Today was spent in a continuation of the work started last week - culling and organizing my fabrics and the things that go with quilting. Remember the aisle I created on the floor in my family room? Right now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Okay, she's finally cleaned that up!" You're wrong.
What you saw in that photograph was merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg - two-thirds of it is underwater or, in my case, in the basement. Last week's work moved most of the project clutter from my dining room-cum-sewing room and spread it out so I could see what I had. Which I could.
Then Fairy Quilt "Day" demanded my attention as well as various family obligations so no further headway was made on the chaos I had initiated.
With that project almost finished (backing and label, remember?), I worked for about five hours on laundry and hauling loads of zip-locked bags and a few bins of fabric upstairs. Then the sorting began. Actually, this whole process is kind of fun. Imagine it. While you can see through the plastic bags, opening them and pouring the contents out on the table is like seeing a sudden rainbow pour down from the sky. And that's not all, because then you have the tactile pleasure of plunging your hands in among the pool of fabrics to begin sorting. You tease your eye and brain while you try to solve the puzzle of determining if a fabric is mostly green? or mostly blue? Is it a keeper? Should it go in its color pile or is there too little of it so its place might be in the scrap bag? Or maybe it's really not a grabber anymore, and perhaps someone else can make better use of it so put it in the "Donate" pile? But there is always the tickle you get when you find a special treasure, "That's where I put it!" or the invariable, "Whatever was I thinking!" when you find a particularly repulsive piece. My sorting piles contained old garment fabrics, upholstery material, quilt-worthy fabrics, and possible crazy quilt pieces.
But that wasn't all. At one point I thought it would be smart to pack the pattern or book with the fabrics for a particular project. That lasted for a year or two until I realized that I all too often if I couldn't locate a pattern I purchased another copy. That called for changing to putting a note in the plastic storage bag with the name of the pattern, where the pattern could be found (which file box or which book). This method is still in use and works very well. Only today I had to use my critical eye on patterns and notions as well as fabric.
The work is progressing, but the aisle in the family room is getting narrower. Being able to keep it all out so I can see what I have and to be able to organize all of it is part of my process. Poor D has to live with it, but the result will make it worth it for both of us. I hope. But not as much as he does!
I borrowed the photo from VagabondJourney.com as you can see - it says it all!
That photo isn't your fabric, is it? But, yes, culling and organizing is very rewarding - and so is donating things that you wonder why you bought them? Maybe someone else will love it as you did one day. And, it just feels better to get rid of the clutter that's distracting us from what we really want to do.
ReplyDeleteThere's only one person I know who is systematic enough to tactile large classification projects -- that's your brother. For years Dave has kept some order to his vast collection of genealogy tidbits, historical society archives, general uncluttered clutter. He was so organized at the time we moved from Closter that he had us keep a database of every item we boxed (including thumbtacks) so that with our color coding we could tell the movers exactly where each box should go. In the years immediately following the move, we just looked up our database to find which box contained the item sought. I wish I could get his order to my photographs and computer. Good luck to you in your efforts.
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