UFOVEMBER (a month to focus on UFOs)

 As many of you know, I follow Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. Well in her Quilter's circle she introduced us to Bobbi Gentili of geekybobbin.com. Bobbi got a bunch of other quilt bloggers together and set up a Blog Hop for the month of November. She called it UFOvember. Each day one of the bloggers writes about UFOs. It started with doing an inventory of your UFOs and then moved on to Resuming work. Then maybe Reworking the UFO instead of finishing it as planned. Either make it smaller or into something else. The last part coming up is Rehome. Basically if you have lost your love of it then pass it on to someone else. It has been a really pleasant experience. I highly recommend you look it up and read the articles.  It all starts on geekybobbin.com.

It's nice to get tips from all of these different quilters.  It has even inspired me to get back to work on my UFOs. So I dug out my Irish chain quilt top.  I love the fabric and colors in this quilt top. But it has been over 2 years since I worked on it. Now is the time to get it done.

As you may or may not recall the quilt is much longer than it is wide. Not very bed friendly to say the least. At first I was just going to finish like it was. Then my friend Cindy suggested that I add something to the sides. Maybe a strip with floral appliques. But I am not into applique.  Plus I didn't have any more of the colored fabric to make it coordinate.  

But as I was browsing on Missouri Star Quilt site a couple of years ago, I found some fabric that would work. So I decided to order a bunch of 1 yard lengths of the different colors.  I had plenty of the white fabric left so I decided to make flying geese side panels to make the quilt wider. I had it all planned out. I was going to put a 2 inch dark green strip on either side of the quilt then the flying geese and then bind it with the dark green. I could picture it so well. But I had never made flying geese. So I procrastinated

Well 2 weeks ago, Fueled with inspiration form the UFOvember blog hop, I got out the quilt and started gathering the fabric to cut the geese. Then I hit a road block.  I can't find the left over white fabric.  I had made a point of setting it aside so I would have it, but it is no where to be found. It was a white tone on tone print that I can't find anywhere. I looked at the yards of white fabrics I do have. I even took the time to audition them. I just don't care for the look of the mismatched fabric. Now I am left with 2 choices. I can finish it as is or I can rip out the rows and rework it to a more square size.

I am going to rip out and do it right. I won't be happy with it if I don't. Since this was pieced on the diagonal I shouldn't have to rip out all of the rows. I should be able to just unstitch to the center diagonals. Then I can adjust them to the right width and sew the sections back together.  I think I will diagram it out first this time though.

Working out the issues with the Irish chain has me rethinking the batik strip quilt.  I am going to make it an 8 blocks wide by 8 rows long quilt instead of 7 blocks wide by 9 rows long quilt.  I think I will like it better that way so I will be ripping out apart a row and attaching blocks to the sides of the other rows.  Fortunately life has kept me from stitching the rows together. I already figured out that I need to take the first row apart and use that to add to the other rows.  

This may sound weird but I am actually looking forward to ripping out these seams.  I guess it helps to know that all these professional type quilters have the same issues.  Thank you Bobbi Gentili for organizing the UFOvember Blog Hop.  It's got me excited about my projects again.

Identifying Frogs (or what is keeping you from finishing that project)

Well, I've been back to work for a week and a half and I am really starting to have more energy. Being caffeine and soda free for a couple of weeks seems to have helped. Don't get me wrong I don't expect to stay that way forever but I am sleeping better.  That being said, I haven't done much in the way of quilting. Oh I did finish cutting the strips for the Simply Squares quilt, but I haven't really jumped onto anything. Plus my UFOs are increasing.  I've decided it's because I am not eating the frogs. There are things I am not doing because I am dreading them. So I procrastinate until I have no choice. So with it being UFOvember, I've decided to figure out what my frogs are.

1. Cleaning the studio.  I can't really get moving on anything until I get things cleaned up and put away. I need to be able to move around my machine in order to use it. There are things in there that I need moved out and things I need a place for.  This is a daunting task to me and I am probably going to need some help to do it.

2. Machine Maintenance. I need to give Millie a WD-40 bath and I've never done it before. So I need to get the manual out and read up on that. 

3. Quilt Path Upgrade. I've not used Millie since the Quilt Path upgrade. In one of my face book groups I have heard about all sorts of problems. So I am rather nervous about firing it up and using it. I need to read up on that as well.

