I had the great privilege last evening of gathering with some of my best quilting friends at a Guild meeting to hear a marvelous speaker, Linda Cantrell, from Asheville, NC. Linda is an amazing applique artist and a hilarious presenter. She showed, in her slide presentation, an enormous work table in her studio and the small amount of space available on which to work due to the piles o'
stuff. I can relate, I'm sure we all can. Today's question is actually a three-part
er, and one where honesty counts:
What is currently taking up space on your cutting/worktable? How much space is available on which to work? Do these items have anything to do with your current project? My table is 45" X 72". Sitting on the table right now are the following items: a snippet basket (for threads), three pincushions, a book and two magazines, two paper sacks (one full of fabric strips for making clothesline baskets, one empty!?!), 100 feet of clothesline, a wet-erase marker and a vinyl sheet for auditioning continuous line designs, a spray bottle and a rag, 2 marking pens, the laser light off of Sundance, a straight edge tool, a software CD and design collection book for my embroidery machine, an empty cardboard tube, a bottle of eye drops and an empty coffee mug. These items take up approximately one third of the surface area, (that's
not much in all honesty!) the only reason there's that much space is because I cleaned the table off on Sunday morning before the family arrived; I have drawers into where I can sweep (literally) the clutter! Just Saturday night this table was
covered with various and assorted piles of fabric, rulers, books and magazines! The only things on the table that I
need out right now are the spray bottle and rag, the wet-erase marker, the clear vinyl sheet, the straight edge tool and the snippet basket. These items assist me as I am custom quilting the Red Star quilt currently loaded on Sundance, I can turn around and reach them comfortably. Everything else on the table was drawn there by a powerful magnetic force, the very same force that attracts clutter and objects to all flat surfaces in our home. It's a daily battle I tell you, I'm doing my best.
"...and sew, let's talk..."
What's taking up space on your table? Do you dare to share?
Life is Good!
We were held captive in the Capital City over the
weekend; firmly and completely under the spell of our grandson! He is more and more fun each and every time we see him. Our daughter and son in law went out for the evening on Saturday, we couldn't shoo them out the door fast enough! Gramps, Nana and Mason (in his stroller) went for a long walk before bedtime, in fact Mason fell sound asleep
before we got back to the house. I was able to squeeze in plenty of rocking and cuddle time, enough to last me, oh, a week or so! Gramps helped out a little yesterday morning before we returned home; he installed the oh-so-necessary cabinet latches on the kitchen cabinets, Mason was his self-appointed apprentice. To be honest, I don't know if there was any happier man on the earth than Gramps when Mason showed an distinct interest in the power tools! Oh, boy!
