Friday, December 30, 2011

We slept in this morning and then spent a lot of time looking through some Italy guidebooks. There is so much I want to review before we get there so I won’t be overwhelmed by all the new stuff we will be learning.

It was late in the morning before I made it up to my studio. There wasn’t much question as to what I would do today – the floor was covered in “stuff”. Last night I started cleaning out some of my dresser drawers and, of course, that led to sorting through a lot of stuff that was in those drawers. I made some decisions about what I wanted to keep and what I was willing to give up and had piles everywhere. Until everything was out of the dresser I couldn’t begin to move fabric out of the trunk and into the drawers. By late this afternoon I could see the floor again and the fabric was all neatly tucked away in the drawers of one of the dressers. The second dresser is better organized too – it is behind my ironing board so I put things in it that I don’t expect I’ll need very often.

Shortly before Christmas I added an order for a new sewing foot onto a fellow quilter’s online order so we would save a bit on shipping. The foot arrived in record time and I went to pick it up today. Marlene had the coffee on when I got there so we had a nice chat. She has some lovely quilts that she has made over the years and she gave me a tour of her sewing areas. She also showed me how to use my new ruler – no excuse now for not getting that Mystery Quilt cut out.

When I got home I finished cleaning up my mess and finally had a chance to cut some of my scrap fabric. I have squares cut from 5” all the way down to 2.5”, as well as some Lego strips and strings. I decided that if I had enough material for more than a 5” square it would go in with my fat quarter collection. Two and a half inches is quite small so I didn’t go any smaller than that when I was cutting. I think I have the process sorted out, and I have a box or container for each of the sizes. I still have a good-sized bin to go through so my work isn’t done.

After supper Pat gave me another short lesson on website building. I’m going to spend the rest of the evening playing with the structure we have built.