4. Making Backing.  It's not that I find it difficult to make backings, I just struggle to make sure they are square.  I've watched some videos on it and I am doing it correctly. I just could really use a bigger surface to do it on.

I think these are my top three Frogs and I think I have them pretty much in order of size. Now I just need to decide when and how I am going to eat them.  

I am hoping to pull Perigrine and Killian into helping me with the studio. I think that Frog is the size of an elephant and will need to be eaten in a few settings. So while it's my biggest Frog, I am not going to be able to get it done before I work on anything else. I do need to sew after all.

Once the Studio is cleaned up and I have things in place, I will give Millie a bath.  She needs one.  I think that this Frog is doable in one day. That is once I've gotten the studio straight. 

In the mean time, I need to do some reading.  I also can complete the Cobble Stones and Windmill quilt top and the Batik Strip quilt top. Maybe I'll even get the backs put together.

What are your frogs?

Eating Frogs (and a couple of epiphanies)

Mark Twain once said "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."  Basically the idea is to get the most onerous task done and over with so you can get on with your day. Other wise you spend the whole day dreading the pending task.  

There is always something in quilting that one or more of us doesn't enjoy.  I don't particularly enjoy stitching down the binding.  My daughter Tatianna finds it rather Zen.  I don't care for laying out quilt blocks, mostly because I don't have the surface to do the whole quilt and so I am guessing about placement.  Well, my most recent frogs were the cobblestone and windmill quilt blocks and the batik strip quilt blocks.  These are bigger quilts and I had no place large enough to lay them out.

This past week I have been home due to illness. (Not covid-19 thankfully)  I spent the week in bed. While laying in my bed, it occurred to me that the wall at the head of my bed was about 72 inches wide and there wasn't anything on it. If I moved my bed out away from the wall, I could tack up my portable design wall.

Friday morning I got up just before noon and actually got dressed. I was finally feeling good enough to do something.  I ate some chicken soup and then debated what I was going to work on. There were the strips I needed to cut for the simply squares quilt. And all I needed to do for that was set up the ironing board and press the fabric first. Or I could set up the design wall and lay out the quilts. 

I should mention that I rather like to cut fabric and I don't mind pressing fabric at all so working on the simply squares quilt wouldn't have been an issue with me. Laying out quilts on the other hand is not something I particularly enjoy.  Largely because I can't usually lay out the whole quilt at once since I don't have a large enough space. Which makes it difficult to keep the appearance balanced. A problem I could rectify if I weren't so determined to make random and/or scrappy quilts. 

With the frog quote in mind I proceeded to pull my bed away from the wall.  Then tacked up my 72" x 72" design wall. I decided to do the cobble stones and windmill blocks first. I chose to do that quilt first because the color placement was going to be a nightmare. I knew that I had only one or two windmill blocks for a few of the colors.  It wasn't going to be easy to get everything spread out evenly. Basically it was the biggest of the two frogs. It took a few hours and a some creative thinking but I got it laid out. It is stacked and clipped by rows ready to be stitched together. But after all of that I needed a nap.  It was too much exertion for my still weak body.

After the nap I grabbed the next quilt. This quilt was made from batik jelly rolls that were sewn into strip sets. I cut the strips sets into blocks. These block were larger and I needed to put a sashing strip between the blocks.  Also some of the prints looked...well for lack of a better word..."muddy".  I needed to make sure that the "muddy" blocks were spread out among the bright blocks.  When I pieced this quilt I was going for a random pattern. So there were only 4-5 blocks that were the same of each strip set. Again I needed to spread all of these out.  

Well, I started laying out the quilt and could only lay out half the quilt at a time. Since the whole point in laying the quilt out was to ensure the fabrics were spread out over the whole quilt, that was a problem. Fortunately I am a decent problem solver. After I was satisfied with how it looked. I stacked up the top two rows and put them aside. I moved up the remaining three rows. Then added the next two row to the bottom.  I stood back and moved blocks around. Then sat and looked at it. When I was satisfied I again stacked off the top two rows and moved up the remaining three rows. After the last two rows were added, At this point it was bed time. I would finish have to finish it off on Saturday. I ran some errands Saturday morning then I went back to work on the quilt. Then when I was happy with it, I stacked off all the remaining rows.  I will probably start sewing these blocks over the next few weeks.

