Cleaning, organizing and fluffing....on Slow Sunday Stitching...

 Hello - so we've made it through another week... not sure I like to think of life in that manner but it is what I'm feeling at the moment... but it was a good week for me ... I attacked another project I've been putting off for months and months and I completed it... and yes I will spend lots of time in this post patting myself on the back...LOL... and this project like the DMC organization before it took waaaaaaayyyy longer than I thought... and this is a bit of a depressing thought because in my former life, long long long ago, I use to plan, format, schedule and implement large scale projects across many departments for a large business... obviously my skills are rusty ... and why was it easier to get other people to do my bidding than it is to get me to get my butt in gear???  

So here is the project... settle in... you may want to get a beverage... lots of pictures and lots of chatter...        I cleaned and reorganized and fluffed my small upstairs office/craft room... AKA  the small bedroom (there is no bed in there) ...AKA the Green Room (because it is painted a lovely shade of green)... as I mentioned before this is not a big room... about 110 sq ft ... but I have a TON of stuff packed into in... and if I say so myself and I do ... it is nicely packed  and arranged...

Here's my view as a I enter the room...

You get a glimpse of all four walls... I'm going to start with the wall on my right....I tackled this one first as there was a lot of cleaning to do...

Starting at the tippy top I took down every piece of McCoy pottery I have up there and washed it... they were filthy dusty... ugh...but now they actually shine... and I wiped down all those small IKEA storage boxes... they have stamps and dies and what nots I use for card making...  and I love that I could tuck in a piece of cross stitch on this wall..

This is from Blackbird  Designs ...when I stitched it, it was called Early Morning Read and was in the book Weekend published 2011 (it was primarily quilt patterns with a bit of cross stitch) but then it reappeared in 2019 in the book Ooh La La and was called A Bit of Spring... the colors on this are so pretty... pale rosy beige and the flosses included Crescent Colors Jakey Brown... my favorite pink floss!

Then I moved onto that cube unit... a Kallax from IKEA... I had cardboard storage boxes before... they hold my charts ... my linen... my UFOs that we will not speak of ... and the paper and ink supply for the printer... I've had the cardboard boxes for years and they were not holding up to the wear and tear and the weight of the stuff I was putting inside... sooooooo a trip to IKEA was on the agenda on Monday... 

Now this was the best trip I've had to IKEA in over a year... everything I went looking for was IN STOCK... I got 8 of those new bins... they are Lekman boxes... you can see them here...I assumed they were a solid cube... they are NOT... they come flat packed and you have to snap together 5 pieces... unfortunately my wrists are not what they use to be and this was hard to do ... luckily my son came to my rescue and assembled them for me... I like them a lot... they are sturdy... they have strips of felt on the bottoms that lets them glide in and out smoothly... I'm not afraid when I pick one up that the bottom of the box is going to fall out... to fluff them a bit a put a sheet of cardstock in the front... alternating a gold and an olive ... coordinates with my new rug which I'll show more of further down this post.

And in the corner I put an IKEA Raskog cart...this one was tucked away in my furnace storage room... it is a creamy beige-y white... they don't have this color anymore...now they have just white, black and a gray-y green....

anyway... here I've stashed lots of WIPs and a few projects that are just kitted up and waiting for me to release them from their plastic storage bags...

 I got the bags here on Amazon... I like these ... they are a step up from the Ziploc bags I've been using for years... I know lots of people are into the fabric project bags of different sizes and fabrics but I like the  orderliness of having the same kind of storage... makes me feel like I'm in control (even though I know I'm not...LOL) 

I've reserved that bottom bin on the cart for stuff I buy for Elliott... books, Hot Wheels, toys... I'm always picking things up and dumping them in this room... now I can hopefully remember what I purchased and get it to him, bit by bit... I often bring him a little gift when I baby sit him on Tuesdays... he is into twucks ( R's are hard to say) and  types of construction equipment... he particularly likes diggers  or I think the proper term is excavators... I have a several of books on those topics to give him... Gwamma is doing her best to spoil him... I take the job very seriously...

Okay, moving on to the next wall... I wiped down all those samplers... oh I LOVE samplers... and yes some of them aren't hanging straight... I'll get to that ...

I have plans to add more samplers to this wall this year... In organizing the WIPs I found several partially completed samplers... I want to finish up a couple and stitch a couple more..

As for all the drawers... these are Sterlite 2093... they are a 3 drawer unit and I've placed 3 units  on top of each other to make one "stack" ... and as you can see there are 5 "stacks"... these hold scrapbook paper and envelopes and stickers and buttons and embellishments and ribbons and ephemera and tape and you get the idea...I had a piece of finished masonite board cut to span the top which gives me a nice work surface when I make cards... and after fluffing my DMC boxes I had to FLUFF these drawers...

I put pretty paper in the front of every drawer and I added pieces of ephemera.. birds, butterflies, leaves... here and there...  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this looks... why didn't I think of this years ago???  All of this stuff came from my stash (and yes I have a nice stash of papers along with my stash of fabric, yarn, charts, threads, linens, etc... do we see a pattern of behavior here?  Good think I'm not into drinking, drugs or gambling...LOL)... 

And I put some pretty washi tape on the edge of the shelf (oh washi tape is a new  obsession collection in my life... soooooo many pretty designs ... we won't speak of it now... okay?

