Organizing stuff

I love containers to organize things. Bins and baskets and pencil holders and crates.

But especially pretty baskets and tins. A few days ago I was in a store and saw sets of square nesting baskets in great colors of purple, orange and lime green, on clearance, and I was ready to bring them all home. Then reality took over and I realized I had no place to put them, so I left them at the store.

Along with collecting sewing machines, over the years I've also collected various notions, including sewing baskets, and I do use them to store various specific types of supplies, like zippers and tassels and leftover sections of binding. It's so nice to see my pretty baskets and know they are useful. In my dream studio I'd have space to display all these baskets together where they could be admired and useful.

I use open baskets for other items, like crumb blocks that are pinned with double layers of batting. I use these blocks to test motifs for free-motion and get warmed up before I start quilting, then I finish them as potholders or eyeglass cases. A huge basket holds small pieces of "not-my-favorite" fabrics that I use for linings for bags or backings for small wall hangings. Another holds pretty yarn (bagged to protect it from dust and kitties). And that's just a start.

I've been thinking about organizing a lot, since I've been spending so much time in my studio. Since I do both traditional and art quilts I have a lot of supplies, and I never know what I am going to want next. So I'm spending a little time each day sorting and making things a little more accessible.

That's when I'm not sewing, of course. Last night I got back to work on my palm tree, and did some more stitching. It's hard with a piece like this to translate vision to thread and fabric, but it's moving along. After working on that for a while I was ready for some low-pressure sewing, so put together some more hanging sleeves and hand-stitched on to one of my quilts while watching television. This is one job I'll be glad to have done.

More later.