February 8, 2008
Decluttering
Posted by sharonb under Beading, Wips and Wisps | Tags: Beading, beads, decluttering, recycling |As readers may be aware I am in a clear it out, use it, get on with mode this year. I explained why and had a huge fiber diet weigh in and went on to declare my UFOs and WISPs. This week I have been decluttering.
One question I am constantly asked by crazy quilters is where I buy supplies. To be honest much of what I have is scavenged. I am a natural hunter and gatherer and love to poke about thrift shops, garage sales and Sunday markets. Hence the need to occasionally have a clean out or at least have my finds organised!
Now although there may be many a find on these thrift shop ventures often they need a bit of attention in order to recycle what ever it is I have grabbed with glee.
These beaded purses are a perfect example. They were discovered and purchased cheaply from various second hand outlets. They are damaged and not of any use as beaded bags but the beads themselves are useful. As you can see with this purse where the stain has caused the fabric to rot. The purse is no longer useful but the beads on it are!
They have been sitting around for ages cluttering up the place and the beads are not going to get recycled and used on a crazy quilting project if I don’t unpick them off the bags! So it was out with my unpicker and after a few hours I not only had a good few dollars worth of beads I also had some bag handles. I washed the beads in warm water and since it is summer here I simply spread them out on a tray and put them in the sun to dry.
So I am feeling very satisfied as I have another little task done and I now have a number of bags of beads to use in my crazy quilting. I know I did not spend more than a $1 on any of these beaded purses so I feel I have quite a bargain for little effort involved.
On another note Jerry too has been getting on with his personal goals that he set himself in the New Year. He has been building a Pochette. Don’t know what that is? Check out his new blog Four Strings which was another of his goals as he has now a seperate blog for all his music activity
I am wondering who else is still working on goals set in the New Year and blogging it. Leave a comment with your URL and let me and others know as I have been thinking about how often goals are set but maintaining the focus and getting it done takes a bit of skill.
February 8, 2008 at 7:00 am
Goals for 2008? My big one is to lose some weight and regain my “former body” somewhat. After a vacation and then a 2 week illness, I’m finally getting back to it in February.
I really got way behind with EVERYthing in January and am currently working up to double-speed to catch up. Will soon have my blog up to speed and also my TIF challenges!
Stay well is my new motto!
February 8, 2008 at 7:12 am
Silly newbie question here … what do you use as an “unpicker”?
February 8, 2008 at 7:36 am
How satisfying to create little bags of beads all sorted and waiting! I set a goal of keeping fresh flowers on my desk each week - they are so uplifting and inspire my design work. To try and stick to my goal I have commmitted via my blog to post ‘bloom of the week’ - a simple photo of my flower or flowers. I am aiming for Monday mornings - a positive way to start the creative week. http://www.artshades.co.uk/blog
February 8, 2008 at 8:08 am
My unpicker is a dressmakers stitch unpicker that are sold in the habidashary section of fabric outlets. I think in America people call them seam rippers. They are a very common sewing tool. A google search of stitch unpicker or seam ripper turns up plenty of images of them I hope I have explained clearly what I mean
February 8, 2008 at 9:36 am
Whoa! Talk about patience, but what a nice assortment of beads you now have.
(I wondered about the UNPICKER, too. Seam ripper? I’ve got a few of those.)
Goals for 2008 — Lots of unfinished projects to finish. And I’m making great progress and blogging while adding new projects that WILL NOT become UFO’s.
http://justenoughtime.wordpress.com
Also, the usual: Lose weight, get in shape.
AND….Learning more about blogging thanks to people like you, Sharon.
February 8, 2008 at 10:40 am
Goals for 2008?
I follow the weekly topics suggested on Illustration Friday and make a paper collage each week. It’s takes about a day for me to do this, which means that other things don’t get done, but I wanted to have something that I did every week so that I would get better at it. I put them up on my blog: http://www.thecrazyatomorbit.blogspot.com, along with other things that I do. I’m always interested in comments, so feel free to let me know what you think.
February 8, 2008 at 10:49 am
I have been known to buy a cheap or used necklace and take it apart for the beads! Had not thought about looking at the beaded purses though. Hmmm.
I have set some personal artistic goals this year. Keeping to the commitment is the biggest challenge, especially now that I am retired. So I have planned six-week “sanity check”s - once a month is too often - and will probably blog about the first review which is due next week. I have resisted taking stock of how I’m doing until then. Guess I’m afraid it will be bad news!
February 8, 2008 at 11:48 am
Hi Sharon-
I have some wonderful beads etc collected from my local op-shop.
All have come from old beaded jumpers-wedding dresses-bags etc that either had bad stains on them or moth holes which the op-shop were glad to get rid of.
Also wonderful buttons which they had cut off garments and bagged already.
My goals are to make a list at the beginning of each month and finish all the items on the list-I succeeded in January- all 10 of them.
February 8, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I set two simple goals for 2008 — to use materials in my fiber and fabric stash and to keep up with at least one of my book groups. I have been doing a lot of knitting with yarn that was sitting in a bin in the spare bedroom and have finished some pieces for me and some to donate to worthy causes. I am mostly caught up on my reading for two groups.
