Progress?

I have either made amazing progress, or squandered an entire day of quilting...depending on your perspective.

I live in a small house.  That means that I don't have the luxury of a "studio" or craft room.  This is the East wall of Skater Girl's room, taken earlier this spring.   (As a point of disclosure, there are 15 more large tubs of fabric and 7 of notions in the garage.)

Rewind 6 years....the girls shared a bedroom and the 3rd bedroom was used as a playroom/studio.  We had the toys, musical instruments, crafts, dress up, sewing, fabric stash, scrap books, etc in one room.  Then Guitar Girl hit 6th grade and insisted that they needed separate rooms. 

(Hmmm...the bass is missing in this pic...need to talk to the boyfriend.)  

The compromise was that all sewing materials would go to Skater Girl's room.  Painting, Music and Misc Crafts to Guitar Girl's.  

Shhhh! She doesn't know this photo was taken.  But this is the "clean room" version.  This is the "simple quilt, mom" that usually is black&white polka-dot backing up. 

I was watching an Oprah re-run this week with organizers and designers who said ...keep it simple and celebrate what you love. 

I realized that I had been using this corner of the living room for scrap book materials that I hadn't been working on...and I'd been piling quilting projects around it. 

I was up this morning at 6:30 am...shuffling stuff.  Then headed to the store shortly after to buy bins & bookshelves to replace the history storage (bankers boxes) and to swap out the scrapbook supplies to Skater Girl's room.  

That's a drop leaf table (with an ironing board you can access by flipping the center panel) that we bought on a trip to Louisiana when we were newlyweds and had shipped to Idaho.  Oh...but wait?  What is that big wooden box with the handle sitting on it?

Grandma Maple's sewing machine.  The one I learned to sew on.  I suspect it's circa 1930's.  I've owned it since I was a teen but haven't used it since it was replaced with a 1970's Kenmore.  Single, forward stitch only (no reverse).  I was hoping I could plug it in and rock...but there's an alignment issue with the bobbin.  Totally worth the maintenance fee to keep this lovely set up in my living room.

This is where I'm at now.  I've moved the thread and the small yardage quilt fabric to the right tower drawers.  Two of the baskets on top are from a regional weaver Marianne of Brigham City, UT - gifts from my BFF Anna.  I used the much acclaimed 6" ruler method of folding the large yardages on the bottom shelf.  Those are the fabrics for projects that I'm planning...and I'm hoping that seeing the will spur me on.  The center pile is white-on-white...my preferred background fabric.  The 10 bins to the right and left are specific  projects.  USA quilt, Chris & Monte's quilt, Scraps, Dragonfly, Hillary's Quilt, Popsicles/Momsicles, Monet, Seashells, plus one of all background...and a box with random fabrics I want to use in a specific quilt rather than keeping in the stash.  

I haven't sewn a stitch today. Drat.