Sunday, May 05, 2013

De-Scrapping

Is there such a word?

Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning off my sewing table.  It was all clean, but then I stuck some stuff up there that I took from other places until they can be put away.  And you can't even see my cutting table right now!  All of the quilt tops that were on my sewing table awaiting a final border or a backing were moved there for the moment.  I hope to have it all spic and span by the end of this week.

No, I'm not just moving mass like I usually do.  I have filled up two large garbage bags and dumped those in the big can.  I've emptied the little trash can in my sewing room at least fifteen times.  Lordy, I have accumulated some stuff.  The sewing room got really out of hand during those two years when I wasn't sewing much because of work.  Then the back surgery.  But now it's going to get clean and stay clean!!

The next task, after cleaning off the cutting table, is going to be to clean out the Horn cabinet drawers.  They are totally full.  One drawer is just thread, mostly Aurifil.  Another drawer is full of rulers, all the ones I had to have and have never used.  I was carefully watching Thelma's blogs about her tool and ruler reviews, and found that I had a lot of those she reviewed and will now use them.  The top drawer has a lot of Bernina feet, etc.  Those will be organized back into their cases and put with the correct machine.

But to the scraps - wow!  I have one of those big laundry type bags, you know the kind that collapses, next to my cutting table.  It's been sitting there for eight years, eight years I've been dropping scraps in it.  Well, it's way too heavy for me to lift, so I scooped out about a fourth of the scraps into this tub.


It's a big tub.  For perspective, there's Penny standing to the left side of it.  I shoved it with my foot into the living room, put a garbage can next to it, and I'm going to spend the day watching TV and de-scrapping the scraps.  It might take me all week to do this.  All of small pieces are going in the garbage.  These are so varied that I think only a true scrap quilter could use them.  

Edit:  The scraps were claimed.  Hooray!!

I found Ziploc bags with scraps of coordinated lines in them.  I'll hang onto those for a while, especially the Minick & Simpson and Fig Tree.  Their lines seem to all go together.

A lot of memories have surfaced! 

On the health front, I now have the bone stimulator.  Trust me, it's a real love/hate relationship with this thing.  It beeps at me if one of the electrodes starts detaching itself from my skin.  It beeps at me during the night and I have to sit up to reattach things.  The electrodes are attached to a battery pack about the size of a cell phone.  There are wires running from my neck to that pack.  If I put the wires under my shirt, they get hung up on undergarments.  If I let them hang down the front of my shirt, I snag them on drawer pulls.  Penny even unplugged me once, and then hightailed it when the beeping started.  I had to laugh because she was peeking at me from behind the coffee table.  She's such a weenie!   

These scraps will keep me from being so bored for a few days ........... and that's a very good thing!

10 comments:

dortha said...

Look forward to the time you will get to play in your fabric as much and how you want. I hope that happens for you soon.

julieQ said...

If you put the trash pieces in a box...I will pay the postage to me!!! Enjoy your de-scrapping!!

Darlene said...

Wow, you've been a busy girl. I can imagine all those scraps. I have tubs full of scraps from almost every quilt I've made. I need to go through them - someday!

LOL

Katie Z. said...

Good work! I don't think I could face that many scraps!

mascanlon said...

Well I am glad you have found a project!

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

I love playing in scraps! Have fun! Silly Penny~ makes me smile just thinking about her causing you to beep. ;-) Hope you have a good week!

Laura said...

Glad you are able to do some organizing. I need to do a major quilt magazine purge ... not looking forward to that project!

Carolyn said...

Eight years of scraps? Wow, that's quite a job! I'm so glad you're finding ways to play with fabric, it does restore the soul, doesn't it?

Churn Dash said...

You inspired me to pull out (well I got my husband to) my box of scraps. I have been working on it today. I think it would take a month to clear it all, I'm not sure that I have the willpower! Still, I am motivated to try and cut out a scrap quilt from the box so there is hope.

My 2 1/2 strip container is now exploding!

Helen

pdudgeon said...

like you i did some moving today too. i was determined to get two plastic storage units (each with 3 double wide drawers) out of my bedroom so i could have more room to walk around--somehow!
i tackled one unit today and promptly found a pattern in the new Quilter's World magazine to use with my fat quarter tower of "Seascape", so that was good.
i managed to get fabric from two of drawers into a big fat tub that can sit under my sewing table. that gives me better and easier access to my pieces of yardage, so that's one unit down, and one unit to go!