a decluttering story . . .

Do you remember when you first started quilting (or any craft, for that matter), and all the tools and gadgets that seemed so necessary were overwhelming in both the scope and the cost of it all? 

I do.

The biggest for me was the rulers and squares.  They make such a difference in cutting pieces accurately!  And while you can get away with a few select sizes, it's just easier to have the range.  It just is.  So over the last twenty years or so, I've been diligent in collecting.  Let's face it; I've never been shy in my love of gadgets and collecting them.  Rulers were right up my alley.  

It started with the OmniGrid rulers, then I switched over to Creative Grids.  Then Quilters Select rulers were introduced.  And finally I replaced (almost—95%) all my OmniGrid rulers. 

Only I didn't really replace them.  I just added to my collection.  Which was unintentional . . . I didn't really want multiple sets of 2.5" squares, for example.  I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the ones I didn't use anymore. I sure didn't want to just <gasp> throw them away! Until I found a friend who has just taken up quilting (and taken to it with a passion), and you know what? She needed rulers.  So guess what?!  I don't have multiples anymore!  Well ... I may have multiples, but I don't have any more (almost) OmniGrid rulers . . . they went to a good home where they'll be used to make lots of happy quilt beneficiaries smile. 

The end.  :)

In other news, the drive to cull my rulers started a welcome chain reaction and I spent the majority of yesterday cleaning/organizing my Nook space. It had gotten a little (a lot) out of control; I'm much happier with it now! 

Large rulers and specific job rulers are easy to find.  I love this screen.  It does a great job of corralling my creative space, and is terrific storage.  Here's the front:

The entrance to the Nook is right there at my front door.  I hated the thought that the first thing people would see when they walked into my home, was (potentially) my creativity in the throes of progress.  We all know what that looks like! So the screen was the perfect solution, and provided both storage and display space.  Win/win!

I had started using the cubicles as catch all.  I went through each one and tamed that to manageable. 

Part of that was pulling fabric out and putting it into bins in some sort of system.  So this is what that looks like finished . . .

Bins of fabric, just waiting for me to sit 'n sew. Shew!

And then my cutting table had also become a bit of a disaster site.  Some of it was paper clutter, some of it was fabric clutter.  It was an easy drop off point.

Now it's just ready for projects! As you can see, my next wool project is ready to set and sew! Aaah, and you can also see where my finished cross stitch pieces go to wait some sort of final finishing inspiration. Ahem.

I still need to do some reorganizing with my Nook book shelf.  

I have magazines on it that I need to move to the cubes.  Magazines don't really do well on this shelf.  It's the rotating that does it in. (And the cats.)

Ellie and I found our next cross stitch pattern to stitch together.  Teresa Kogut's Give Thanks. 

At first I wondered if it might be too stitch heavy for Ellie.  But then I thought about the samplers 8-year-old girls worked way back in the day . . . I think 13-year-old Ellie can manage this just fine! I had to order the linen and some of the floss, but we should be ready to go sometime next week!

I continue to work on Lady Halloween. Actually, I had to go back and look at my last post to see if I had in fact worked on it!  I have.

Not much, but I've worked on other things, too!  Maybe this will be my slow stitching project for Sunday!  I'll link that up with Kathy's Quilts on Sunday!

Speaking of working on other things, I finished my little Halloween orts tray . . .

I'm so pleased!  The "BOO!" was an add-on by me.  I centered the design horizontally, but misread misinterpreted the instructions, so there was a whole lot of space at the bottom.  Which was perfect, because I really wanted some purple in that stitchery, and "BOO!" was the perfect place for it!

I'll leave you with a little game of Where's Waldo (aka Starry)?

Have a great weekend!!  :)

birthday hijinx . . .

Whew! What a wonderful birthday week/weekend it's been!!

It started when I got out some of my fall decor and decorated my front door . . .

I kinda miss having a front porch ... and the back patio really isn't big enough (or seen well) to do more than a bit for me.

