Studio saved from disaster!

My 100+ year old house is being painted.
It began with a Power Wash...which came right in through most of the windows, including my studio.
Those casement windows are no match for a clean machine. I knew it would happen....but I forgot to take precautions. (darn...it IS always my fault!)I was too busy mopping up to get any pictures of the soaked cardboard boxes that were once stacked on the floor here. And the window sills were filled with button jars and, well...all the junk that hastily been transferred to my sewing desk, cutting table and any other remotely flat space!

I know a sewing machine and a chair are in there somewhere!

Even as accustomed as I am to working in the midst of clutter, there was no place to get any work done...especially as the Main Project is quilting on a quilt I need for a class on the 16th!

Indeed, the pigeons of "I'll get around to cleaning that later" had finally come home to roost, and did they ever leave a mess!
So I started by cleaning the windows and thinking about getting rid of some of the stuff stored back there (between my desk and the wall). I am pleased to say that two boxes of doll making supplies will be used by the BGPC for an angel-making day next month (and I hope to send all the remaining supplies home with my friends).

And some items could be combined...

so it was off to Wally World to buy three new plastic boxes!

TIP: Label boxes before filling!

I could not believe what I found inside the lid...a yellow warning sticker that shows a child inside a plastic box and in 3 languages it says "Suffocation Risk"!

While I was peeling it off, I noted that the same warning is molded right inside the lid, too!

I was reminded of the TV show Eerie, Indiana where a woman kept her kids inside Tupperware containers so they would "stay young forever".

As you can see, this box is being prepared to hold UFOs from a couple other boxes. I tape a label inside each short end, so no matter how it gets shoved back in place, it will be indentified.

There were so many UFOs to put in there, I sub-labeled one end "Area 51-2-3".

I knew you'd want a peek before I closed it up!
The UFO you can see is...(OMG!)...hand pieced trees from a Quiltmaker pattern (198??), partially hand-quilted in Quilt As You Go style!!! This is actually getting to be vintage!

How can I get rid of something like that????
Especially, as readers of this blog know, in regards of my rampant PackRatism.
And as eveidence, I ask you to look at the cardboard box behind the plastic one.

That, my friends, is an heirloom cardboard box!

It was first used to transport electric parts from the THOR company in Chicago to my grandfather in Dayton, Ohio. There's no date, but that was probably 70 years ago!
It has been used for several things...it is marked "New towels" and "Hobbies" and has numbers from at least three house moves. My father gave two of them to me when I collected my pre-marriage stuff from the attic, and I was instructed at the time that these were the most excellent boxes and not to just get rid of them!

Someday, I will pass them on to my son.... filled with:

Travel back to those by-gone days of blue & mauve!

I knew you would want to know! This is the sample (and also supplies, etc.) for the first beginners class I taught when I became a quilt teacher. All hand pieced and quilted, this sampler had 8 blocks to chose from, and totally prepared you to be A Quilter!

This class has since been replaced with a machine techniques one. The original is going in the THOR box and stashed up high where it is no longer in the way of anything else.

How do you like my baskets-as-a-valance? They DO have stuff in them, too!

The rolls and bolts of fusibles and other paper supplies have found a new and bigger box. The Steam-A-Seam packages are old...how about a 5 cent price for them at the Quilters Flea Market in July? (a guild activity, but do stop by if you are in town on the 25th!)

And at last my sewing machine and chair have re-appeared, ready to get back to work!

Oh, you noticed that flat thing? It's an old cork board that I rest between my desk and the window sill, to support the quilt as it comes out of the machine, and keep the weight from dragging it down.

I'll really need it now....there isn't much stuff piled up back there anymore!