The Surprise Quilt!!

Most of my close friends and family know all about this, but I wanted to make a blog entry to share the story!! Back when I first got my sewing machine I decided to make a quilt and it has taken me a LONG time to complete one. I always knew I wanted to give my first quilt to my Grandma! This particular quilt happened in stages and honestly, even by accident. I made some original quilt squares with odd sized scraps and called them "wonky" but just couldn't fall in love with them! I tried to help a friend, Charlene with a quilt and wanted to share my scraps with her. I cut them all to size for her before realizing I had measured wrong and cut all of them too short! Inspired by her quilt though, I used my scraps as practice and just loved the result!! From there, my first ever quilt was born! Its taken me about 6 months from concept to finish. I wasn't always plugging away at it. I gave the quilt to my amazing Grandma Prewitt for Mother's Day and she was just so thrilled! I was fortunate enough to have my family there to tape and capture her reaction!! Enjoy the pics!!

You can read more about my amazing Grandma by  CLICKING HERE!

           

   

Oops, here's the how-to!

I got completely sidetracked by my own thoughts in my previous post and forgot to actually write about HOW I organize which was basically the main point of my post, haha.
Keep in mind, this is what works for me & may not work for you.  The trick is to adapt.  Take some of these helpful tips, along with those that you find elsewhere and find a system that works for you.

I set small goals for myself first.  Then I set a larger "in the end" goal that I basically forget about until I've tackled every other thing on my list...because its my small goals that lead to the big one.
When it comes to cleaning, organizing and decluttering...my small goals are each individual room and my large goal is to go through every last room, closet, cabinet & drawer until I've done them all.

For the purpose of this post, I'll just keep it simple.

A couple ground rules that I follow:

A) Finish one room completely before moving to another (trust me, stick to it).  You don't want to have an entire house of half organized stuff.  Finishing a room brings a sense of completion that carries you into the next project.   It will slow you down if you're thinking about what you neglected to do in the previous room.

B) If its expired, toss it.  If its a bathroom product (i.e. liquid, soap, shampoo, makeup, medicine, etc.) and its more than a year old, toss it.  If you haven't touched it, used it or even thought about it in the past year, toss it.  Learning to throw things away is CRUCIAL.  Sure, that super sparkly blue eyeshadow looked great that one time and sure, I might want to wear blue eyeshadow again someday, but that day hasn't come anytime recently therefore that blue eyeshadow is just waste.

C) Trust your gut.  If your gut says "keep it" then do so.  You'll do another clean up a year from now and realize you didn't need such & such but keep it if it makes you happy.  Don't stress about it.  I like to think that if I at least toss about as much as I'm keeping I'm in a good place.

D) Buy good trash bags before even attempting a cleanup.  I'm talking the 30 gallon, black, Hefty bags.  Challenge yourself to fill at least one trash bag per room (or whatever your particular cleanup calls for).

E)  Save your breaks.  Nobody *likes* to clean.  You'll often get bored, discouraged, frustrated or tired by what you're doing.  Keep going.  You can take a 5-15 minute break between rooms.  Finish the entire room before you stop.  Otherwise you'll start feeling like you've been working in the same area ALL day. If you keep the momentum going you can easily tackle one room at a time before taking a break.  Believe you can do it.

When I start in any given room of my house I do the following:

1) Pick up any normal clutter and put it where I'd normally put it when I'm cleaning.  Working with a clean room to begin with makes me want to strive to get it back to cleanliness after I've dumped everything out and created a big mess.  To organize efficiently, you're going to need to make a mess.  Forget the windex and wood polish for now.  You'll have time for that when the room is decluttered.  Give yourself plenty of room to sort.

2) If there is a big task (as in, size matters), do it first.  If that means cleaning all your old clothes out of the closet first because they're overflowing and making your workspace difficult to navigate, start there.  You'll feel great after you clear out a bunch of larger items and the room will already start to feel lighter.

3) Next, move onto things that annoy you the most.  For me, its junk drawers.  Any place where random items are accumulating.  Why?  Because they require more sorting and time devotion.  It usually involves a lot of small things that have to be organized.  The easiest method I've found is mini piles.  I make a mini pile of things that belong in the kitchen, or my son's room or the bathroom.  Instead of running every little thing from room to room I can take it all at once.  On that note, I also LOVE old shoeboxes for this reason.  I usually have one for each room of my house and I bring them with me as I clear room after room.  Organizing within organizing, the way someone with OCD would do it.

*HINT*  If you're boxing things up and/or have a lot of items you plan on just storing...I suggest using medium sized boxes.  I avoid large boxes because I have a tendency to pack them too heavy which defeats the purpose when we're moving if nobody can lift the darn box.  Small boxes just mean more to move.  A good sturdy medium box means I won't be keeping too much but I'll have room for what I need.

