The Bins

 

I don't know how long these big bins have been taking up prime real estate in my studio, but I know it's at least a couple of years. As I am cleaning the room with an eye to the floor install (now scheduled to start on July 6), I knew I wanted to clear these out. I've been digging through several of them and made a few quilts already (Nonchalant, Big Red, Yellow and Pastel Macnas, a couple of Scrap Slab Triangle quilts among others) and I'm sick of looking at the bins.

I knew I was going to have to get ruthless.

Ruthless I did get. The smaller bin now has all the leftover Macnas blocks and the larger one has bits of stuff I think I want to keep. That bin does need to be sorted, but I have time to do that.

How did I go through the bins and decide if something stayed or not? I had a series of questions.

1. Is the piece of a useable size? Yes, keep; No, toss.

2. Do I like it? Yes, keep; No, toss.

3. Do I have more of it in yardage? Yes, toss; No, keep.

4. Is it easy to work with? Yes, keep; No, toss.

5. Have I had it forever? Yes, toss; No, keep.

6. Have I got six thousand pieces of this already? Yes, toss; No, keep.

7. Am I likely to use this in the future? Yes, keep; No, toss.

8. Is this fabric in several quilts? In other words, has it paid for itself already? Yes, toss; No, keep.

I filled two garbage bags full of bits and threw them away. I filled another bag full of reasonably sized pieces and donated it.

When I was talking about getting rid of some stuff to the gals in my swim class, one lady came over and told me about her daughter who makes "stuff." A couple of days later I gave her my business card (kind of tricky when you're already in a swimming pool.) A day or so after that the daughter came over and happily took all the leftover batting pieces and the big bag of notions and trimmings. I was SO happy.

I have two smaller bins that need sorting. One of "orphaned" blocks and another of things I once thought I would take the time to cut up to reuse. That probably won't happen (the cutting up and re-using; not the sorting.)

Lastly will be the stash itself. Mostly it just needs refolding and restocking, but since I will have to remove all fabric from the bookshelf (because the work will be dusty and I want to keep the fabric clean), I will do that only when putting the studio back together after the new floor is installed.

The guys are replacing floors in three rooms, my studio, my office and the master bathroom, so it's going to be a logistical challenge moving things OUT of one room and then putting them back IN and then emptying our the next room and doing it all over again. We'll see how it goes. We think we have a plan.