On Sunday, I did start cutting the strips for the simply squares quilt. As I was finishing cutting the strips I realized that I didn't have enough of the white fabric I had.  In fact I was 5 inches short. I was two strips shy of what I needed to do the sashing strips and inner border. Time to rethink the border. I am thinking that I will do a narrow black border and a wider green border with black binding. 

I had a couple of epiphanies this week as well.  One is that a 72" x72" design wall is not big enough to lay out a largish quilt. it's great for baby and throw sizes but a twin size is a little bit of a tight fit. I told my husband that I need an 8ft x 8ft design wall. Which is still a little tight for laying out big quilts but is better than what I have.  He is actually working on the design for it.  He said he could go wider but not taller than 8ft. So I am eagerly awaiting my design wall.

The next epiphany was just how easy it is to change the appearance of the quilt. As I was laying out the batik strip quilt, my son told me that my pattern was off. I replied that it can't be off since there wasn't really a pattern. He then said all of the bright colors are drifting down and to left.  I stepped back and looked and he was right. The lower left side did seem to have more bright colors than the upper right side. So I moved two blocks and stood back. The whole appearance of the quilt had changed.  Moving just two blocks balanced out the whole quilt.

I also came to realize just what a good upper arm work out laying out quilt blocks is.  I moved the blocks around a bit on both quilts. I sure felt it in my upper arms for the next two days.  I think I need to do that more often.

The last epiphany I had was while I was cutting strips.  Actually while I was cutting down strips into 5 inch rectangles.  You see, I like gadgets and so I have a Klutz glove and a Gypsy Gripper. I got both of these years ago to protect my hands while using a rotary cutter.  After a few months I just kind of stopped using them.  I have for years cut my fabric without any issue or injury. 

That is until Sunday.  I was sitting at my desk cutting the strips down and video chatting with my daughter and granddaughters. When I all of a sudden I felt the sting.  I had sliced a rather thick piece of skin off my finger. I learned that I am not as proficient at multi-tasking as I thought I was. My rotary blade was sharp and I didn't even feel the cut until the air hit it. The thing is I was distracted and while I was being careful with the measurements, I got careless with my finger placement. I need to be more focused while using my rotary cutter. As a result of that lesson I am nursing a very sore index finger. I did get lucky though, there was no blood on the cutting mat or the white fabric. So Yay for that.

Well that was my week. Funny thing is I've been so busy (and tired/still recuperating) that this post took me a week to write. Now back to eating frogs.

What quilting task don't you care for? 

What's Under Your Needle and Other Social Media Questions.

 Like many others, I spend a little too much time on Facebook.  (Okay, way too much time).  As such, I belong to a couple of groups that deal with quilting. So I get to see all sorts of posts from companies that sell or promote quilting supplies.  One thing these sites all seem to have in common is every so often they ask about what you are working on. I think these questions are suppose to get you thinking about projects that are sitting on your shelf.  It may even push you a little to get moving.  And they also give you the opportunity to show off your work.

One of my favorite questions is "What is under your needle today?"  It would almost make me feel like I needed to sit down and sew something just so I can answer it.  What is under my needle? Right now nothing is under my needle.  I am in a sort of transition stage. I have two quilts that I need to do a layout on and another quilt that I need to cut strips for.  Not to mention the 6 quilts that I need to make backs for. So I am in flux as to what is under my needle.

Another question I see frequently is "How many UFOS do you have?"  If you aren't careful this question can stimulate guilt over the numerous projects that are half done. It can also trigger you into reconsidering starting that new project. It may also prompt you to drag all of those UFOs out and look at them.  Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts suggest that you re evaluate your UFOs.  You may not be far from finishing them and it will give you the incentive to finish.  It also may be you fell out of love with the project.  Either way decide if you really want to finish it or not.  How many UFOs do I have? It depends on how you define the UFOs. If I am talking about projects that I've actually started then I have ten. If we are talking about planned projects, I lost count along time ago.  

"How big is your stash?" is really not a question that I've seen more than once.  It was in a post about managing your stash.  But I think it is worth asking. The post that I saw it in was all about knowing what you have and how you are going to use it.  Karen Brown has a good video about stash management.  In it she talks about inventorying you stash.  I started to inventory my stash. I managed to get all my pre-cuts inventoried but never did get my yardage done. There have been times when I felt guilty about how much I was spending and even tried to restrict my purchasing of fabric to just what I need to to finish a quilt.  That didn't work out too well.

