New Year's Resolution Quilt Update

Back in January, I made a resolution that I would complete a paper-pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt by Dec 31 of this year.  At the time, I figured I'd make a flower a week until Fall, and then I'd start on the outline pieces before putting everything together.  At that time, I'd just started my third flower, and I was on my way.  And then...  Yeah, I stopped working on it right after I published that post.  Jan, Feb and March were extremely busy months for my shop, and I didn't do much else than fill orders.  Once that was over, I didn't feel like working on much of anything!  In May, I attended a craft party hosted by Sarah from Sadie Seasongoods.  I needed some kind of portable craft, and figured my neglected quilt was perfect.  I'm happy to report that I've been working on it daily ever since.

I decided that I didn't like the larger flowers, and am now doing flowers with the center and two rings around it.  I'm planning to remove the third ring from the first two flowers I made, back in January, so that leaves me with these 11 flowers, plus the two from that I need to undo.  I should be at 24 by now so I'm still a little behind.  Although, I'm thinking now that I'll just stop at 24 because I really don't want a ginormous quilt.  Just something I can drape over the end of the of a bed or that will fit on a twin bed. So I guess now, I'm ahead of schedule.  YAY!  

I would have never imagined I would enjoy working on something so tedious, but I absolutely love every part of the process of making these flowers.  Even cutting the paper templates.  I've always loved having something else to do while I watch TV, and this is the perfect TV project.  It's even better than knitting because there are no stitches to count!  


Until next time...

STUFF

I've got too much of it.  Do you??? 

I organize my stuff and make it look all nice and neat, and before long, it is in disarray again.  I'm finally realizing that if I had LESS stuff, it would be easier to keep it organized.  I mean, who needs 3 packs of floss, 30 pens (some out of ink), lead pencils with no lead, the bell that fell off of the dog's collar (three years ago!) 5 lighters, 2 books of matches, socks with holes in them?  Unpacked boxes in the garage from when you moved into your house almost 4 years ago.  I could go on and on.  

I think we've been conditioned to save things and be "resourceful" and "frugal".  Maybe at some point in time, we had to do without things because of finances.  Maybe we don't want to be wasteful.  Maybe a repeated pattern in our life has been that as soon as we let go of something, we NEED it.  All three of these things are reasons why I have too much stuff.

It's great to be frugal and all, but really, what's the point of saving something if you never use it?  Why not let someone else give it a go.  You're being wasteful by hanging on to it.  You're wasting space and you're wasting mental energy by being stressed out from all of the clutter.

I'm reading a book that I picked up on clearance called  SORTED!  The author mentions the Pareto principle which says that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  She gives these examples to relate this principle to "stuff":

• 20% of your clothes will be worn 80% of the time.
• 20% of the stationery you own will be used 80% of the time.
• 20% of your kitchen tools and gadgets are used 80% of the time.

You know what?  She's right!!  Think about it.  How many pairs of jeans do you own?  Now, don't you always go for your favorite pair?  I do!  I know that I've got at least 5 pair of jeans that I don't wear.  I never get rid of them because I WILL wear them one day.  Yeah right.

My main New Year's resolution is to become clutter free.  I'm going to go through every room, every cabinet, every closet and ever drawer and literally clean house.  And you're coming with me.  That's right my bloggy peeps, I'm going to show you just how much stuff I have and then show you how I purged and then organized everything.  You're going to see the good, the bad and the UGLY.  I'm going to be brutally honest with the photos I share because I really want to inspire others like me who just have too much stuff, to feel good about letting it go.

Because I don't like a post with no photos, I'm going to go ahead and share with you some photos from my first target, my bedroom closet. 

 I'd love it if anyone else in interested in doing this along with me.  Maybe we could designate a day each week to post on this subject.  We could come up with a name and a cute button for it.  Let me know if this is something you're interested in.  You can leave a comment or just email me.


Linking to:
All Things Merry & Bright @ All Things Heart & Home