My Studio, and a Giveaway!

I can never buy another piece of fabric for the rest of my life!

I spent 3 hours in my studio yesterday afternoon clearing off shelves and organizing fabric. Here's the worst part of it, I am no where near finished!!! For quite some time, I have wanted to clean up and organize my studio. For far too long, I've gone from 1 project to the next without cleaning in between. 

I am beyond mortified to share the video below. You will see that even Gracie holds her head in shame. 

As I went through my fabric, I realized that I own some of the most amazing pieces. The idea of not buying fabric is heartbreaking, but what I have vowed to hold true to my goal, and not purchase anything until September 1st. At that point, I will assess how I am doing and go from there. That's 3 months, so that should give me plenty of time to begin to look into my soul and discover a little more about my obsession with fabric. Stay tuned for more posts on my progress. As some of you know, I have tried to set this as a goal in the past, and failed. This time I am taking a little different approach. Rather than try to find a huge block of time to clean, I am giving myself a small pocket of time each day. I had planned to only do an hour yesterday, but became immersed and just kept going. That's okay. Today I will may only do 30 minutes. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have had a goal to read through certain books of the Bible. The goal I set for myself was to read the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Job, Ecclesiastes, the books of Wisdom and Sirach(from the Catholic Bible), and finish out the year by reading through the New Testament. By setting small daily goals, I have finished Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, and I am currently reading through Job. Now, reading books from the Bible is not for everyone, and I understand, but what I have learned from my goal is that by setting small daily goals, it adds up to big goals accomplished. It's just amazing! So, I am translating that same goal setting strategy to my studio space. 

Now for something fun!!!

Londa, of Londa's Creative Threads is sponsoring a give away here on the blog. Some of you have already purchased her Terrific T pattern, so whoever wins will have the opportunity to choose from her Terrific T, 

OR, her Trendy Tunic Tops pattern.

I will begin a new segment on the blog tomorrow on using a basic t-shirt pattern to create lots of fun tops. Londa's tee is perfect for this. But, if you've already purchased the t-shirt pattern, you can still enter the giveaway and try for the Trendy Tunics pattern. Very generous of Londa :)

To enter, just leave a message on this post. I will announce the winner next Wednesday, May 16, 2018.   

Good Luck!

Rhonda    

Sewing Room Inspiration and Cleaning Part 2

Happy Thursday/Happy Spring! It seems, at least fingers crossed, that the weather gods have decided to give us a little taste of spring for the next few days. The cardinals are sooo happy, just singing out their little hearts, and that makes me happy too :) 

I had intended to post this yesterday, but my time got away from me. I do have a Thrifty Thursday piece to share, so I'll be back with that a little later today :)

A couple days ago, I shared my dirty little secret...my very out of control sewing studio. Like all of us, I'm busy. I think that one of my issues is a combination of a few things. I can have the attention span of a gnat at times, at least that's how I feel. I have an idea, pull things out, leave them out for added inspiration, and then when I do get started, I'm on a roll and the rest doesn't get put away. And even worse, there's usually a number of ideas going at one time. 

So my intention is to clean up, organize, and make better use of my space. I have a fairly large space, and I have pieces that I will not part with, like a large cutting table and a padded table. More on the padded table later.

Over the last few days I have cleaned a little. The picture below does not represent the mess as well as......      

this view of the same area.

Now, the somewhat after picture. I say somewhat since the entire table has yet to be attacked. The things that were piled up around the sewing machine were actually either put where they belong, given away, or thrown away. I was a little surprised with what needed to go in the garbage. 

As you can see, I chose to clean just a space, not the entire table. I set a timer and allowed myself to do what I could in that amount of time. When I sat down to sew yesterday, with just this small space cleaned, I was amazed how free I felt. Funny how that happens. I did clean a little on my cutting table, so a little more has been done than I'm sharing now. Now that I've made a little headway, I'm really pumped to keep going!  

I believe that blogging is really about sharing and inspiration. What we do as sewists can be so isolating. Yes, you can go to a class, but so much is done on our own and alone. So to help inspire those of us who are on a cleaning journey, I asked for those of you would like, to share your space. Share the good, the bad and the ugly!! I thought we would begin with the not only good, but the WOW!!!

We'll start with Karen of Once Sewn. In her post, she shares that she and her family have moved many times and she has had numerous spaces, but she finally has a dedicated space that she loves. Don't you just love the violin in the corner?!!  

This lovely space belongs to Margo of Creating In The Gap. She says that her space is the only finished area in her basement, so she has to walk through the unfinished section to enter her studio. It looks to me like she opens the door to heaven! 

Next we have TwoToast of Spotty Dog Social Club. She calls her studio her personal heaven. The shelves and tables are from Ikea. I really like the use of space. 

Pao of Project Minima linked up her post about her studio. Like many of you, she is multi-talented. She's also a very gifted artist. She has made her space productive and inviting with the use of so many found objects.

Thanks so much for sharing you spaces. You have not only inspired me, but sparked some great ideas.

A number of you have commented that a perfectly clean studio does not promote creativity, and I agree. There needs to be a little chaos in order to free the imagination. I just want less chaos. I also have a goal in mind that I'll share once I get a little further along. 

I'm giving myself a month to clean. So over the next month, I'll do a weekly check-in and share my progress. Be sure to link up your studios as well as your progress to THIS post. The link up will be open over the next month, so link away. I'll share what you share as I work through my cleaning process. As isolated as we may feel at times, we're really all in this together.

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are today :)

Rhonda