Does Neatness Count?

I've been on a mission today.  About a week ago I decided to start throwing out some of my old quilt magazines.  Of course, that required that I go through each of them and decide if I wanted to save any patterns.  As you can see from, I had a ways to go back.  That's the Jan/Feb issue of Quiltmaker from 1996......

I've been through McCall's Quilting, American Patchwork & Quilting, Fons & Porter, Quiltmaker, and assorted Quilt, Quilt Home, The Quilter.......who knew I had this many isues.  I've filled one box, and have another stack ready....

I have ALL of American Quilter from the American Quilter's Society (yep, Volume I, Issue 1), and all of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine from 1995, plus a variety from the 1980s.  I can't bear to get rid of them, since they encompass a huge amount of historical information on trends, techniques, and pattern history.  However, they are now "rounded up" and in chronological order on my shelves. 

Of course, I couldn't stop there.  I have a narrow, rolling three-shelf cart that sits to my right by the sewing machine.  It has all my "sewing tools"....bobbins, feet, machine needles, machine oil, seam rippers.  Of course, it also collects dust like a magnet.  Since today seemed to be about organizing, rather than sewing, it got a thorough cleanup.  Of course, dangling threads began to bother me, too, so I decided to reorganize my thread holders.  Of course, this has taken me almost all day; no sewing took place, but the end result is something that I've been aiming at for a week--just look at my table! 

This table has been covered with magazines, rulers, extra threads, papers, notebooks, pencils, you name it.  The last time I put the binding on a quilt I knocked 15 magazines and the iron on the floor.........

 
I even found all of my fabric pencils, cleaned out an old Art Caddy that had pastels, oil sticks, and watercolor tubes in it, and grouped all of them together:

My "occasional" scissors have all been grouped in their own little basket, ready to grab for trimming:

Now that I've gotten rid of the "clutter", I can start on a new project.  I bought some of Cindy Edgerton's "Little Bitz" yesterday at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, so maybe I'll start a new paper-piecing project....got the add-a-quarter and add-an-eighth rulers, too.  Sometimes you just gotta clean up before you can mess up......(do you think I should vacuum, or would that just be too much?)

Have a great weekend....off to a French Wine Dinner at the Woodstock Cafe tonight....nice to spend the day cleaning without having to cook dinner!

Kathy