts. I need to dig in a closet to find the rest of them. I am going to have a time inventorying the yardage. It's in about 10 bins and a steamer trunk in that same closet. But I need to find fabric for borders and backings so I am hoping to start that sometime in the next week or two. I hope to try a folding trick on the yard age where you wrap it around one of your rulers. It makes the fabric all roughly the same size for storage. The thing about inventorying your stash. You find all sorts of gems you've forgotten about. I plan to not only inventory my yardage but also manage it. I think that any yardage that is less than 1/2 a yard will get cut into pre-cuts and added to scrap management.
I just read that last sentence and I had typed "crap management" ( I fixed it of course) But "crap Management" could be just as good a title for what I will be doing. I'm talking about all of those pieces that are left over but too good to just throw away. They are crap until you figure out how to use them. I have 3+ tubs of them to deal with. Another of Karen Brown's videos is about managing scraps. I have decided to take her advice and make my scraps into usable pieces for scrappy quilts etc. I may have already figured out how and where to store those pieces. We'll have to see how things turn out.
In the meantime I will keep doing my 30-30-30 while I plan out my quilting goals for this year. I never did make any last year. The results of not planning/goal making is no progress. That will have to change.
Until then, Check out Just Get It Done Quilts. I think you will fine Karen Brown to be informative if not inspiring. You can also find her videos on You Tube.
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