One boxful at a time

Decluttering is hardly everyone's favourite activity, and it's hard for some people to see how it could be pleasurable ... though I do know people who effortlessly manage to keep their things under control. They don't seem to be able to share how this happens for them; perhaps they were just born "different"?

After enrolling on a short ceramics course in hopes of porcelain-dipping and firing some of my "chimneys", I realised it would be a good idea to make some more to add to my "stash" -

Now that I'm back to stitching on The Daily Round, I realised that why it works is because all that's needed for the project is contained in its box - the work, the threads, the strips, the inked (and uninked) colourcatchers, the scissors. Take the box to the garden, to the tv, and just start...

A box for the chimneypots was needed. A shoebox was to hand - but it was filled with scraps of fabric. The devil on my shoulder whispered "oh just get rid of it all" but I didn't listen - it's my scraps that are the most useful part of my fabric collection. Most of them went into bags with labels: "Scraps - for crafting" and went outside into my giveaway box. Some time later they had gone, maybe to a new life somehow.

And during the sorting I had found bits that can be sewn into interesting "chimneypots". They are to be photographed before and after firing, so even if details like colour are lost under the clay, there is a record of them, a life story recorded.

Making chimneypots in the conservatory.
The tablecloth dates to the 90s, printed in a workshop with Liz Nilsson;
it's worn thin, and faded, and been patched with appliqued fish

 Of course some scraps went into the big scrap box, which sits practically in my line of vision at the computer. (I've become skilled at ignoring its mess and muddle.) The next evening I started on that -

Before (or rather, during)

After

One bag for the giveaway box, and a few scraps left for me, including a lot with fusible web on the back. A bag of rags (for eventual lino and monoprinting cleanup.) And the wastebin full - am I getting better at this?

The morning after -

Daily stitching at the ready on the table, and on the shelf, the scrap bin so tidy, so minimal ...it really does make me want to do more.