Getting Serious

So, I've started to Get Serious. About this quilting thang, the chicken-raising thang, and well, Life in General.

I had another happy customer from my Etsy shop who is thinking about commissioning another boyish blocks quilt. She wants a big one, 80" x 80". I thought, wow, that's serious, and then I realized I had to keep up and get serious, too. She's curious about what other fun prints I have in my stash, and I said, Oh, let me send you a few pix, and then I was in it deep.

Now, I have been drooling over, and wondering if I could ever live up to such admirable stash re-organizations as these: Liz's at teeny tiny quilts, Ashley's at filminthefridge (and again here), and Nettie at a quilt is nice, to name only a few. It seems to be all the rage. Spring cleaning, I guess. But my stash, you see, was large, yes, but in piles on every surface and in every plastic tub I could get my hands on. If I felt my stash was getting out of order, I would just go down to Joann's with my 40% coupon and get some more plastic tubs. When my happy customer wanted some pictures of what I had, I walked into the studio with a happy face, and suddenly became deeply embarrassed.

See, part of Getting Serious (opening my Etsy shop, taking commissions), has meant I have gone a little (a lot) overboard in beefing up my stash. There's been this,
this ,
this,
oh, this ,
and, mmm this . Lots of mail lately. Fabricworm, Hawthorne Threads, and SewMamaSew are my post-box lovers.

But things got out of hand, fast, as they do, when one indulges, which I clearly did. I couldn't find anything, had no sense of what was what, or where, and I was starting to wonder, Why??

Then, thinking I should just get some more plastic bins, I struck out for Joanns, but swung by my local mom 'n pop fabric/quilting shop. They've been hurting lately, are downsizing, and are looking to move some of their inventory. Why not, I thought (like the addict that I am). Well, needless to say, I came home with this . Pretty, yes? And all for a steal, I might add. Maybe I'll go back and get some more.....Help!! Somebody stop me!

So I enlisted the professional help from my 7 year-old daughter, who suffers from the same O.C.D. as I do, and LOVES to organize (has loved it, since she was a baby) and she came to the rescue.
Oooo...this one is very pretty! she says. And then drops it into the specific color pile (which she had designated, on my floor grid, btw). That picture shows her about 5 minutes into the project. It took over an hour. My floor was covered with fabrics, the grid was obliterated. She was making fabric angels on the floor, I'm not even kidding. I don't have pics because I was literally wading through the fabric.

Then, today, I did this . A thing of beauty, yes? It's so not fair to show the chaos and then the result, because, believe me, the process was long, arduous, and niggling. But deeply, DEEPLY satisfying. Just look at this ,
and this
and this ,
and this ,

and this , and even these !

I just want to pour a big glass of wine, pull up a stool, and just look at it. I've even plastic-binned my "current" projects, some designer collections, and basics like backing (Ikea sheets!), heavyweights, linens, and muslins. And of course, a giant bin for SOLIDS. I love my Kona Solids (see picture above!) And everything is labeled, for your safety.

Now I can REALLY get serious. So many ideas came to mind just sorting stuff out. But I kept on target, have my tiers of goals (things that have to get done Yesterday, things that have to get done Tomorrow, things I want to do sometime Soon, and things I want to do Someday) and feel like I know where I am, which is all it's really about, isn't it?

Now, I can concentrate on this

and this .

Oh, and I promise, next time, to tell you about this. And this.

Talk about getting serious. What is getting you serious these days?