How about "What is the one thing you want in your sewing space that you don't have?" What I want is more space. Okay more space and more organization. And maybe an embroidery machine and or how about a cool cutting table.  If we are fantasizing, I want everything, every cool gadget, tool, machine, furniture and fabric there is.  Dream big or go home.

"What is the one tool you use that others don't?"  I have no idea. I learned about most of my tools from other quilters. Do you have one?  I will say that there are somethings people repurpose for their quilting. One of my favorites is the toilet paper tube for rolling binding strips on.  I new some one who rolled all her strips on toilet paper tubes and the used a toilet paper holder to hold the binding strips as she sewed them to the quilt.

"What one tool/ruler could you not live without?" While I have different tools that I love for different applications, there isn't one that I couldn't live without.  But I have to say I really love my slotted ruler.  I like being able to cut one strip after another easily.  But I also like the square up rulers. Oh and who doesn't love a good sharp blade in their rotary cutter.

One last question "What are you working on this weekend?"  That one puts a little less pressure on the reader.  The answer could simply be nothing or some thing as simple as stitching down binding.  It also could be a new block or quilt.  It could be block mapping or graphing. Or it could be cutting out the newest project. This weekend I worked on increasing my stash (I am in Missouri visit my husband and we found a quilt shop) and cutting out Hexies.  I would have said sewing hexies but I forgot my thread.

So what are your favorite social media questions? How do the questions affect you?

Lights, Camera, Action (or try again)

Since my last post I haven't gotten much done.  We went camping for 3 days down in Tate's Hell National Forest near Carrabelle, FL.  It was a much needed break for all 4 of us. But on the days around this little break it seemed like I was on a treadmill.  So progress on backings and purging was non-existent.  

We had the power go out one night and I decided to do a little prep work by candle light.  I grabbed a project box off the stack and proceeded to review it.  The Pattern is Missouri Star Quilt Company's Super Simple Squares. I am sure this was a freebie since there is no way I paid $9.00 for this pattern.

The fabric is 6 charm packs called Greenery by Maywood Studios and a white tone on tone jelly roll by Riley Blake studios. I got one of the charm packs as a freebie. I loved the line.  The pattern called for 3 packs but with the white sashing, I didn't think the lighter colors would work. So I doubled the number of charm packs thinking I would only use the darker colors.         With project box in hand, I set out to sort the colors by candle light and that is when I hit upon some of re-discoveries.

Lights (and/or lighting) - I have been taking lighting for granted the past few years. I have four 8 foot banks of fluorescence lights in my studio.  My husband and son installed them right before I got my long arm. They are very bright and make working on anything really easy.  

When I laid out my fabric to determine which I could use and which to set aside, the candle light was misleading. The dim light didn't allow me to see the true contrast in the colors. Going by the candle light, I was planning to set aside four of the 11 fabrics that I didn't feel would stand out against the white sashing. 

When the lights came back on I was surprised to see that I could use all of the fabrics.  The light gray still showed up against the white sashing. Lighting is important.

Camera - is the next re-discovery.  I've talked about taking pictures for layouts and record keeping but modern cameras have all sorts of gadgets that we can use. Since this pattern is so simple a lot of the design depends on the contrast between the sashing and the blocks.  I knew that all of the fabric showed up against the white sashing but how much contrast did it really have. I really wanted the squares to stand out.  So I took a picture of the fabric and filtered it to black and white. 

By applying the black and white filter I get a good sense of the true values of the fabric. Some of the prints I considered light actually were a medium value and one print I thought was a medium value was actually a dark value.  But this didn't show me the contrast with the sashing so I took the picture with the lights on and applied the filter to it. 

This showed me that there wasn't enough contrast between the sashing and two of the prints. So I was going to take out all of those squares. That meant I wasn't going to use 7 charms out of each pack.  Now I had planned on not using 21 charms out of each pack so I was way ahead of the game. Now was the time for the 3rd discovery. 

