Solved!

One of MY puzzles is solved, at least--I have a winner for the Bag O'Parts of the Spring! wallhanging, and that winner is Sandi. Sandi's entry came to me by email rather than comment, so I'll post what she said: "I have been away from quilting for about a year (due to a family thing). In the last two weeks I have been back, but not in full force. Nothing seems to interest me. But a puzzle really caught my interest. I love a challange. Please keep me in mind. Thank you." I'm sure we can all relate to being in a bit of a slump; I hope my little puzzle will help revive Sandi's enthusiasm for quilting and NOT be the thing that kills it completely due to frustration! Sandi, if you aren't easily daunted or frustrated and still want to claim the "puzzle" pieces prize, please email me your mailing address and I'll get it in the mail to you.

As far as the Sweat Shop goes--my other little puzzle--I thought I was getting close to the end of cleaning it up/out, but tonight showed me that I still have a little way to go. I ran some errands after work, so I didn't make it into the Sweat Shop until a bit later than I wanted--too late to dive into what I had thought of as the last area to be organized. So instead I started "correctly" folding some fat quarters that I'd shoved after purchasing onto the stash shelves and sorting through the red section of my stash wall. Then the blue section. After that, the green section, and before I knew it, the brown section too. Then I began on the "sort of grouped by collection" section. In each section, I found a few pieces of fabric that no longer appealed to me, so I removed them for donation. Now I've straightened up the stacks and made a little room for the fabric to breathe, but I also ended up with a big bag of unwanted fabric. (And I've really only done half the shelves too!) Now what? I can't really keep paying postage to send it all over the U.S. I'm telling you, it's like zucchinis in August! Speaking of which, it just occurred to me that one of my neighbors sews. Do you think she'd be surprised to go out her door in the morning and find a mysterious bag of fabric on her front porch?! Pleasantly surprised or not so much, I wonder?

The other day I bagged up some red, white, and blue fabric leftovers, thinking I'd find someone locally who's involved with Quilts of Valor or a similar group that might want it, and a friend of mine offered to take it for her mother who's in a group, so that's handled. And I know I can take some of this no-longer-wanted fabric to my next guild meeting for the "free table" (thank you to the couple people who mentioned their guilds had one--I'd totally forgotten about that!) and maybe the community service ladies at the guild.

I still have a lot of stuff in the Sweat Shop that needs to be sorted and arranged better, but it's coming along. I'm also pondering the Christmas fabric: It takes up a lot of space, so I wonder whether it makes sense to pack it away until late summer when I start to think about Christmas quilts again. What do you think? What do you do? I know I could better use those shelves for year round fabrics--precuts that don't seem happy where they are. And how do YOU store precuts? Especially when you've purchased additional yardage for borders?

I'd like to discuss what I've found out about myself and my fabric buying habits--the kinds of things I think are cute as heck when I buy them but that don't seem to have staying power--and find out if you've had similar experiences. But it's getting late, so maybe that talk will have to wait until tomorrow. Good night!