Declutter Challenge Roundup and a New Quilt Top

So the Declutter Challenge didn't do much for me because I have a small space and honestly I don't have excessive amounts of things, or much that I don't use or won't use. So I wasn't successful in tidying up my space. Then came a big project my husband and I did to reorganize our living room that took three weeks. So I'll have to get back to you on cleaning out the sewing room

But I do have a new quilt top to show you, a scrap quilt made with Christmas fabric. I saw something similar on one of my Facebook groups and decided to go for it with my Christmas scrap bag.

The pattern is adaptation of one from Cluck Cluck Sew with pumpkins. You can find it for sale here. I found a free pattern online for a Christmas gift block that was the correct size and inserted that into the pattern instead of pumpkins.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and it's next on the block for machine quilting.

Declutter Challenge Days 2-5 Squatters Through Patterns

Day 2- Squatters

Finding things that don't belong in the room a.k.a. Squatters was not a big deal. Most of them went out on Day 1. This is a busy space and it surprised me a little how much stuff actually does belong in here. I did find a couple of things though.

Day 3- Magazines

I don't really hold on to magazines so there wasn't much to do on that front.

Day 4- Books

I'm extremely picky these days about what books I buy and I seldom get rid of any. Almost any time I have, I regret it. Quilt books go out of print, and they don't have massive print runs to begin with, so if you let it go, be prepared to never see it again. You can luck out and find it on eBay or through a used source, or maybe through a friend, but they can be really expensive to buy used and honestly, I just keep them because "maybe someday."

Day 5- Patterns

Okay finally I made some progress. I have one small box where I keep printed patterns now. I try to buy them electronically as much as possible and I have a very complicated filing system on my computer that I maintain diligently. So I did manage to weed out enough of a stack from my box that I was able to put all of my printed patterns in there, even the garment patterns, including my tissue paper templates. So that actually made a huge difference!

I won't be able to work on the Challenge again until Monday so I will see you then.

2024 Declutter Challenge with Just Get It Done Quilts

So my favorite quilting YouTuber is Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts and this month she is hosting a daily declutter challenge, which I'm taking part in.

Today's task was to throw out the trash and remove things that don't belong in your quilt room. I stay pretty on top of both day to day, so there wasn't much for me to do, but I did finally- finally- pull together the box of gift cards from my former employer, which has been sitting in my room since I stopped working for them last summer. Part of my job was issuing gift cards to customers so I had a box of supplies at home. Nobody asked for them back and I forgot about the box, but today I got it ready to go out.

I also went through my quilting bookshelf and found a lot of printouts to discard/recycle and some paper things to put into my three-ring binder. This simple activity opened up a lot of space on the shelf. I found some things to donate to the guild at my upcoming retreat later in the month.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

I like that the challenges are short and specific. Who has all day for this? But it has to get done.