Getting Organized

So, what do place mats have to do with getting organized?  It all started out the beginning of December when my Brother sewing machine started giving me trouble.  This meant I was going to have to take it in for repair.  The diagnosis was a problems with the feed dogs.  This also meant that I was going to be without my sewing machine for awhile.  PERFECT time to go through all my fabric, take inventory and reorganize my fabric cubbies.  A much OVERDUE task.  If I was to look at the task as a whole. very overwhelming but every overwhelming task starts out with that first step...so I chewed at it one cubby at a time with FINALLY finishing it today.  Obviously there was time off for the holidays, etc. but yes, I was very happy to finally complete the task today and am relieved to know exactly where I stand fabric wise, which is a huge relief. 

The other huge relief came on December 21th when I got my sewing machine back from the repairman.  A bit of sewing has been going on along with the inventory/reorganization of the fabric cubbies.  Aprox 10 years ago one of my consignment shops told me that they had several requests for place mats larger than the ones they currently had in thier shop.  Would I be intersted in making some for them?  I said there was no way I could compete with the price of the smaller mats which were made out of a single bluebarry fabric with no patchwork, etc.  The ower felt that people were willing to pay for the nicer/larger/more complicated plate mats.  I had found this grouping of "cottage garden" fabrics in a catalogue and felt that this cottage design would fit in perfectly in this shop so I sent away for it.  Well, they were right.  Not only did I make several sets of these cottage garden placemats (I usually made them in sets of four), I also made and started selling blueberry themed patchwork place mats.  This was the only shop I made placemats for so when the shop closed up a couple of years ago I went out of the place mat business.  While I was taking inventory I happened upon this fabric.  Just so happens I had enough to make 2 more place mats http://newenglandfiberarts.com/products/prod_detail/630  plus some coiled fabric items (coasters, trivets) and I now see a nifty bowl coming out of the rest of the scraps.  

A lot of good things came out of this reorganization besides these placemats.  I now have a plan for what aprons I will be making in 2019 and have a good feel for what fabrics I will be looking for when we take an expedition to Lancaster County (AKA fabic Mecca) this Spring.  Not only that...it feels great to be better organized...the perfect way to start out the new year!  Happy 2019 to me!