lots2do

Redstilettos-great job on your fabric! Zone-great advice,too. Letting go of anything less than an 8 makes so much sense.

Jane Quilter

Looks fabulous.....it must have been hard working out of those bags.

Notwendy

POKE!

I think I'm going to pretend a fellow quilter might show up for a visit - we all tidy the quickest when we know company is on the way. Between that and the timer suggestion I might make some needed headway.

cashs_mom

You're not coming to my house! LOL

redstilettos

Come to mine! There's always room for improvement and friends with good ideas here!

Notwendy

What? You don't like cake, wine or organization? How about 2 out of 3? : )

Judith1005

Zozee, "If you mess up, chances are you can rip it out ,or turn it into scraps. One tip I read (here?) for making sample blocks is to make them all in one colorway. The lady makes all red/white/blue sample blocks so that she can put them all together in one patriotic quilt if she decides she doesn't want to make a bunch of the ones she didn't enjoy making. Practice with your "8" rated fabrics. I do keep SOME reject fabric to make 20x20 sandwiches for FMQ. (A solid helps you see your stitches, but is not necessary.)

Try not to think of giving what you don't like , but keeping what you love. I learned that from the Japanese organizing guru/best selling author Maria Kondo. It makes deciding so much easier. If it gives you a good feeling, keep it. If you have to justify it, or it brings you down, or you find yourself saying "I might do this or I could do that with it" you will get stuck. Free yourself mentally. When it's gone and you have space to see and breathe and move, you will feel like a new woman. I found that it got easier with each 15-minute session to decide what to keep or not. It's like gaining a new talent! "

This fabulous advise. I love the idea of doing my demo blocks in a certain color line. And, that could continually change as quilts are made.

And, thank you for sharing from the Maria Kondo book. I put that book on my Kindle about a month ago. I'm having the hardest time getting past the first chapter. (Maybe I should skip and move ahead. I can always go back. I'll have to ponder that.)

slbram17

I just had to make myself start, of course once in, it is a commitment for me because I drag it all out and there is nowhere to walk until I clean it up. I was able to donate 3 large boxes and 1 bag of smaller pieces of fabric as well as excess notions. I now have my sewing machine cases in the closet, moving them from under the machine area. They would be so dusty inside the crevices, even though I vacuum twice a week. I still have some drawers to go through, but majority is done. Took about ten days but some days was not able to spend a bunch of time. Oh, I folded the remaining fabric on cardboard organizers to make it easier to get to and see.

Good luck when you decide to tackle this. I read posts where people buy yards and yards of fabric at estate sales, etc, and just shake my head. I knew there was no way in my lifetime I was going to use what I had, much less take on someone else's estate.

quiltingshorttimer

so I have a question--how long did it take to cut your scraps with the Accuquilt and then what did you do with them? I worry about cutting them too small and then wanting it larger--so how did you figure out the size?

craftiladi

A chore I can so relate to...please tell us how do you decide what fabric to keep and what to give away. We down sized down a year ago and I am still trying to fit everything in a small bedrm. Your progress inspires me. Great Job.