Today was one of those days where everything sorta fell into place. We managed to sleep until nearly 8:00, puttered around and made some excellent progress on a few projects, and managed to take an hour and a half long nap! I woke up and the whole house smells like the roast cooking in the crock pot, the sun is at the perfect angle to stream into my window, and I still have a few more hours to be productive! I haven't done much sewing this weekend, but I did get the strips for the rest of my stars ironed and have been working on them during the football games. I also got four bins of baby clothes down to two, so I'm *this* close to seeing my quilting frame again in the basement!
I've been making myself work on the baby clothes a tiny bit at a time to make the whole project less daunting. Normally I'd put it off for so long that I'd HAVE to do it all at once; this time my goal for the day is to only bring up one size worth and sort it into tops, bottoms, and pj's. Then the next day's project is to fold them and purge out the extras. Yeah, it took over a week, but now I'm more than halfway through and feel like I can finish easily! It's all about Progress, remember?
Speaking of Progress, I had a pretty frank conversation with a girlfriend last week. I'm not sure how we got onto the subject, but we were talking about leaving our "collections" behind if something happened to us, be it a collection of 5000 gingerbread men, shoes, or fabric! Since it wasn't something that *we* were passionate about personally, that it would be easier to give the collection away rather than store it or try to find the time to sell it. Being surrounded with items someone else loved would be pretty overwhelming and may even slow the grieving process. My point to the story? She told me all my fabric would go to Goodwill!! My first thought was "Ouch, harsh!!" But then she reminded me that finished quilts were a different story entirely, and that those would be cherished! Wow, did that ever get me thinking. So much of the fabric I've purchased is intended as gifts for people I care about, and it doesn't express my love when it's just languishing in my stash! I would hate for my legacy to be a huge pile of unsewn fabric destined for the donation bin; I'd much rather have people remember me 20 years from now snuggling under a quilt I made!
So tomorrow I plan on doing an inventory of the precuts I have in my stash, since those are the inspiration behind all the quilts I plan on making. I put myself on a fabric diet as of the first of the year, with the intention of using up some of my precuts. I'm allowing myself to buy borders, backing, and backgrounds, but NO focal fabrics! I rarely buy yardage just because, although I've picked up a few fabrics on clearance that I saw a lot of potential in. My weakness is M*QC's Daily Deal and their great prices on precuts! There's just something about all that variety in a fun, coordinated little package that is so hard for me to resist! So, with an inventory in hand, I'll have a better motivational tool to keep me on track! Hmmm, maybe I should do one of all the kits I've purchased, too... I may never buy fabric again!!
Happy Sewing!
