So when I was quickly reviewing recent back blog posts to see what I had been working on before I, well, stopped working on much of anything, I realized that I’d posted about starting the 2022 DeCluttering Challenge a year ago but never let you know how it all turned out. Turns out, it turned out pretty dang good! I did, indeed, offload a decent number of books, although I’ve now filled that vacuum back up again. My bookshelf will always be a challenge for me. What was more significant is what I did with my fabric stash. Everything is now on comic book boards except the higher yardage (backin ..read more

I knew it had been awhile since I last posted or podcasted. I didn’t realize it had been over a year. But what a year it’s been. In a nutshell: Several work and vacation trips back-to-back for about three months The last trip sent me home with a COVID souvenir which knocked me out of the loop for about three weeks Shortly after recovery, my MIL had a medical event (still don’t know what caused it) resulting in a month of hospital and rehab center then arranging for in-home assistance—her life changed significantly and she can no longer drive and needs a walker most of the time now—all of ..read more

Although I’ve cancelled by Cotton Cuts monthly subscription, you pre-pay for a certain package. So this week I received the last of the subscription I pre-paid for. As usual, there are a couple I like, most I’m not a fan of. However, now that I’m doing EPP and more scrap quilting, I do tend to look at fabrics with a little different eye now. There’s no such thing as an ugly fabric when you cut it small enough! Nice Ice Baby by Deena Rutter for Riley Blake Designs Night Fancy by Victoria Findlay Wolfe for Free Spirit Fabrics Same line as yellow fabric Rose Lemonade by Wishwell for Robert Kau ..read more

A couple of weeks ago I was perusing my fabric stash for a new project. In this instance, “perusing” is defined by “digging through, excavating, precariously balancing stacks of fabric while pulling possibilities out of the bottom, pushing stacks back into place with elbow while holding found possibilities in both hands….” And I reached a breaking point. For almost the entirety of my quilting life (read: 20 plus years), I have used the ruler technique for folding my fabric. You know the one—use your 6”x24” to fold fabric neatly into a bundle to stack on your shelf. In fact, even after I’d chan ..read more

I’m so proud of myself. Genius…at least for now. If you listen to my podcast you may remember me talking about the sticky problem of how to store my quilt retreat/class/travel bags in a way that would help keep them from getting covered in dust and dog hair. There’s no closet in this room so everything is open storage. I’d had an idea that I could use the hanger rod on the bottom shelf of my fabric stash to hang them up—out of the way but easy access. Bingo—it works! The purple polka dot bag is huge so it’s particularly helpful that I could fold it in half with the clips on the hanger. At som ..read more

Previous unit of the same type but smaller If you’ve been following along in the podcast, you’ll know that I’m now piecing the fourth unit for the block. This unit is a square in a square…in a square. I’m sure there’s a word for that. But essentially it starts with a square, piece four triangles on to make a square on point, and then another four triangles to make it a square-in-a-square no longer on point. If that makes sense. Anyway, looking at the stack of pieces, I knew I was nowhere near close to having enough of the final set of triangles. So tonight I put my big-girl-panties on, as it ..read more

As I’ve mentioned on my podcast, I’m trying to refresh my fabrics a little bit because, frankly, I’m bored of going through the same fabrics time and again to make a new quilt. The ones I’ve owned forever will be refreshed and exciting again when paired with just a small handful of new fabrics. So, one of the things I did was renew my subscription to Cotton Cuts fabric club. I’d done it once before but was half-hearted about the results. Still, I’d liked it enough to try again. I got my first shipment a couple of weeks ago but just today took the time to fold it and get it on my shelf. I’m usi ..read more

Today was book day. Actually, I think yesterday may have been book day. Somehow I seem to have gotten off by a day. In any case, today was the day I finished work at a decent time and immediately turned on happy tunes and tackled my bookshelves. As a reminder, here’s the “before” shot. I had books on every one of the shelves in the tall section, and then a bunch more on two shelves in the wider section. The shelf in the middle where the magazine holder and Ott light are sitting also had books stacked in there, which is a bit of a problem as the light switch for the room is inside that shelf ..read more

If you’ve listed to Episode 207, you’ll know that I’m participating in the 21-Day Decluttering Challenge run by Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. (Today, day 3, is magazine day—I’ve already gotten rid of most of mine but have a few I’ll go through this afternoon after work; then we’re supposed to spend 30 minutes on a UFO. I have a couple of tablerunners that need sandwiching and machine quilting; that might make a nice break from the Storm at Sea Saga.) I thought I should clarify for myself what my end-goal for this decluttering challenge is as, if you visited my sewing room today, you ..read more

So I think I’ve figured out what’s going wrong with my feeds. I just don’t see any way to fix it myself. I’ve sent a support ticket in to Podbean so, given the holidays and usual support ticket times, we’ll see when it gets fixed. It is accessible on Podbean where I host it, and on my own blog (www.quiltingfortherestofus.com/podcasts). It’s updating fine on Stitcher as well. I know it’s not showing up in iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Downcast at the moment. Meanwhile, Podbean does have its own podcast app so if you’re desperate (!) you can always download that and use it. If y’all want to ..read more