4) Okay, you've done something BIG and you've done something annoying now, right?  Now do something easy.  Organize something that doesn't require much organization.

5) You should be done or very close to done by this point.  If you're still far from your goal, keep pushing.  Box after box, tub after tub, until you've sorted through everything in the room.

6) Lastly, clean that room the way a maid would.  Wipe down mirrors and windows, polish furniture, clean your baseboards and any smudges off the walls.  Wash your bedding if you're in a bedroom.  Vacuum, sweep or mop the floors.  Give yourself a pat on the back and move on!

In my case this task took me a couple weeks and I'm still going strong.  At the end of it I'll haul everything I've purged out of my garage and off to recycling, the dump or Goodwill.  Then life will go back to normal.

How I Organize...

We are moving this summer...either to a different house, or a different city altogether.
I can't really start packing now, because that would be silly when we have 4 whole months left here.  Packing things away for 4-5 months means they aren't things we need on a day to day basis which is cause for throwing them out!
I started with the garage.  Mainly because we bought a new car.  Well, Ricky did.  It will be his daily driver, now that his new job requires a commute.  He's always driving me crazy about cleaning out the garage because there are things out there that just move from one house to the next but never get sorted through.  So I successfully hauled a bunch of things off to the recycling center with his dad and him and cleaned the garage out!
Then I got this crazy idea to tackle the office/guest room/ my sewing room.  I went completely OCD in there.  Printed labels for everything, sorted through every single drawer and the closet.  I impressed myself, haha.
Then I reorganized some of the kitchen cabinets and cleaned out the cabinets in our small laundry room.
Today, I sorted all the laundry...which feels like moving mountains to me.
I went through our master closet and pulled out a ton of clothes to toss or donate.  I did that mainly because my husband has lost 70 lbs. this past year and it was high time to clear out his bigger clothes in celebration of such a huge accomplishment.
Then I did most of the laundry (its still going) from wash, to dry, to folded & hung.
Finally, Gavin and I went crazy cleaning out his room.  I was very proud of him...he cleared out 3 large trash bags worth of junk!  
We are going to rearrange it tonight as soon as I come up with a plan to fix his platform bed which I messed up while moving it.  Anytime you tackle a clean up in Gavin's room its a HUGE task so to just toss that in randomly & finish (for the most part) felt great!!
Tonight and/or tomorrow I think I'll work on the bathroom & linen closets, the china cabinet, and our "junk drawers."
My goal is to have gone through every room from top to bottom and at least have everything sorted & decluttered by Friday.
Then I can enlist Ricky's help cleaning up the yard & hauling things away this weekend!
*whew*  Even this post was exhausting.

Here are some photos of the cleanup in my sewing room!

Busy Days.

This morning I woke up after a much needed 8 hours of sleep & got Gavin off to school.  He's such a little champ in the mornings.  Gets himself ready right on schedule.  Awesome kiddo I'm raising. ;)

Right after I drop Gav off at school its my morning ritual to just sit down for a bit and relax with some caffeine and last night's DVR'd shows.  A slow start to my day.  But today, I woke up anxious because I have SO MUCH to do over the next few days!  So I started with a to do list...a massive one.
I'm probably only halfway through my list and its already after 4pm!  So I've just been busy, busy, busy.

My Dad is visiting us from Colorado and arrives in Florida on this upcoming Sunday!  I'm so excited!!
Of course anytime a guest is coming my OCD kicks into overdrive.
So back to cleaning I must go!
I hope you are all having a great week!  If you're not, at least its halfway over!
Happy Wednesday!!

-Beth

*A New Quilt!*

Last Monday I received a package in the mail.  A large package!  I had been waiting for this particular package because I knew it would contain a new quilting square, some assorted scrap fabrics, and a bunch of gifts for Gavin's birthday this past weekend.

BUT THERE WAS A SURPRISE!!

My faaavorite Grandma sent me a BEAUTIFUL new quilt!!

So the story of this quilt is as follows.  Listening to my Grandma tell me her side of how this quilt got from Point A years ago to my house in Florida; Point B today lined up perfectly with what I remembered in my mind.

Years ago, this quilt...aptly named "A Bear in the Woods" was the very last quilt my Grandma and her good friend Ruth HAND QUILTED.  Yes.  That's right.  They quilted it BY HAND.  Listen, I'm trying to make a mini scrap quilt right now and it is more complicated than it looks.  I'm looking forward to just having the pieces sewn together for mine (which has already taken a couple months of my spare time) so I can run it through my sewing machine to quilt over the top and be done with it just to say I've finished a quilt!  However, I've been taking my time because I don't do anything unless I'm doing it to the best of my ability.  I can't even imagine quilting it by hand.  Its that kind of patience that makes Grandma's so amazing I think.  Anyway, its incredible how much love and work went into this gorgeous quilt she sent me...and it definitely makes me want to start trucking along to finish up my quilt as well!

