Today I did something that I don’t think I’ve ever done. I decided to really declutter part of my sewing room. Somehow my sewing stuff has always been sacrosanct when it comes to chucking things out and over the last twenty five or so years it’s just accumulated and accumulated…..

….until today.

I’ve really reached the point where the amount of stuff is getting me down. I can’t find the things I want because there’s so much that I don’t that gets in the way. My space is really tiny and squeezed under the eaves and THERE IS NO SPACE FOR ANYTHING. I’ve got piles of things everywhere imaginable. I can’t move and it’s really getting me down.

So this morning armed with my trusty bin bags I set to.

First to go were the dressmaking patterns – anything with 1980’s style shoulders or that would make me look like a sack of potatoes hit the plastic. Anything that looked like something my mother would wear or that I had made and hated went, along with any not very nice or kitchy children’s patterns. I will sew when I have grandchildren, but only the really nice stuff. The rest can go….

Half a bin bag full and a pattern box with free space and full of things that actually make me want to make them.

Next were the quilting patterns. I decided anything that looked dull, involved landscapes (remember when those were the next big thing? Was that in the 1990’s?), teddy bears or intricately appliqued flowers were history…..some of the patterns had been there for 20 years. Wow. One bin bag full and a lot of space left for the rest. I even came across a few nice things that I had forgotten I had.

Next it was time to throw away some memories. Over the years I’ve made zillions of samples in quilting classes. They’ve been things that I really knew in my heart of hearts weren’t ever going to go anywhere, but  I hung on to them on the off chance that I would do something with them. I had to say very strictly to myself that it was never going to happen and after rescuing any usable fabric (there wasn’t much), into the bag they went.

They were quickly followed by some rather ancient clothes that needed altering and which I decided I didn’t even like anymore.

The result?

Honestly, between you and me, I feel like a big breath of fresh air has just blown through my little room. There was so much stuff that was never, ever going to be used and it feels really liberating to be done with it. I have so much more space. My WIP boxes fit on a shelf of their very own. My books all fit properly into the bookcase – no more gravity-defying piles. I should be able keep the whole place clean really easily now because I can actually get to everything. IT’S WONDERFUL!

I also feel like I’m brimming over with the urge to create. A great big weight has been lifted and everything is fresh and organized. In a little over an hour I managed to give myself a great big psychological lift (and it didn’t cost me anything!).

You’ll probably have noticed that I didn’t touch the fabrics. Some things really are too precious to get rid of!

Helen

Phew! I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to wake up this morning with all traces of the headache from hell gone. It almost felt like that wonderful moment after giving birth when the pain finally stops. Apologies if I’ve just put you off your lunch, but after 36 hours of feeling like someone was drilling into my skull it feels so good just to be back to being normal again. Thanks so much to all of you who wrote to wish me a speedy recovery – you are all lovely, you know!

On top of being headache-free, today turned out to be one of those glorious clear as a bell, crisp autumn mornings, so by 9 I was in the garden in my wellies and tackling the jungle. I have two compost heaps, but I don’t like to put any nasties of the pernicious weed variety in them and to be honest there’s just too much stuff to compost it all, so I’m quite fanatic about filling my big green bin every week for the collection on Tuesdays. We pay by the bin, (and being Switzerland it ain’t cheap) so I like to stuff that bin full to within an inch of it’s life. By 10 the bin was full and had been dragged out to the roadside and I’d made a very satisfying cleared area within one of the bigger beds. I try really hard to get as much done as possible before the autumn school holidays because about then we get our first frosts and then it all turns into a disgusting soggy mess – and it gets really cold for garden work. I’m a big wuss when it comes to cold and soggy and then I feel really bad when the spring bulbs have to battle their way through all the slime in the spring!

That done and feeling very virtuous, I let myself have a little Bear Paw time. I love this fabric and the pattern – the blocks are slow and fiddly and they have a real dusky rose old-fashioned feel to them. Old-fashioned patchwork at it’s best. I’m seriously thinking hand-quilting, which will take me forever, but do you know what? I don’t care. I need a bit of slow and steady in my life right now!

The postman brought me two more Sea Glass blocks from the Sew Euro-bee-an bee….this time from Christine in Germany – thanks Christine!! This project is turning out really well. I love the way everybody is improvising and every block has its own character, but they come together so well. I can’t wait to see the rest. This is the first time I’ve put a toe outside my comfort zone for a bee – and it’s been such fun!

