Organisation

People often say that I am organised. I think it comes with being such a fan of lists and planning.

Last week I went to St Pancras to buy tickets for the Paris Metro, because in a week's time we will be crossing Paris in a great hurry to make a very tight train connection, and I don't want to waste precious minutes at the Gare Du Nord queuing to buy Metro tickets. The woman at the Eurostar ticket office commented on how organised I was to plan in advance in this way. I thanked her and felt more than a little bit smug.

But this week, a couple of things have thankfully wiped away that smugness. The first is my Cupboard Of Shame. Here is a picture to show you how the cupboard earned that name:


It is a cupboard in our bedroom that bulges and threatens to spontaneously burst open each time somebody walks past. It is STUFFED with suitcases, old clothes of the children's and all the files and textbooks from when G and I were studying for our accountancy exams.

I qualified nine years ago and G qualified five years ago. We have not looked at these books or files once since then. I think it may be time to throw them out. And all those children's clothes that are too small? Well I have plenty of friends with younger children or babies who could make good use of them, and there are several skirts and dresses of O's that I could cut up to start a collection of fabric for a quilt for her.

And we will need the suitcases next week when we go to France - with the Metro tickets that I was organised enough to buy in advance. Ha! As soon as I have written this, I am off to clear out the cupboard. I feel the shame.

The other thing that has made me reconsider the benefits of being organised, happened last night. After a really tough week at work I decided I needed an evening out. I've never been to the Waterstones at Piccadilly and after discovering that they have a cocktail bar on the top floor I thought that it might be a good destination for a bit of after work relaxation.

When I got there I discovered that the sewing books were next to the cocktail bar - how about that for good planning? And once up on the 5th floor, who should I find browsing through the Kaffe Fassett quilt books but my good friend Miss Moss Stitch! She was killing some time before meeting her chap for a night out at Gordon's, so I got her evening off to an unexpected start by whisking her off to the bar. We had a wonderfully spontaneous time poring through quilt books, chatting and drinking sublime cocktails. Not bad for a Wednesday night!

One of the things we chatted about was my new Pleated Beauty Bag that I received from Kathryn through the Bend The Rules Sewing swap. You can read Kathryn's blog about making my bag here.

I love that Kathryn picked fabrics based on the lush greens in my photographs - so thoughtful - so to honour her choice, I took some photos of the bag hanging in our lilac bush.


Isn't is a beautiful bag? Thank you, Kathryn, I love it!

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Thank you all for your very kind comments about my quilt. I am ridiculously proud of myself, and have already planned about four more I want to make! What is it about quilts that does that?

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The pattern for the quilt is from Amy Butler's In Stitches. The pieces were all sewn onto muslin, which is an unusual way of making a quilt; I think it would be easier to piece in the traditional way. The next one I do will be a BIG log cabin one that I started fifteen years ago - yes really - see earlier comments on being 'organised'.