What do you see when you look around your studio? Are your tools and materials where you want them? Are your current projects easy to advance? Do you like a feeling of creative chaos, or do you work better with things neatly in place?
Some people like open shelving and pegboard tool racks, while others prefer things behind closed doors, or tucked into drawers.
My studio has rather gotten away from me this year. I prefer fabrics sorted by color, stowed in plastic boxes within the stash armoire. I like having my rolling drawer units organized by project, so I can quickly find all the components when I need them.
Alas, I can still find things fairly quickly, but as I search, I push through layers of things that aren’t quite where they belong. I don’t like that. 😦
But when you keep your space fairly neat most of the time, putting it back in order doesn’t take a huge amount of work. For me, spending a few minutes at a time, over several sessions, takes care of most of it.
The thing that will slow me down this time is the projects. Usually I have a small number of open projects. However, this year was different! I did what I could, and when motivation or energy failed me, I stopped. When I did feel like working on something, I worked on whatever pleased me at the moment, instead of pushing through something to completion before starting something new. (And in truth, maybe I’ll just keep with that process. I’m not obligated to finish anything for anyone else. I quilt for my own pleasure. If it makes me happy to move on, that’s exactly what I should do, yes? Of course, there is pleasure in finishing, too…)
Projects. So there are a number of projects in process, more than I usually have. To enumerate them all, I actually have to dig through those drawers. (And while digging, I will put things back where they belong. It’s procrastination on that task that has slowed my assessment of progress.)
In the last few weeks, I got my longarm up and running again. I started with a small child’s disappearing 9-patch, featuring some Thomas the Tank novelty fabric. I had a yard of it left, after making a pillowcase with the remainder a couple of years ago. I rarely use novelty fabric! But this simple quilt seemed like a good option. I could cut the feature fabric minimally, and make a donation quilt without breaking a sweat.
With a simple meander, I warmed up the quilting machine, reminding myself of the steps in the process. This afternoon I put the binding on it, taking this project off the unfinished list.