Now it’s back to the decluttering for me. Boy does that feel good too!

Have a lovely afternoon ladies! I hope you get to enjoy some sunshine!

Helen

Sorry I’ve been rather incommunicado recently, butI’m coming to the end of a migraine that has wiped me out for the last couple of days. I’m at least upright now and can more or less tolerate light again, but I’m moving very slowly.

Do you ever have the feeling that there’s just way too much to do and you’re just chasing your tail? That’s how I’d been feeling for a few days – until my body just said STOP and felled me with one fell swoop.

I find that happens quite often. I suppose it’s my own body’s way of just pulling the plug and saying ENOUGH, NO MORE! This time it certainly did it in a fashion that I couldn’t ignore. God I hate migraines. They are so painful and totally and utterly debilitating.

Anyway I’m more or less finding my way back to the land of the living, have cancelled everything I should have been doing today and I’m very, very slowly trying to get back on track. There’s a lot that needs doing at the moment and if I just focus on very deliberately trying to do one little thing at a time then there’s some progress. Not a lot, but enough that I can tick something small off a very long list.

I’m focusing on trying to clean a little and declutter. We have way too much lying around and I always notice that when I manage to have a purge and get things tidy then firstly it’s immensely uplifting and secondly it makes life a lot easier and more manageable if there is just less STUFF. I’m not moving mountains mind you, I’m not in a fit state for that, but I have cleaned out some drawers and a bookcase and changed sheets and towels (so that even if I crash out this afternoon I’ll at least have the pleasure of clean sheets to make me feel better!).

Not quite the start to the week I had in mind, but step by step I’m getting there!

Helen

It happens every year at about this time. The weather breaks – today is cool and grey with periodic heavy rain showers – and my whole psyche switches towards hunkering down for the winter. I think it probably has something to do with the decrease in light levels, which I find hit me harder the older I get, but also knowing what lies in store in the months ahead.

I fill the freezer, stock up the store cupboards with the basics for a hard winter (like every good Swiss should), frantically try to get the garden cleared and put to bed for the winter before the deteriorating weather makes it a miserable cold, damp ordeal. I always end up wishing that I’d done way, way more while the sun was still shining…

Today we had a wood delivery by one of the local farmers – and the wood is now all nicely stacked up by the front door ready for the first evenings when it’s cold enough to have a log fire. I love those autumn evenings – gathering in front  of a roaring blaze, reading and chatting. It’s sometimes even enough to lure the teenagers from their bedrooms to join us. I tend only to switch the heating on when the temperatures are getting really low, usually in November. Before that I let the house – which is normally very warm as it’s super well-insulated and in the middle of a row of terraces – cool down. Everyone seems to sleep better in cooler bedrooms and if the rooms get a little too cool the teenagers don’t seem to mind sitting round the dining table to do their homework, warmed by the fire in the living room.

This time of year I really have to push myself to go out. Left to my own devices I really would just lay low for a few months, sewing, baking, reading, playing the piano, working.  I tend not to sign up for classes or events when I would have to go out in the evening because the driving may be iffy and really when it’s cold, dark and icy I just don’t want to go anywhere.

I’m just much more content to stay home.

Like a bear in her lair!

Helen

I imagine that everyone has something that soothes their soul. Some people probably spend a day at a spa, or read, or play golf, or even indulge in a little retail therapy when things get too much.

Top of my list when I’m stressed is being on my own in my little sewing niche, listening to a nice audible book and sewing. There is something so calming, so relaxing about piecing pretty fabrics together. It’s creative, yet at the same time there’s also enough of a repetition that I end up almost in a meditative state. Only stipple quilting puts me more into the zone!

I don’t need to go out or do anything dramatic. I don’t need  a major achievement or to bore the ears off a close friend. I just need time to be quiet, time to potter, time to draw all the loose threads of my life together into some semblance of order. Time to be. Time to be me and to do something that makes me happy.

I think it’s a healthy thing. I don’t know what I would do if for some reason in the future I wasn’t able to sew anymore. I really do think that through thick and thin it’s the sewing that keeps me sane!

(And it’s way cheaper than therapy!)

helen