Action - I define this as doing something and that includes making decisions.  I have 6 charm packs. I could make the quilt as the pattern directs and have lots of left over squares, or I could make it bigger and use up most of the squares.  Since I am still in purge mode, I decided bigger.  That meant doing math. I speak math so that's not a problem for me. I had to figure out how many squares to cut for corner stones and how many sashing strips to cut.  When I got through doing the math, I realized that I would need half a jelly roll more. So I went on line to see if I could get it. I bought all this stuff 2 years ago so of course I was out of luck.

I was now faced with ordering 2 jelly rolls or making the original quilt. I decided to go with the original. I am, after all, trying to use my stash. Then I thought about looking in my stash for white jelly rolls.  Unfortunately I didn't have two matching white jelly rolls. I did have two in black but that wasn't the look I wanted. So back to the original again. Then I realized that what I do have is a bunch of white fabric. I rolled up the jelly roll and put it the stash. I will cut my own strips. It would have been easy to just do the pattern, not thought to it, but going forward and figuring out how to use most of the squares allows me to work on another goal. Reducing the stash. Nothing gets accomplished without action. Even small steps are action.

Of course all this didn't yield a lot of progress. But it did a couple of things for me.  It reduced stress. It helped me get a two year old project off the ground. And it got me looking at my stash.  I really need to go through it all. And I really need to organize the studio so I can access it all. 

What have you taken for granted lately? What have you re-discovered?                                                     

Inch by Inch

Three weeks have gone by and I really don't have a whole lot to show for it. Covid life has been rather restrictive. Which in turn makes work life hectic.  Plus home life has not been as productive as I would like. Allergies are not being cooperative despite the meds. But I am still inching along.  Haven't done a whole lot of purging as of yet.  Being tired has put me a little behind.  But Kim has gone through a lot of things in our room.  Killian has purged some stuff in his room. Perigrine is working on her room so we are making progress but it is slow going and not as rewarding as a big push would be.

Good news! I have finally finished the HST quilt top.  It is as cute as I thought it would be.  Not only did I finish it, but I measured it, calculated the size of backing & batting as well as the number of strips to cut for the border.  On top of that I went ahead and got the calculations done for the other 3 tops I have in the to quilt pile.  All 6 tops have the needed measurements pinned to them and are waiting to be quilted.

I hope to get some of the backs made this next week.  A lot depends on what happens at work this week.  My boss will be back from vacation tomorrow, so that is off my plate. Unfortunately they are remodeling the front offices and break room.  The office remodel doesn't affect me that much, I just stay out of there. The break room remodel however is impossible to avoid.  I ended up leaving at lunch on Friday because of an asthma attack.  When I got home, I was just too tired (or maybe too weak) to do much of anything.  I am hoping that they finished tearing up the floor over the weekend and I won't have to deal with the dust this week. I don't want to spend the next 3 days all worn out.  Especially since we are going camping Thursday through Sunday.  If I am using my precious vacation time, I want to enjoy myself.

I've mentioned before that I have numerous projects that I want to do.  There are so many quilts and so little time.  I actually have decided on the next piecing project.  I also have 3 UFO's I need to be working on. The two quilt tops that need laid out and the Irish Chain quilt that needs to be made more bed friendly.  

Despite having more projects than time, I like to look at quilts on Pintrest and Facebook. A couple of weeks ago I saw a quilt that just grabbed my attention.  I studied the quilt when I first saw it. But ti stuck with me. It wasn't on Pintrest or I would have saved it to my board.  Try as I might I could not find it again. But I still couldn't let it go. There was nothing left to do but try and sketch it out.  Time to brush up on those geometry skills.

First I had to find graph paper with squares on point.  Not an easy feat.  I ended up finding an excel file that had the on on point squares amidst the regular squares.  I just deleted the lines I didn't want. 

Here is my first sketch.  It looked too much like an argyle plaid to me.  The quilt looked like stings of diamond shaped ornaments hanging down.  I finally decided that it was the sketch that was throwing me off.  I decided I needed to sketch the block so I could understand how I would be setting it on point.  

Not only did I sketch the block, I determined the size of the components and the direction to press the seams. Basically I made a block map.  Now with the understanding of the block shape and components I was able to rethink the design.  I knew that I didn't want to have partial blocks along the edge. So I would need to plan on setting triangles for the on point design.

My second sketch was much more to my liking.  But I don't think I am done yet.  I am thinking I will offset the strings a little more with plain white squares.  As well as break up the strings of diamonds with plain squares. I am thinking strings of three blocks and a plain square. I figure I have a lot more sketching to do before I eve get started on this quilt.  But that is okay.

