My design wall is in utter chaos today.  One minute I'm working on the last of the framed cross blocks ( must find out their real name) and the next thing I know there are four new blocks pinned up there, waiting to become new projects. 

I was hoping to rationalise my sewing room, but I think I've actually tipped it over the edge into outright bedlam.

I may have to put these blocks aside until I can decide which way to set them; I like both ways, and I have enough to do either.  I just can't choose right now.  Hence the need for a new project. 

I will have to sit down with a cup of coffee and write a list of all the new blocks, their sizes and colour schemes and what I want to do with them, or I'll forget by tomorrow.  At least if I've jotted down a few notes it will jog my memory, hopefully.  Future Self will be most grateful.

My idea while I was cutting these blocks was that I wanted to be able to clear out the strip drawers, starting with the 2.5" ones, seeing as there are 4 of them.  One is enough, I don't know how I managed to accumulate enough strips for four.  An added bonus is that I can use jellyrolls too, and I have four of them somehow.  Don't know how that happened, but they need to be dealt with. 

I made three cross blocks to see which proprtions I liked best; the middle size won, and the other two will go into the Orphan stash.  All the cross blocks use 2.5"strips, so I can just cut a heap of the rectangles and put them aside for these blocks.

I love the stripe from the Civil War Reunion collection  in this block; it's a great way to use stripes to give the effect of more complex piecing.  That little idea will go into the files for later use. Ignore that tiny cross block, it was just an experiment.

These big blocks are using up a pile of terribly dull FQs that I weeded out of the stash ages ago.  I was going to just make a backing, but I thought I'd see what sort of a quilt they made; if it's too ugly it will be a backing anyway.  I like all these fabrics, but they are just dreary when put with anything else.  They can all be  dreary together here.

These little blocks form a cute plaid arrangement, and they're so simple to make.  They will use up a pile of 3.5" squares that were leftover from other projects, and be a useful leader-ender.  I'll be making heaps of these.


To make matters worse, there are lots of boxes of fourpatches and strip-pieced scraps, and leftovers from various charity quilts that I don't want anymore.  I don't have unlimited space in my sewing room, so I need to cut down the amount of things I store in here, and only have things that are current and useful.  Everything else can go into storage out the back.



I want to make a list of all the size strips and patches I consistently use, and what I use them for, and eliminate the rest that are odd sizes or that I'm not likely to use up soon.  I'll cut them into other sizes, for projects that I'm working on, and get rid of them that way.

Once upon a time, when I was much younger, I could keep all the varied threads of life in my head and not get muddled, or confused, or lost, or late.  But now, inside my head is like a shambolic, overcrowded, bent-out-of-shape filing cabinet.  I should be able to remember where I filed important information, but I can't.  Not on demand, anyway; I might come up with the goods at 2am when it's too late, but that is part of the problem, not the solution.

I know that from now on I will have to keep notes and records to trigger my memory, if I want to avoid total chaos.  It's just that I like working the way I used to, and it will take a while to put the new paper-trail method of organising into practise.  But the blog can be really helpful, if I can just find the time to post more often.