Category Archives: decluttering

Time for an update!

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After a long break, I’m looking forward to getting back to my sewing and blogging again. Since my last post in January I ended up having quite a bad post-covid reaction which set off my arthritis badly. It took almost six months to resolve it and get a new medication regime working and a lot of that time was spent resting on the lounge and also not able to sew or walk much due to such painful joints. I was also diagnosed with Type II diabetes and hypertension, both are improving now that I can go for walks again. So while the covid itself was only like a having a cold, it certainly set off a chain of health issues for me. I’m glad to be coming out the other side of it.

We did get a few more things done around the house. We put down new carpet in the lounge room, got rid of a lot of clutter and an old sideboard that took up a lot of room. I replaced it with open shelves and baskets from Ikea where we keep hats, keys, handbags, wallets etc, all the stuff that used to get dumped on the kitchen counter now has a new home.  I now have a nice spot for some decorations near the front door & a space for a wallhanging above.

The other room that got a makeover was the laundry. It still had the original laundry from when we built the house over 35 years ago, just some shelves on one wall. I just love my new laundry which has timber bench tops, lots of cupboards and a pull out bin. The washer & drier are up on stand now which is so much easier. I smile every morning when I go in there! DH still has a few little jobs to finish it completely but as you can see its a big improvement. We used  Bunnings kitchen cupboards and saved a LOT of money installing it ourselves.

Once my health improved we were able to fulfil one of our retirement dreams and we have just returned from almost 2 months visiting the UK, Spain, France, Denmark and Norway, part cruise and part land based. It was just wonderful!. I loved visiting so many historic places, grand churches and also some of my family history sites.

I’ve had lots of time to reflect on retirement and how I want to spend it. I just want to read, potter about the house and get back to my sewing. Of course I have lots of UFO’s to work on and some new projects on the go. I’ve started making DS a tumbling blocks quilt  using  a tumbling blocks pattern without Y seams.

I’ve got a colourwash quilt growing on my design wall, lots of 2.5″ Kaffe squares. In the years I was blogging about my debt & mortgage payoff I used to buy a packet of these as a ‘reward’ when I reached a financial goal. Now I finally get to play around with them.

And of course Bonnies Mystery Quilt is coming up soon and I’m looking forward to that.`

“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realise they were the big things.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Homeward Bound

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One of this years goals is to keep up with my BOM – Homeward Bound from The Quilt Show. Its a Sarah Fielke design and I had already signed up for her usual BOM and have a few others still waiting to be finished. But now that I’m retired I have no excuse!  I am using mostly Tula Pink fabrics  for this project.
I spent New Years day working on part of the first block, the little cabin in the centre of the quilt.

 

For Christmas I was given some lovely fabrics and a Spotlight card, I especially love the watercolour flowers. So a bit more added to the stash.

 

Karen Brown from Just Get it Done is one of my favourite YouTubers and she is doing a 21 day sewing room declutter challenge. Each day is a different task and I found it good last year so I am doing that again. Most of my sewing room is sorted so this years its going to be much less work. Having a scrap system has helped and I had already made lists of UFO’s and WIPs that need attention.

Like a lot of others my goal this year is to only buy fabric needed to complete a specific project and really sew down my stash and scraps this year. Right now I’m working on my RSC blocks – Januarys colour is blue which is good as I have heaps of it!
Best wishes to you for the New Year and for 2023.

Busy Busy Busy!

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 We’ve had a very busy few weeks since I last posted. 

A family get together for a 65th wedding anniversary, our 40th wedding anniversary and DD & I’s birthdays. It’s been lovely to catch up with extended family, some we hadn’t seen since before Covid. I also had the Share the Dignity collections and drop offs to do which are all completed now.

DH and I have also been very busy at home with lots of decluttering going on, and trips to the op shop and the tip each week.  We have also replaced all the blinds on the windows at the front of the house and down one side. I was able to get the double blinds at 40% off at Spotlight which was a good saving. They didn’t have enough in stock to do the whole house so I will get more when they are on sale again. We also bought a new lounge which is SO comfortable to nap on!

When I last posted my plan had been to get ready to do Bonnies Mystery Quilt, but I  got sidetracked by deciding to cut down years of scraps while waiting for the first clue to come out. Well I was enjoying cutting them so much – its quite relaxing -and I have way more scraps than I ever realised, so I decided to skip the mystery this year and cut all scraps instead. I’m hoping to get them all done before the end of the year.  In between scraps and decluttering I have been making my 5″ scraps into lap quilt tops
to donate. 


Today we are putting up our Christmas decorations and next week we will visit DS for a few days to help organise a bathroom and kitchen renovation for his unit. 

It feels good to have the time and energy to get so much done.

I’m still having difficulties commenting, but now have a few ideas so will try and sort that out this week.