Empty spaces

It must be some sort of law of physics, that any available and 'naked' horisontal surface, will fill up in no time flat if left unattended for more than 5 seconds.
Showed you my nice, ready-to-work-on table day before yesterday. Well, yesterday I did laundry. DH thrifted a sack-full of table-linens a while back. Lovely stuff. White, damask- and jaquard-woven stuff, lots of napkins, two sets (each of 14 or 16) embroidered with monograms.

Most of it has been laundered and ironed for the longest time, but ... during my marathon clearing, cleaning and washing day yesterday, the last load of the white linens surfaced, and ... now my table looks like this. Again.

Time for some ironing, I think, and then maybe, just maybe, I'll reclaim my 'empty table' before going to bed tonight.

Setting myself up for success

Hello again. Two posts in two days :-) Don't get used to it :-)
Well, right now I'm feeling the need to do, and in order to accomplish that, I need to try and set myself up for success.
Knowing me, is (also) knowing that I have the attentionspan of a concussed sparrow most of the time. If I'm bored, I fiddle, and twiddle, and get restless, and ... move on to ... something else.
SO, to ensure that I actually get anything done, I need to make deals with myself. Not in the grand, all-encompassing manner I like to do, but in the small ways.
Yesterday I showed you my sewing-room table. I couldn't handle 'clear the table', but I was perfectly able to handle 'Do 5 minutes on the table', so that's what I did. A grand total of 7 times, and it was ... done.

Some of you who read this blog have seen my 'Boxed Stars', and some of you even know that I'm hand-quilting it. That has been stalled for the longest time, so, yesterday, I decided to set myself up for success in that respect also.

I made a small box, holding everything that I find essential for hand-quilting.
Needles, thread, scissors, Hera-marker, Roxanne thimble, ruler (for the straight lines I want to quilt). On the side, a big book that I place under the frame when I mark a section.
And then, one of the most important things in my setting myself up for quilty success : Before I put it aside 'for now', I thread the next needle and do the first few stitches. That way, I can just pick it up and get going.

One (more) thread done, about a zillion to go ... but that is ok. It's going to be a wonderful quilt in the end.

Hello again - Cinderella'ing

Well. That was a very long silence, but ... life has been happening. Life and not much (any) stitching.
Excuses out of the way now :-)
I hope I'm back on the block now.
And I'm ready to get back to some stitching.
Problem is, before I can stitch, I need a place to work, and - as always - when things backslide, they backslide, and one of the first places to suffer, and last places to be rescued, is my sewing-room, and ... the table.

SO, nothing for it. Cinderella needs to go on duty (hence the 'Cinderella'ing of the title of this post). You know, Cinderella went to the ball, but before that, she had to clear and clean and scrub and sort and .... So ... yesterday was Cinderella-duty, i.e. Cinderella outside of the ballroom. And just so that you'll know I'm not pulling your leg, here are the pictures to prove, that I actually did something :

Table before I started
After 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
After another 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
This morning (and yes, I moved the 'puter in here, since DS is writing his end-of-term thesis in 'the office' and cannot for the life of him keep is mouth shut, and I need peace and quiet to work, so ...)
The remaining problem identified : Piles of neatly folded and lovely, lovely fabric that has no place to go. As you can see, I seriously need to get some stitching going ;-)