Back to the story though... we were up visiting my Grandma and they were having their Church Bazaar.  I remember that Grandma didn't go that year but she put this quilt up for sale/auction at the Bazaar.  I was watching people look at it, admire it, comment on how beautiful it was and I demanded that we buy the quilt, because it seemed like such a shame to sell it to someone after all that work went into it!  Its always been a part of my life...watching her quilt.  For years my relationship with my *Granny* centered around watching my Grandma & Granny quilting together.  I know my Grandma doesn't keep every quilt she's made.  I have 3 of her quilts (now 4), my brother has a couple, my Mom has several, etc.  I wanted Grandma to be there to talk about her quilt to whoever planned on buying it.  So in between stuffing my face with slices of delicious home baked cherry pie I managed to convince my parents to buy her quilt.

We brought it back to Grandma's house and according to her, *she was in such shock that we returned with it, she never said thank you.*  I wish I could rewind back to that moment when she realized it wasn't sold to a stranger (which honestly, is unlikely anyway because in her small town everyone knows everyone and she'd undoubtedly hear about her quilt down the road).  Regardless, we got it back for her & although she remembers not saying thank you, I never thought of it that way...I just remember bringing her quilt back and being happy to do so!

It doesn't matter to me what quilt(s) I end up with in the long run.  This quilt brought back cherished childhood memories...of watching Grandma sew & quilt, helping her pick fabrics and pair them up for quilt squares, going to the church bazaar and enjoying pie and quilts and beautiful hand crafted items.

Blogging about the church bazaar also reminds me of my Grandpa and his jigsaw down in the basement.  Its now collecting dust bunnies, and not saw dust anymore which makes me sad.  I remember watching Grandpa from the stairs as he cut out teeny tiny intricate pieces of wood.  Everything he made was beautiful!  I'm holding out the hope that someday I'll be the very proud owner of one of his Lord's Prayer wall hangings.  Nowadays he doesn't have the same energy he used to so he isn't able to do any woodworking...but it still makes me smile to sneak down into my Grandparents' basement for a soda whenever I'm home (even though I gave up soda pop a LONG time ago) where the smell of wood and sawdust still permeates the air.

I'm a sentimental person.  My husband can tell you that, because I save the most random things in boxes piled up in our garage where he wants to park his precious motorcycle.  He doesn't understand why I saved my old license plate or clothes from when Gav was a baby.  Maybe it was because he moved around a lot when he was young.  Who knows!?  Regardless, I LOVE memories.

Needless to say, this quilt is such a blessing and an honor to have in my home.  

A Blog about my Grandma.

You may (or may not be) wondering why I suddenly became interested in sewing.  It wasn't just a spur of the moment thought...like "hey, I'm going to buy a sewing machine today just because I can!"

When I was a kid, I was always around my Grandma & Granny who sewed beautiful hand stitched quilts.  It was such an inspiration to watch them doing all this intricate quilt work.  My Grandma always jokes that I was "the girl who never wanted to sew" but honestly, who could live up to these amazing women?  But it was true at the time, I was never really interested in doing the work, I wanted to skip right to the end of projects.


Regardless, the urge to sew was a seed that was planted in my mind since I was a toddler.

Now that I'm an adult and I have a great life with an amazing family and support system, I wanted to do something that would make me happy, keep me busy, and possibly eventually earn me some income.  It will be a journey, no matter what happens.  For awhile that was photography.  I still do some photo work from time to time...but lately, I've been crafting and sewing seemed like the logical thing to start with.  I have experience with it.  I know some of the basics & learn quickly.  I have family & friends I can ask for tips or advice.  And its FUN!!

I think of my Grandma everytime I sit down at my sewing machine.  I think about all the times I would fight my cousin to thread a needle for my Granny.  I think about the quilts I have of my Grandmother's...and how proud I am to show them off to people.  I think about my Mom and the time she sewed little tiny Barbie clothes for me to use in a class project about pilgrims.  I remember my last trip home and helping my Grandma choose & match fabrics for her latest quilt.

Sewing, I've found...brings me back to my happy place.  It reminds me of home and I feel confident in my abilities.  I feel like I can really do something with it.

A couple days ago I texted my Grandma a photo of a couple things I've made this past week.  She can receive texts, but still hasn't figured out how to respond from her cell phone.  Hehe.  So she immediately called me and was just GUSHING with pride.

Oh Bethany, the girl who never wanted to sew and look at what you're doing now!  That purse?  That's even beyond me!  Make sure you press your quilt squares from the backside.  Always pin.  You can do big things, keep up the good work Bethany!  We are just SO proud of you and tickled pink that you took up sewing."

She  is just amazing. <3

 Grandma & I (her trusty sewing machine in the background)!

One of her quilts laid out while we match fabrics for new squares!

My Grandma, Mom, & (my son) Gavin!