Domestic pursuits

I walked into my craft room a few weeks back and just about laid down and died.

It’s. SO. messy.

Disaster zone messy. Can’t walk anywhere without tripping over something messy. “Were you born in a barn?” kind of messy.

It’s horrendous.

As I began to sort through the mess of fabric and notions and thrifted items and scrapbook paper and stuff salvaged from the recycle bin, I began to identify my problem: Too many ideas, not enough follow through.

I have half a dozen hundred (and that’s not much of an exaggeration there) projects in progress–or fabric and notions paired for a project that’s just in my brain.

I have a ginormous tub full of jeans ready to be made into a jean quilt. I have homespun flannels paired to be used in a braided rug. I have a teal matte velour for a skirt and a gorgeous lavender satin with a scalloped edge for a formal gown and bright green sateen for a Christmas dress. I have flannels already cut to size for receiving blankets, appliqued blocks ready to be pieced and quilted, crazy quilt blocks to be combined. I have bags of fancy fabrics for a crazy quilt of my own design, bags of old t-shirts for a throw quilt, old clothing articles waiting to be upcycled or used as a pattern.

The problem is that all these projects are in some state of UNDONE, and are filling my craft room past its capacity.

I decided that rather than try to reorganize my many ongoing projects ad nauseum, I would try to reduce the mess by completing some of the projects.

So I’ve been doing lots of little stuff around the house these days.

Repainting a thrifted file cabinet and sorting through my files (I still have to repaint the cabinet next to it–then I can empty the filing crate that’s hanging out in the middle of the office.)

Painted file cabinet

Finishing up a bath mat that I started ages ago. It’s made with old t-shirts gathered into ruffles and sewn onto a canvas matting. I had about five rows done and a whole scad of t-shirt strips pre-gathered. I just needed to get sewing.

Ruffled bath mat

Making a “Christmas” throw rug (easily washable for bathroom use) with the thrifted towels I’d bought for that purpose a couple of winters ago.

Christmas throw rug

Making a pillow cover from an old sweater (and a pillow form to go inside of it).

Pillow cover

Making the needed repairs to this lovely maxi so that I could wear it at last (I bought it in rather shabby condition.)

Blue polka-dot maxi dress

Altering this shift down a few sizes so that I could finally wear it. (Yes, I do buy vintage clothing that doesn’t quite fit if I think I can figure out how to make it fit.)

Vintage shift

Making a bag (using thrifted fabric) for the waffle blocks I’d bought at a thrift store a month or so ago.

Bag of waffle blocks

Finishing another row of quilting on a quilt I started three or four years ago (using old dresses and skirts!)

Quilting detail

Decoupaging 20 advertising magnets so that they don’t advertise anything anymore.

Decoupaged magnets

Except one, which advertises myself:

Decoupaged magnets
(Beyond the glare, that one reads “Bekah Bekah Bekah”)

Can you tell which patterns I liked best?

Decoupaged magnets

And I’ve made a new Kindle cover (for which I will someday put up a tutorial–I’ve taken the pictures and I have the steps written out–I just need to translate it into web-speak.)

Kindle Cover

Fully opened:
Kindle cover fully opened

Fully closed:
Kindle cover fully closed

Unfortunately, all this has barely made a dent in the disaster that is my craft room. I did, however, at least get my larger pieces of fabric in some semblance of order:

Fabric shelves
(Please pardon the blurriness of that photo).

And I pinned a few hundred additional craft ideas.

Of course.

:-)

3 thoughts on “Domestic pursuits”

  1. Wow, I am impressed you got so much done! Neat idea about using the t-shirts and towel for a rug.

    My craft room isn’t quite that bad, but it is a problem to organize because there is just too much stuff, and if I’d DO some of those projects it would create more room. You are motivating me….

    Reply
  2. Um, yeah. What Lisa notes said . . .

    I have a lot of ideas and projects but not as much follow-through. So I sympathize.

    Right now I have 25 lbs. of tomatoes on my kitchen counter. I CAN”T exactly procrastinate on that!!

    Reply

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