Why is cleaning so messy??

 I'm on part 2 of the reorganization of my studio. I had it all cleaned up, and workable at the beginning of the year, and now look at it.

All of that stuff came off a shelving unit that used to live in this spot. The only really useful stuff that was on the shelving unit were my books. The rest of it was mostly junk. My totally wonderful husband is putting up peg boards for me, mostly for thread storage. I used to keep my thread on a couple of book shelves, which were poorly lit, and the threads were hard to see. We bought 10 lengths of doweling that started off at 48 inches long. Scott cut them all into 4 1/2 inch lengths for me, and then he hammered them all into the peg board.Now, all my threads are well displayed, and easy to get at. And if I move the light on my cutting table a bit, the threads will be even easier to see. For some reason, this picture of my thread wall won't load right side up. It should actually be one quarter turn to the right. But you get the ideaIn addition to all this, I've also been purging all my old patterns. Ancient stuff that I'd forgotten I even had. Or stuff that was photocopied from the library, in the days before internet. Knitting patterns for sweaters that will never get made, plastic canvas stitchery that I will never do, all going to be recycled. All going out of my studio and giving me more space. I just wish it didn't make so much mess to clean up. The junk on the long arm table is almost all cleaned up. Now there is the cutting table stuff that came of the shelving unit to go through, and this phase of reorganizing will be done. There is still lots more stuff in this room to go through, but I'm getting there. Maybe halfway done, if not more. But for tonight, I'm done. I'll try and get it finished off tomorrow. All this means there has been no sewing for me today. (sigh)

Progress..... Before and after...

Well, I've made some progress at the sewing station end of my room, and have a couple of before and after pics, just to prove that it can be done.
                                                                                               

                                                                                                   

In addition to getting these 2 areas cleaned up, I did some scrap taming, as well. I put on Michael Card's "Joy in the Journey" album, which has 18 songs on it, all of which I love, all of which I was happily singing along to this afternoon. While this album played, I gave myself the task of cutting down scraps into various sized squares and strips, mostly 2 1/2 inch, 2 inch and 1 1/2 inch. Whatever didn't fit into those sizes went into crumbs, strings, or garbage. When the album was done, I was done, and able to go onto something else. So I now have a lot more squares to use as leaders and enders, and strips to make into other quilts. Then, this evening, I dug into those crumbs, and strings, and as yet untrimmed scraps, and started making more string pieced wedges for UFO #5. There will be a more detailed post about that sometime soon.  As long as I don't turn around and look at the other end of the room, I can pretend that all is neat and tidy. But not so, there is a lot left to do, but it's a start.

Design Wall Monday Week 1

I have given myself 4 assignments for today, well, actually 5. Number one is to write this post.
Number 2 is to dig out my UFO #5, get it on the wall, and maybe take a new pic of it.I have figured out that I have 24 of the hexagons finished, and I need a minimum of 75 to get it in the area of 80 inches by 90 inches. So, I need 51 more finished hexagon units, which will require 308 string pieced wedges. I have 125 wedges already pieced, so I need 183 more, at least. That should tame some of my scraps and crumbs.
Number 3 is to dig out what I have done so far on Orca Bay, and get some of it arranged the way it is supposed to be, on the wall. I am waiting on an order of fabric that has more blacks in it, in order to do the black background Ohio stars. I like it with these fabrics, though, so I don't need to order any special red for it.
Number 4 is to do something about cooking something for supper. Some beef is out of the freezer, and will probably get done into some Swiss Steak.
And number 5 is to start in on creating order out of chaos in my sewing room. The only possible way to do it is in sections, so, today I concentrate on my actual sewing table. And then, if I want to be able to actually cut some fabrics, so that I can work on something, I guess I'll have to do something about my cutting table too. The corner of the cutting board is just visible under that mess. Why, oh why do I ever let it get this bad? So, I guess I'd better get off the computer, go plug my ipod into its new dock that my wonderful husband got me for Christmas, once I find a place for it, that is, and begin the process of cleaning up. I'm linking this post up to Judy's Design wall Monday at Patchwork Times and also to Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Monday linkup on her Quiltville blog.