Then I met my Cross Stitch group on Monday.  Remember how I'd made such great progress on my Lady Halloween piece?  I looked at it Sunday evening and realized I'd stitched two complete elements in the wrong place:

UGH!  Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, I spent my group time on Monday picking out all the inappropriate stitches. And then the rest of the week adding them back in the correct location (along with a few more) . . .

Then there were presents from my Affirmation Sisters . . .

Fun stitchy stuff!!

On Friday I had birthday dinner with Joc and the local crew . . .

Joc made me this beautiful Almond Joy birthday cake.  It was SOOO good!

And they gifted me with this beautiful blue enamel dutch oven, which was on my wish list!  I'm so excited to cook in it ... just in time for soup and chili season!

Saturday morning started early ... with Ezra's soccer game!

He scored the first goal of the game, and they won (although they don't really keep score officially, the parents do)!

After that, I headed to the Merkel's to watch the Alabama vs. Mizzou game.  It was a good (and close) game, but BAMA pulled it out!  Roll Tide!  When the game was over, I headed home to do some stitching.  I worked on the cute little Halloween stitchery that was gifted to me with the stitchable ort tray.  It's really cute!  

Someone had no interest in what I was doing . . .

And then someone was waaaaaay too interested . . . 

Sassy girl!

A quick look ahead . . . we've got LUKE Haynes coming in to speak for our guild program on Thursday evening, and then he's there for the next two days doing workshops.  

I'm taking his Friday workshop, Clothes to Quilts.  I'm really looking forward to it!

So that's it from me.  Celebrating all month long, though ... whoohoo!! Linking up last minute with Kathy's Quilts: Slow Sunday Stitching!

:)

when we last met . . .

Gosh, I can hardly believe that September has come and gone and it's OCTOBER!  

We spent an extra long weekend at Guntersville Lake (the Merkel crew and I).  We came home on Monday, and I left for my sister trip to Alaska!  It was glorious.  We stayed with my nephew and his family in Kodiak, and checked off *all* the Alaska boxes!  We saw bears . . .

I caught a salmon (pink) . . .

Took a three sisters photo in front of the Three Sisters mountains . . .

And saw a LOT of incredibly beautiful scenery . . .

And did a LOT of shopping.  I even found a cute little fiber shop in Kodiak, The Rookery. 

While I was there, I worked (and finished—lots of airplane time to and from Alaska!) on a very cute little Halloween cross stitch piece:

It's October Nine Patch by Primrose Cottage Stitches, stitched on 25 count Vintage Country Mocha. And while I worked on it in Alaska, Ellie worked on it in Alabama!

Her first 25 count linen.  A big deal! Her thirteen year old eyes are much better suited to this than mine. LOL!  I may hand over my Mayflower piece on 40 count linen!  ;)

I continue to work on my Lady Halloween. 

I adopted a method that the gals in my "First Monday" cross stitch group use.  Stitch one strand of floss per day.  And I often find that a second strand follows easily.  It's so doable and you know the old joke . . . how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time! 

Speaking of elephants, Roll Tide ROLL!! 

Great game yesterday.  I'll freely admit that I was concerned for the majority of the first half.  I was super glad we scored and tied it up right before the second quarter ended. Shew! 30-14 was the final score and I'm glad that one is behind us!

I watched the game with Sarah and Gail, my inner circle stitching sisters! It was our monthly Saturday gathering.  I worked on my cross stitch.  As did Gail.  She's working on this beautiful piece:

Isn't that gorgeous??!  And Sarah shared her finished center of the Halloween quilt she's working on:

I love this SO much!  The colors are just spot on and mostly all from her stash.  I'm so in awe of that fact!

We spent the day together, laughing and chatting and stitching and watching the game.  Before we realized it, it was after 6 PM!  I walked them to their cars and found this scrumptious sky—

Cotton candy clouds!

Coming up it's BIRTHDAY WEEK for me!  Hurrah!!  I'll kick it off tomorrow by working on my Halloween cross stitch; some slow stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

:)