Yesterday afternoon I wanted tea.  And not just any tea with a tea bag, I wanted loose leaf tea and in order for me to make it I needed my tea cup with the doo-dad that would squish out all the loose leaf.  I couldn’t find my tea cup.  I could have just put the loose tea in the tea spoon container thing -that has a name that I can’t think of right now- but I didn’t want to.  I have a tea cup that I use with my tea and what’s the point of having it if I can’t use it!  /waaaahh  – it is that time of the month. 🙁  Anyway no one knew where it was.  I am tired of having everything in boxes in my garage and every time I want something having to go through things to find it.  It isn’t just moving and unpacking – that’s easy compared to unpacking and packing and unpacking and packing every time I want something.  I need a solution.  I cornered my momma and said that something has to change and yesterday was THE Day.  I’m tired of my living situation – I cannot wait any longer.  We tackled the garage.  Prior to yesterday we were at the point where everything inside the house was pretty much unpacked and put in a place.  My office is set, Hubby’s computer is set, the kids and their various devices – set.  The kids clothes that were not in boxes but just strewn in hampers and suitcases have all been unpacked and put in their drawers.  But they still didn’t have all their clothes.  The boy’s toys are still boxed up.  He has one lego set he’s working on.  My Momma kept telling me I needed to buy the girl shoes because she didn’t have any when I knew that she has shoes in her boxes – tons of shoes.  Now, they may not fit her anymore or they may not seem as nice as they were – I didn’t know. But there was no way I was buying something when there’s the slightest chance that I didn’t need to – when all we had to do was get our stuff unpacked.  So we went through the stuff in the garage.  I found more boxes of office stuff and so I moved those and all my quilty boxes into the house to go through and sort.  I was able to put all my craft /scrapbooking/knitting/paper stuff in one area so that they are all together! I know my scrapbooking stuff shouldn’t be in the garage but I have no place for it anywhere else to in the garage they stay!  And I was able to empty four boxes of stuff!  In the end, I still didn’t find my tea cup but I felt better.  Afterwards I went through all my quilty stuff.  Basically – this was a long intro into how it came about that I was organizing my quilting stuff  and what I did with all my quilty stuff.  I started with 5 plastic tubs, 2 small slightly bigger than file size boxes, and quite a few bags.  I put all the quilt kits together and the works in processes together and put them in order of how close to finish they are:

1 – I have 2 quilt tops done.  I never realized it.  It was always there at the back of my head but those are great quilts to practice quilting on.  Both are early works I did when learning how to quilt.  One I did straight from a quilting book I can remember the name of.  The other was the 2011 Block of the Month I did with my LQS (Local Quilt Shop).

2 – Quilts I’ve started and haven’t yet finished and are still on my work in progress list (these are not necessarily currently listed in my WIPs list)

• 2012 BOM with my LQS (and I’ve got two versions because they did two color styles) – I’m about half way through the blocks for the “Provence style” and I’ve only done two or three blocks for the “Asian style”
• Red and White Sampler
• Untitled Quilt – that I need a name for
• Grandmother’s Flower Garden

3 – Quilt Kits I’ve purchased (mostly in 2012) that I haven’t even opened yet

• Baby Girl Quilt
• Texas Trip 2012
• and 4 that I got at the 2012 SoCal Quilt Run (Area 1, Area 2, and 2 sets of Area 4 that the girl wanted to work on with me)

I removed all my tools and put it with my supplies in my quilting cabinet.

And finally I went through my stash.  I feel like I should have more fabric somewhere and I do have a lot but I was able to condense everything not part of a project into two plastic bins.  And all my scraps into 1 small plastic bin.

I condensed all the stuff into 4 see-through plastic bins with labels and they are all going back into the garage.   The major accomplishment is that all my rulers and tools are out and in my quilting curio so if I need something, I can easily find it.  I put the items (the fabric and patterns, etc.) I’m working on now in the curio (basically easy street and raining cats and dogs.  I put the two quilt tops in the curio.  Everything else is going back in the garage because I don’t need it.

I guess in the large scheme of things I don’t have a ton of stuff.  The problem is that I have no space for anything so I really have to hold back on buying more fabric or quilt kits and just work hard on getting the ones I’ve got finished!

~happy quilting!

Melanie

All my fabric are on the top two bins while the quilt kits are in the third bin and the WIPS are in the bottom bin.

On top of the curio: my light box and my scrap stash
top shelf: Raining cats and Dogs and Easy Street (in the bin because of all the little pieces)
Middle Shelf – My crochet projects and my finished quilt tops and some small quick projects.
Bottom Shelf – tools thread, rulers, button jar,
Bottom part of the curio – My Bernina – currently it has a walking foot on it because I’m working on quilting Kayla’s thirties quilt.
Kayla’s bernette – which I’m using to piece right now so I don’t have to switch feet every time I want to switch projects.

and all my stuff is hidden! 🙂