WIP Wednesday

My Disappearing into the Blue quilt is at a standstill.  Its my patchwork group project. I went to Patchwork today but it was our meeting and unfortunately afterwards I felt exhausted so came home. The meeting itself was fine its just this Virus I am fighting.  Hope I can make sense of the minutes I took... I'm the secretary. I'm up to the pinwheel borders on 

Still collecting signature squares to make the backing for Not So Sombre Stars for Derek. I got a few more in over the week so will get onto them as soon as my brain can concentrate. Still have a heap more to collect.

I started to sew the curtains for the spare room on Saturday. I have them hanging at the moment to let them drop before I hem them.  I seem to have underestimated the length so the hems are going to be a bit smaller than I usually make them but that's okay. The bed goes under the window and the bedhead is fairly high so you can't actually see the hemline so not a problem if it isn't perfect.

My main work in progress this week has been tidying up my sewing area. I pulled everything out of two cupboards I store fabric and craft stuff in. I had already been through some of the fabric in the storage boxes so could ignore some of those but others I went through again and got rid of some of it (local op shop will benefit) I went through notions and sorted them up, rearranged a few of the cupboards. I made a really good mess for a start

I had boxes and stuff everywhere

my cutting table was covered in stuff

no ironing could be done

no room to sit on the couch

The main aim of my clean up and change around was to make the 3 sets of plastic drawers that I have exclusively for my scrap units. Beforehand one of the units held some projects, non cotton fabric and orphan blocks. These I moved either into project boxes (clear plastic boxes) or put into my scrap basket 

As a result of my sorting my scrap basket is once again overflowing. I have been working on getting it cut up into usable units. As I am cutting up if I find a fabric that I know isn't suitable to go into my scrap quilts then I have relegated it mostly to the "donation" pile to go to the school for craft or recycling

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My cutting table is permanently set up behind the couch, facing the tv. I have a kitchen stool stationed  behind the table so I can sit and cut fabric whilst watching tv. I have my new large A2 cutting mat and the holder with all my rulers on it as well as a container for my rotary cutter, large scissors, snips, etc. I also have my small pressing mat and travel iron. When I am cutting scraps I have a collection of shoe boxes and their lids which I have labelled with the different sizes on them arranged along the top of the table (and pushed out onto the back of the couch so as to give me a bit more room) and a bin for scraps.

This way I can sit or stand behind the table, watch tv and cut my scraps. I try to cut them into the largest unit I can, starting with 10" and working down. I must admit though I will cut 5" over 6.5" since so many patterns are being written for 5" charm squares these days. 

I have drawers for strings (under 1.5" wide) 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3",3.5",4", 4.5'. 5", 6.5" and 10". I cut squares and strips in each size. Some sizes have more than one drawer

Tidy at last. It didn't last long

This cupboard, closest to my machine has project boxes and my threads in it. also my ironing basket. The big pink box is repurposed fabric mostly for use in church banners

The cupboard behind my cutting table. As well as larger pieces of fabric for backing it has my gadgets and after crafting projects eg a box of wool etc. The book shelf has magazine patterns (torn out and put into folders according to type of pattern) plus antique sewing things such as my grandmother's sewing basket and sewing notions from my aunty and mother in law

My scrap drawers are becoming very full. This year I have had a couple of big sort outs resulting in lots of fabric going into the scrap basket to be cut which ultimate end up in the drawers. Once I finish off the projects I am working on I think I will go to my scrap drawers and make a few projects. This will fit in very well with my Fabric Diet that I am trying hard to stick to.

Linking up with Wip Wednesday at Freshly Pieced