While I have done a lot of organizing and donating this year - I could have done better that's for sure. :) I will continue to purge as others have said - not only in the area of quilting but in general.

>>I like SarahBethie's take on words...I have been doing a lot of (necessary) purging as well,<<

This is my goal after Christmas. I am a "paper hoarder" and have two file cabinets filled. It simply has to stop, and I have to purge. What I'd like is a scanner that turns all that paper into digital files, with necessary information, but will I go that far? Probably not (organizing scanners are expensive). Still, I hope to make a dent!

Successes for this year- I reorganized my tiny sewing area so now it functions efficiently, both for storage and working on quilts. I also purged a lot of excess stuff (both art and crafts related and also general household stuff).

not so successful-- finding a way to store completed quilts. Still looking for solutions.

goals for the coming year-- continue the purge :D

It has been so inspiring to read all of your reflections.
I followed a friend's lead and cleared out a desk that was in our bedroom and not being used. Drove it to a thrift store with its matching chair on Sunday. Yes, the air felt lighter inside the room with it gone. That inspired DH to suggest moving some furniture around in there and now it feels so much bigger, again, as if there is more air to breathe in there. I am going to get a pair of new sheers to hang soon at Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are perfect with little shells, sea horses and such in a crisp white.
Now that the bedroom is coming along, I am feeling more brave about re-tackling the sewing room. It sounds silly to say, since we are retired now, but over Christmas vacation, I plan on sorting things out and making enough headway to get back in there and sew! (Since my sewing/knitting groups are on hold over the holidays, it does feel like a true vacation...).
Thanks everybody.

My only "organization" has been to move into a house with tiny bedrooms, the smallest of which is the storage room. All of my sewing room furniture is shoved and piled in there. So mine is a failure so far. However, I've finally got the money together to have a walk-in door and 3 windows put into the one-car garage that I'm going to turn into my sewing studio! That will begin hopefully after the holidays. Then I'll have electricity run to it before I start putting in the insulation and drywall. It'll probably take me at least a year to get it all done (as I can afford it), but I can't wait to get started on it!

Donna

biggest success: cleaning sorting tossing and donating fabric. fabric organized on boards for easy filing. Projects are in 18" square plastic boxes with labels on them. Now as i work on swaps and blocks of the month projects I can put them away together and find them next month. Scraps from quilts are promptly cut down with my accucut into strips or stamps or charms ready to swap or work on scrap quilts.
Now that I have enough home quilts, I peruse the "request" section of this board and donate to charity quilters. I am slowly reducing my stash and making people happy. Baby quilts for the NICU make me happy to make and donate. (I noticed the only type of fabric I never accumulated was quilt of valor , red white and blue....primary colors never interested me....and here I am making QOV blocks for our veterans. Ha, never say never!).
Biggest failure: All this quiltmaking has reduced my ability (time wise) to hand quilt. I am sending the big ones out to the LAer, and the small ones , I am learning to FMQ on one of my spare machines I have set up permanently for this operation. I feel like I might have "lost" my ability to hand quilt. Worried, but no time to go back now.
Merry Christmas, all

Biggest success this year: I moved everything from the dining room into the sewing room and had all my quilting projects in one room.

Biggest failure: I was working on a large quilt two weeks ago and needed more room, so I moved the project to the dining room. Slowly, the dining room has more and more quilting supplies. I will move it all back once this project is done (I hope!!).

Jane, could you set aside one quilt for hand quilting? I've wanted to do that. Hand quilting is so relaxing.

What if you added shelves around the walls up high. Give you some room.

Target is having a sale on the Sterlite storage bins. There's an extra $5 discount when you spend $25. The coupon code is STORAGE. They're available for pickup only.

These should help us start the new year on the right note! :thumbup: