{Post 1,013} Attempting the (Nearly) Impossible

I am baring my soul (well, my sewing room) to you.  It has gotten messier and messier.  I have finally decided to dive in and do something about it.  Today I worked about 5 hours on it.  Don't see a marked improvement (yet!), but I am happy with what has been accomplished. 


I had worked about two hours when my sweet sister-I-was-separated-from-at-birth emailed me about "before" pictures.  All I had done to that point was go through two huge storage boxes that are now EMPTY (a rare sight around here), so not much has been touched on the cutting table or shelves.  


I hope some of you have done this same thing.  Dejunking is so time-consuming for me.  Having to decide what to keep, gift, dump...all those decisions!  Add in running across project after UFO after lost yardage, ad nauseum.  Surely some of you know what I mean?


The two aforementioned boxes were in my bedroom for ages.  Then in a bedroom-cleaning frenzy, they were moved to the garage.  They were mostly fabric chunks, quilt tops, and other crafting stuff that had sneaked into my bedroom. Unfortunately, a leak a good while ago in the room over the garage mostly landed in my boxes.  I forgot about it though because only my daughter parks her car in the garage.  Out of sight, out of mind?


I had to wash all the fabric in the boxes (as well as a quilt top that I was just wondering last night where it was).  The quilt top has several squares that need to be replaced.  They are stained.  I washed it on a gentle cycle.  There was a tiny bit of fraying, but not much.  I will replace those squares soon.  You can see it hanging across my quilt frame in some of my "before" pictures.


The perfectionist in my wants to head right back down there and "finish this thing for goodness' sake!".  But I am afraid I will burn out.  Five hours of facing that mess is enough for today.  I am going to go down and sew for about an hour after I finish here.


I listed some of the fabric chunks I washed and dried today on my Etsy store.  My store name is ShelbyStitcher.  I am charging $5 a yard for the fabrics.  I threw away two large trash bags of...um...stuff.  Don't want to think about it.  Also have a large bag to take to Goodwill.  I will press on (little quilting pun there).


Are you ready?  Forewarned is forearmed:

Yes, it is as bad as it looks.  Maybe worse!  

Above is two of my storage areas.  I cleaned off the top shelf of the brown bookshelves.  I also went through all the drawers that are mine in the plastic shelves on the right.  Two of them are my daughter's things.  I made a list of the quilt tops in there and what stage they are in (need piecing, borders, quilting, etc.).  I make so many quilt tops with no recipient in mind that many of them languish for a long time.  The brown shelves have the green curtains across the front most of the time.  The bottom section is my I Spy stash.  The shelf above it is fabrics I've saved for borders (mostly Thimbleberries).  Above that is my books, and the top shelf will be the new home for my recycled shirt chunks.

This is the neatest wall.  It has my two fabric bookshelves, two portable design walls, and a school bookshelf on it.  This just needs some minor straightening.

My cutting table...a cutter's nightmare.  The shirt projects are spiraling out of control.  In the back left (under the wire basket and piece of leftover batting) is my pile of shirt front and backs.  They are large pieces, neatly folded.  My original idea was to cut pieces for several quilts as I cut the shirts apart.  As it turns out, I've had my hands full whittling down the strings generated from just deboning the shirts.  All is well, though.  I did complete a Fair & Square and Scrappy Bargello quilt, not to mention several baby quilts.  Others in the works, but I need to clear off my cutting table and make a shirt section in my storage nightmare!

Let the sympathy or congratulations begin!  I have a doctor's appointment in about an hour, so I'm going to go sew until I have to leave.  I only wanted to declutter for an hour today, and I did 5 times that, so I deserve a few minutes' break.

~Joan