Where DOES the time go? January 9th already! And if it seems like I’ve been ignoring all of you, I haven’t — it’s just that my email has been broken for a week. Terrible how we get so dependent on that stuff. I’m trying not to be upset over it — I used to work in IT, so I feel their pain at losing a server. They’re still working on it, so I’m exercising some patience and granting them some grace. Maybe I’ll get extra work done if I can’t be on email!

I’ve been sorting, and listing, and trying to quick finish things since The Final Countdown started, and let me just say — whew! How can it still be this bad, if I spend so much time throughout the year organizing? Evidently, I continue to make more messes than I clean up!

I did get the binding on the baby quilt for Task One. It will now get put in the box to be donated along with several other baby Quilts I’m gathering up and finishing up.

Instead of tackling a closet for Task Two, I decided that reader Joan put it best when she said she was gonna tackle “storage areas that shouldn’t be storage areas”. I realized that would probably make a bigger difference in my space than cleaning out a closet, so this is what I began work on. And even tho it doesn’t appear super bad at first glance, it has turned out to be a much bigger undertaking than I first imagined, and I have not yet made much progress.

The first and main thing it forced me to do was reorganize all my to-be-quilted quilts. Two HUGE tubs and a box. Last year, I had right around 70 quilts on my to-be-quilted list, and by year’s end, that number was down to 58.

But . . . and this is big . . . the list did NOT include all the vintage tops that I’ve collected over the years that I also want to get quilted up. So after being completely realistic, acknowledging those exist, and adding them in, and also listing several I ran across that for some reason were not on the list, I now have . . . drum roll, please . . . 108 quilts in the to-be-quilted pile. Shocking! I’m sure you can see what my immediate goal should be. I quilted one of them Saturday. I quilted another one yesterday. Now it’s back to customer quilts — (this is always what happens).

I pulled everything out of the bins that is small and should be quick to finish, and every chance I get, I plan to finish one up and keep whittling away at the list. I also had myself lulled into believing that almost every quilt in the bin had the backing and binding already prepared for it, but I was horribly wrong about that. Nearly 1/4 of the non-vintage quilts don’t have backings ready, and I don’t think any of the vintage ones have backings ready. That’s a lot!

So I’m hopeful I can use up a lot of yardage from my Stash to create backings for most of these quilts, which will also help with getting the stash reorganized. The amount of work involved in all that sounds sort of overwhelming, but making the list really helped. I’m just gonna eat the elephant one bite at a time!

I also reorganized my yarn stash, which thankfully isn’t as large as my fabric stash, so it didn’t take long. I recently finished three knitting projects, so I pulled yarn to start another quick one.

And for right now, we’re not even gonna talk about the rest of my UFOs — haha!

I loved reading about how each of you tackled the tasks and what you got done. It always helps me think of more things I need to do, and presents lots of options for how to do them — storage ideas, etc. Thanks so much to all of you for playing along!

Now, for the winners:

The Prize for Task One goes to: Rose Marie

The prize for Task Two goes to: Suzette H.

The prize for Task Three goes to: Christi B.

I hope we’re all off to a fresh start on the new year — it’s already rolling right along! Stay tuned for our regularly scheduled Studio Organizing Challenges every month, and keep on quilting!