Cleaning the Studio

Every now and then you just have to do it.  Right?  It may not be fun, but it is required occasionally.  Today is the day for me.  I have literally DUMPED for three months in my studio.  Grab and go was the mantra.  Now, I have to pay the piper and clean it up.

First - some BEFORE pictures!  Those are always good since they show progress when all is finished.  Yes, I have truly buried sweet Annie, my vintage 301a mocha longbed.  She's in there somewhere.  This picture doesn't even really show that where the chair goes, more stuff is piled.



I can't even walk in here.  The door barely opens and my sweetheart has had a tough time getting to his tools which are also contained within these walls.  These walls?  Oh, this is the "mother-in-law" house out back.  We converted it to our workspace a couple of years ago.  It really needs some downsizing as collecting got out of hand a bit.  Yes, some machines will be sold shortly.  The really scary part is that you can't see most of them cos they are under the quilting frame.

After about 6-7 hours, I have achieve an acceptable appearance.  I still need to go through each fabric tote and cull for the scrap table at retreat, but at this point I have already filled three boxes for it.  Woohoo.  My fingers are crossed that I'll get to the fabric before that too, but no promises.  It took me three months to get this far.

It is once again workable space.  I have a small container of scraps on the cutting table that need to be stripped and squared down and then put into the scrap user's system, but overall, that's not too large of a stack.  On the right, I've overrun my bins and thus the red box on top.  All pink fat quarters waiting on my new artbins that Glenda is sending my way.

There are five machines in this area that I can use plus a serger that can be taken out and placed on the side table rather easily.  That's more than enough for this small space.  (There are three in my bedroom in the house and that's tight too.)  The rest of the machines are in various stages of reentering the workforce.  Stay tuned for news on those.

The large and extra-large pop up bins on the cabinet and floor contain strings.  One for colors, one for neutrals.  The medium one holds dog bed scraps as I go along.  I also have two more, but the fat quarter size one travels and the soup can size one stays in the house.  I LOVE THEM.

From this view you can also see Lady Elna.  Yes, I do own one more modern machine (although she is already over 10 years old).  She comes out to play whenever I need fancy stitches and am too lazy to use the cams/attachments on the older machines.

Well, that's it.  A good day's work spread out over two mornings.  Now, onto another task.