Design Wall Monday

To see what other people are doing go here...
http://www.patchworktimes.com/

Nothing new on my wall this week.
Instead I have been working to organize my clutter - ha!
I have been going through my fabric stash as well as other general clutter and getting rid of things.
This is hard for me as both my husband and I come from families that tend to keep everything, because you never know when you might need it. I know that most of what I am getting rid of has no great monetary value, but I just can't put things in the garbage. I guess I think someone else might be able to find a use for it. So the unwanted clothes go to a collection bin for people in need. I take a few items at a time to work for someone who might need it. I told the secretary that if the items are there at the end of the day they can go in the garbage. I don't care if someone else does it as long as I don't have to see it! :) My unwanted fabric goes to my quilt group meetings. This weekend I took two plastic shopping bags full. It was an assortment of quilting and clothing fabrics. The were all shocked that I would get rid of fabric! But, as I told them, these pieces had been in my stash for several year and I did not use them - because I no longer liked them or knew that I would never use them. I am hoping someone else will. Most of it was gone before we all left. The rest will be saved for the quilt retreat in October. There is a bigger group of quilters at our retreats - the Saturday morning exchange group (which I am a member of) and the Thursday morning group (that I wish I was also a member of). There were several boxes of books, magazines, fabrics and notions that someone else had donated as well. I am sure it will all find homes with someone.

Most of my stash is in an old cabinet. I started to paint it then ran out of time. We moved and I just never got around to finishing the painting. It is upstairs and no one but me ever sees it so it doesn't seem that important when I have so many other have-to-be-done-now jobs.

 

I like to sort my fabric my color. These are the bigger pieces. Anything smaller than a fat quarter gets cut to the biggest size it can be and sorted by size. The cut pieces get stored in this drawer unit. the top drawer hold 2 inch squares and strips, the next drawer hold 2 1/2 inch pieces, and so on. I like that I am able to remove a drawer, take it to my sewing table and work out of it.

I also use a shoe cubby to old smaller pieces, sorted by color. This fits nicely under my sewing table with enough room to store a few things on top of it.

Completely unrelated to quilting - this has been happening at my house.

 

Yes, my husband lets me grow milkweed plants in my flower bed, as long as I remove the seed pods before they open. We have been seeing the caterpillars all summer but had not seen the any chrysalises until recently. I hadn't look too hard because I didn't want to disturb any.

Then, one day I looked at our little fence as I pulled in the drive and saw, not one, but three!

The chrysalises go from green with gold dots to dark. It is amazing to me that you can actually see the wings.

One day I came home from work to find  one had emerged and was gone.

One had just emerged and was resting. It then flew into the drive way to try its wings.

The third one emerged a few hours later and soon flew away.