I got out into the studio this morning.

I added some water to some clay I am rehydrating (slowly so I don't overdo it)

I stirred some glaze that is also slowly desaturating,

And I put away a ruler that I lef5 drying by the sink last night.

Going to go out again tonight.

Hi Lila,

Before the pandemic, I had used a combination of paper and electronic scheduling system. The paper one wasn't fancy, just one of those monthly planners from the Dollar Tree. But I am big on color coding, having ADHD plus synesthesia (I "see" what color my highlighting or post-it note needs to be, it's very idiosyncratic, lol).

So the paper planner is colorful and quick to use. I accept that it will get chaotic so I don't try to make it a work of art - but I sure do love having lots of pretty markers to pick from! 😉 I got some of the Zebra Mildliners and they are very cool. Plus a 10-color set of neon Sharpie highlighters. In this area of life, I am not striving to be a minimalist.

Then I had been maintaining a thing on my computer and tablet called "Rotating To-Do List." This evolved over time and through trial and error, and it allowed me to have the current day at the top, a week at a glance, and upcoming items in list form. As each recurring thing came and went, it got rotated to the next month or even year. It was very helpful when life was more busy. But over the months of Covid, I found I used it less and less, so I've not been updating it. It's there if I decide to pick it up again, but for now the paper calendar is sufficient.

The quilting was something that had sounded interesting since I liked sewing and crafts, so after my mom died it seemed like a good time to get involved with it at church. I just showed up, they sat me down and taught me the basics of hand quilting. Eventually I felt like I'd observed enough of how quilt tops were pieced to attempt my own. I'm still pretty new at that. The current one will be my second.

I love the fact that I get the enjoyment of designing and assembling the quilt tops, then can pass them on to the guild for the church to use in fundraising. That gets the supplies out of my space, and someone else will have more room to enjoy the finished quilt than I would. So absolutely a win win for all involved. My biggest challenge has been lack of working space or I would have had more quilt tops completed by now. I'm brainstorming ways to get the space and time to be more productive. I think it will get better.

That sounds like fun. Do you use it as a de-stressor? Takes your mind off other things I'm sure. I have never been crafty but I want to be.

One thing that boggles me a bit is my planner supplies. I do need a planner - I need it to be paper, not digital, and I wrote down all my appointments and lists of things to do. I got on some planner fanatic pages a few years ago and then ended up buying stickers, markers, special pens and pencils, etc. A few months ago I decided it was too chaotic so I bought a cheap plastic bin with dividers. So now my supplies are neat - sticker books in the back, wax markers in their own slot, a scissor, and the other sections divided by fine tip, wide tip, type, etc.

Now, do you know how often I actually use these?? lol...

But when I do, I enjoy it. I make little headlines for my lists in different colors, add some cute stickers and stuff.

I would like to start using them each week to organize my lists. Even in a planner, with just a ball point pen, my lists are SO chaotic and hard to manage. My planner runs out in 2 months so I am thinking about getting one with less structure to it so I can create my own structure that works for me, using my supplies.

Thoughts welcome!

Lila,

Definitely! Thanks for stopping by. This thread can be whatever we want and need it to be.

Right now I'm getting on the downhill side of my quilt for church. It is a complicated design because of my desire to build a quilt around pre-printed blocks I found on sale.

I have another complex quilt that got started in similar fashion because I found 4 orphan embroidered blocks, so I thought they could be the corners and I have plans to make more embroidered blocks plus a big central panel. I have some of the print fabric parts cut out and the blank muslin pieces which will be embroidered on.

After that one, in order to bust my stash much faster, I'm just going to make blocks that I can piece quickly and then assemble into quilt tops efficiently. They'll still be nice, just more straightforward, and more conducive to using up fabric I have. Some of these heavily designed ones kept needing certain fabrics to add to what I had, thus adding to stash. That's not the direction I want to go.

So... I guess today's theme is how can we simplify, still enjoy creating but not make such a big production out of it that we risk getting bogged down.

Or whatever topic is on your mind, that's A-OK too.

This sounds like an interesting thread! Like, sharing ideas for organizing/managing and maybe whittling down 'stuff' we have for projects?