And another thing we won't speak about right now is all the charts in that white basket... I have designated it to be the spot I drop charts into that have just snuck into my house (they are quite clever and squeeze through the mail slot on a regular basis) and charts I have gotten out, looked at and need to put away in their new Lekman boxes... there is quite a bit of filing to do here, but it is in loose alphabetical order... I may get to it later today... 

A tangent... I haven't purchased a lot of scrapbook papers in the last couple of years... and it appears that lots of the designers I liked are no longer producing papers... Basic Grey, October Afternoon, K& Company, Brenda Walton... makes me a bit sad... but instead of hording storing it I'm glad I'm using some of it... All of the papers I used in the drawer fronts were Brenda Walton collections... I know she is still producing art but I couldn't find any new paper when I looked online...  and yes there are labels on ALL of the drawers... gave my label maker a good workout... I had labeled these drawers a couple of years ago but the labels had gotten yellow... nice fresh clean white one are the finishing touch here... and yes my OCD is showing...

Under the window I have one of my 2 Juki sewing machines and a small ironing space...

There is nice light in this room even though I'm only a few feet away from my neighbor's house... I do have a view of their back yard and bird feeder... I like that... and I LOVE looking at this piece from Brenda Gervais called Needle and Thread...

This is one of my best painted pieces... I figured out how much room the grass would take on this piece and instead of stitching ALL that green I painted that area and then added a turquoise blue sky... this piece has EVERYTHING I LOVE about stitching... there is a bit of an alphabet and the scissors and the thread spools and some quilt motifs and  the vintage pearl buttons... now stitching that skirt was a bit of a slog but definitely worth it!!

Moving to the last wall,  another desk unit (this one is a bit bigger, the top was custom cut by my handyman Dan) and a Billy bookcase...

And yes that is a yellow cutting mat... I got it here at Create for Less ... and it flips to a light green on the other side.... above I have 2 pieces that I finished last year...

The top one is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas and the bottom one is Faith of the Heart from With Thy Needle & Thread... this one speaks to me as the mother of a child with a disability... and this wall has empty space too ... and you know what that means... MORE SAMPLERS!!! LOL

Here's the Billy bookcase with my thread stash and a wreath hangs on the closet door with another piece from WTN&T...Bluebird out my Window...

That was one of the first pieces I FFO'd myself... oh we aren't opening that closet door... it is STUFFED with more paraphernalia...  it is semi-orderly... it has my dyes and my paints and more paper stuff ... I told you I had crammed a TON of stuff into this room and I wasn't lying... LOL

And finally the floor... a new rug from the company FLOR... 

I love their stuff and have a floral carpet from them under my dining room table and in my hall way and a plaid on my sunroom porch... it comes as large squares (19" square)  and you can arrange them as you like... and they stick to each other with large adhesive dots ... they aren't glued to the floor... I LOVE that you can get patterns....

Another tangent... when I was about 13 I went to a new friend's house for dinner... her mom had the most gorgeous carpet in the living room... it was a deep blue with flowers all over it...now this was 1966 or so... the era of avocado green and harvest gold shag carpet (which was a prominent part of my Mom's decor)... I had never seen anything like it... and as life went on carpet became waaaay more beige (and I do have some beige carpet in my house) but colors and patterns are waaaaay more interesting to me... oh this patter is called Among the Wildflowers and the colorway is Ivy... 

So this room is tidy and inviting ... I hope to do a little sewing in here this week as it is suppose to get frigid here and the basement will be a bit chilly... hopefully those single degree temps will come with sunny days... I can take the cold if the sun is shining...

On the stitching scene I didn't get a lot done... I stitched a small Valentine piece that needs to be FFO'd ... I'll show the 2 small Valentine displays I plan on doing next week... and I did put some stitches in a WIP from last April... this is Prairie Schooler Garden Alphabet No. 61...

Excuse the wrinkles... it is stitched in DMC on an unknown 32 ct mottled yellow linen from my stash... I'm halfway done... I'd like to add this to my Spring display in March ... one square a day should get me there... but I think I want this one professionally framed... doable ... and I want to put some time in on the needlepoint stocking... I still have several BIG projects I want to get to... cleaning my kitchen and making new curtains has moved up the list... but not sure I'll start it next week.. I'm waiting to hear from Dan,  my handyman... he texted last week and said he'd planned on coming this week to put together the 6 bookcases and attend to several other projects I have for him... but he's always busy and his plans change... I'd love to have him come but when I does I don't get anything else done and the bookcases will need my attention to unload and reload all the fabrics... perhaps I could give my bedroom and the sampler walls in the hallway a good cleaning... dusty there too... 

Plans are for a belated birthday dinner for my older son today... requested prime rib... and I'm also bringing a pasta salad and that Chinese coleslaw salad and asparagus wrapped with prosciutto and those yummy Kings Hawaiian rolls... should be a nice meal...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and browse the blogs there today... just have to get the prime rib in the oven and do the asparagus before we drive over to see the rest of the family... not sure what this week will bring... I have a 6 month check up at the eye clinic on Thursday... I thought this was the appointment without having my eyes dialated but the appointment reminder says otherwise... and while I always want sunny days an hour or so of cloudy when I get out of the doctor's office would be appreciated... 

Hope your week is a happy one... I think for most of us in the US it is going to be a cold one, so stay warm!

happy stitching-

carol fun