February 8, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I find monthly goals to be too limiting. Like many others, I was under the weather in January and if I had tried to be aggressive about goals, I would have failed. Firstly all of my goals are actionable. Not, “Try a new stitching technique once in a while”, but “Stitch twelve new techniques on your Stitching Sampler in 2008.” Your goals should be measurable and achievable. Better to lose 10 pounds in a year than fail to lose fifty. What I am finding is that my yearly goals are working well to keep me focused. When want to start a new project (or pick up an old project), I look first at my list of goals. Even if I pick a project not on that list, I remind myself of the goals I did put on the list. I have also slowed my stash accumulation by focusing on my goals (all projects on my goals list are those that I already have). I also deliberately spaced my goals out over the entire year. Since I know I will be very busy in May and June with a large project, I put some goals to not even start until the middle of July. This way I am not overwhelmed with all the goals every month. I also split my goals between GOALS (that I really, really want to accomplish in 200
and Extra Credit Goals that it might be nice to start (or finish), but that I won’t be devastated if I don’t accomplish. Why feel bad when you accomplish 20 of 25 goals and miss five (or less)? I hope some of these mental gymnastics might be helpful to others.
February 8, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Oh, Sharon … I am!
One of my goals is to get more of my stitched-but-not-completed items finished and ready to display. I’ve done two so far this year, trying two new-to-me techniques:
1. No Sew Decorative Cube
2. Refrigerator Magnet
Now, that’s not extremely exciting … but this next bit is.
I’ve had a website for over 10 years now, and have faithfully photographed all my finishes and told the story behind each one. If I tried a new finishing technique, I explained how I did what I did.
Most are not step-by-step tutorials, per se, but there is enough information to help a stitcher get the general idea of the technique used.
Tonight, I gathered a list of links to all the DIFFERENT types of finishes I’ve done, categorized them, and added them to the index page of “Cameo’s Completions.” From there, you can browse around my stitching gallery, look at the eye candy, and get some great ideas for finishing techniques. Just scroll down the page a bit.
http://www.cameoroze.com/completions/index.htm
I amazed myself to learn that there are 69 techniques represented in addition to the step-by-step slide show tutorials listed at the top of the page. I hope lots of stitchers stop by for inspiration and to learn a new thing or two.
Yours in Stitches,
Cameo @–>–>—
http://cameoroze.blogspot.com/
February 9, 2008 at 1:00 am
I set a goal to write an essay for my grandson about why William Blake’s works are so important to me and I’ve been working on it. But, I was surprised by a three-day visit by another grandson and his wife. This meant two weeks of no work for me–preparing and recovering from the visit. You can read about their visit, with videos of them dancing for me, as well as my WIP on Blake at http://www.jowynn.wordpress.com
February 9, 2008 at 1:32 am
I didn’t set any concrete goals, nor blog about it, but I have been working on de-cluttering and organizing!
It’s a gradual process. I think trying to get it all done in a week or two would be a tremendous shock to my clutter-prone self.
February 9, 2008 at 2:57 am
Lovely bags of beads–lot of work but certainly worth it.
I posted a few goals on my blog back in December (http://tangomusings.blogspot.com/2007/12/goals.html). I’ve added to that, but haven’t really blogged my progress.
February 9, 2008 at 4:14 am
Not so much a New Year resolution but ‘a word in your year’. The idea is to take a word which becomes your target mine was ‘play’, blogged here - http://bilsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/not-new-year-resolution.html
Is it working? Yes it certainly is, these last 8 weeks have been my most productive for some time.
February 9, 2008 at 6:11 am
I’ve written an update of my new years resolutions here http://paulahewitt.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/new-year%e2%80%99s-resolutions-%e2%80%93-an-update/
Im happy with my progess!
February 9, 2008 at 7:12 am
I blogged my goals for 2008 here:
http://tenar72.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/ufo-resolution/
but made no progress so far worth bloging… well, maybe that I gave up on knitting for now because I have to type so much at my new job. It was one things on my list that the job has first priority now.
February 9, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Paula thanks for the link - oops sorry I just realised it is in your blog post - its a great link to a blog folks and worth following
February 10, 2008 at 2:38 am
Take It Further Challenge- February
More thoughts in the design process posted on my blog today. Hope to have more progress to post later this weekend!
Beverly
http://fiberhart.blogspot.com
February 10, 2008 at 10:49 am
Confession time: I almost have more fun taking things apart for the recyclable bits than I do making new things. (Maybe ’cause there’s no pressure to do it perfectly? Hadn’t really thought about it until now.)
I’ve never been naturally inclined to set goals, although I am a zealous list-maker. Semantics, I know. But my official goals for this year are to keep up with the TIF and Bead Journal Project challenges. Anything more than that is either gravy or work!
February 16, 2008 at 12:38 am
I am going to be honest here and say I am not doing well at all with my list of goals for this new year. I am behind on the Bead Journal Project, my TIF challenge (almost done with February just not with January) and behing on other stuff too. Guess I really need to get with my time management!