I have also started sketching another quilt that I saw and really liked. This one is going to be a little more difficult to do than the strings of diamonds.  But I do have a sketch to come back to when I am ready to work on either of them.

This planning out the quilt in advance is a quite fun.  Who knew that designing ahead of time instead of on the go would be as satisfying. I doubt that I will ever convert completely to planned out quilts.  I have too much of a improvisational personality to be that organized but I think I can handle it for a project or two now and again.

How about you? Have you every planned out a quilt from a picture? Are you strictly a pattern person?  Do you like to just start sewing and see where it leads? Or are you some of each?

The Urge to Purge (or controlling the stash part one)

When I was growing up, my father had a big old metal desk.  It was like the ones they used in the military.  For the longest time that desk sat in a corner of the dining room. And as often happens with flat surfaces, it became a catch all for paper, mail, etc.  Every once in a while Dad would get fed up with the clutter and clean it off. This was not a simple sort & put away. It was a Declaration of War on the clutter.  Trash bags were filled and taken out.  Unfortunately, Dad didn't always pay attention to what he was throwing away.  Eventually my mom learned to go through the trash bags that he generated to make sure important documents such as birth certificates weren't in them.  One of my brothers named my father's temporary but reoccurring affliction as the "Urge to Purge".  It became the stuff of legends in the tales told about my father.

Lately, I have begun to wonder if that affliction is hereditary.  I find myself feeling like I am drowning in my belongings.  This has led me to contemplate backing up the truck to the door and shoveling out the house on more than one occasion.   I admit I can be a bit of a hoarder.  To make matters worse, so is my husband as well as both of the adult children still living at home. If they aren't hording, they most definitely enable the rest of us.

So here I am feeling a little claustrophobic in my own space because of my own habits.  My studio has become cluttered once again and I don't even want to discuss the closets in the various bedrooms.   My affinity with crafting has generated numerous supplies that I don't really use that often. Not to mention tools and books. 

I am definitely feeling the Urge to Purge.  That being said, I have decided to get started before I get to the frantic mindless tossing of everything into trash bags stage.  I want to be more selective about what I purge.  I am proud to say that I actually started this week. I had 5 magazine holders and 2 storage boxes of magazines.  It was time to purge some of them.

Part of controlling massive stashes is to limit what comes in. I used to have subscriptions to 3 quilting magazines. This past month I decided not to renew one of those subscriptions because I didn't really care for the patterns/articles.  That leaves 2 magazines coming in every other month, not 3. I used pick up a random quilting magazine from time to time.  Lately, I don't buy it unless there are several patterns in it that I like. 

With the influx of magazines cut back, it was time to purge. Now I didn't just haphazardly toss anything. First, I sorted the magazines by title.  Any of the magazines from the canceled subscription were tossed. I already knew they didn't appeal to me so there was no sense in keeping them. Besides even if there was a pattern I liked in them, I wasn't likely to make it after all this time.

Next I determined, did I really want to keep all of the magazines that I was still subscribed to? That answer was an easy Yes. Both of these magazines have interesting articles as well as multiple patterns that I like. Not to mention the how to techniques. With that choice made, I sorted the magazines by month and year. 

Funny thing is, I had more than one copy for several of them.  The copy that was in the best shape was saved and the other discarded.  I think I must have picked up the duplicate copies when I thought I had let the subscription lapse. The duplicates were all several months to a year apart.

Lastly the random magazines that I picked up here and there. These took more thought. I went through each magazine. I discovered that with many of them, I only really liked the quilt on the cover. One pattern is not enough to keep a whole magazine.  I decided that if I liked a pattern enough to keep it, I could tear it out and put it in a binder. Strangely enough, I didn't tear out one pattern.  

Now I did keep any magazine that had 3 or more patterns that I liked.  But as I was going through them I discovered that many of the quilts were in more than one magazine, at least the patterns were similar.  I don't need multiple magazines with the same pattern.

So to make the cut a magazine had to have at least 3 patterns that I liked and those patterns couldn't be in another magazine that I was keeping.  I am now down to one magazine holder and 2 storage boxes and the storage boxes are not full.  I feel a little lighter already.

Now onto one of those closets.  The trash run to the dump is going to be huge this week.

What do you do to curtail your massive stash?