If you’ve followed me on this in the previous years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) you know that I’m not a terribly messy person. I find a tidy studio really inspiring and welcoming. I also frequently have friends over to sew at the weekend, or run classes in this space, so I’m always changing things around to fit the work or the people, and thus mess never lingers.

The first rule of tidying up is you have to do what WORKS FOR YOU. Please don’t use my tidy studio as a way to beat yourself up! There is no perfect way to do this – for me it happens when I hit some level of critical mass, often precluded by having a pile of something fall over on me!

I know people who find a lot of inspiration in spaces that have a lot going on in them – I just don’t happen to be one of them. In this world of so much perfect imagery coming at us, the most important thing is YOU DO YOU. Find out what needs to happen in your space to make you feel happy to be in it, and creatively motivated, and THAT is your perfect studio, or kitchen, or home!

Despite keeping a clean studio, I can have other stuff pile up on me, and in the last few months my books have been piled everywhere. On the kitchen table. In the living room. In the office. On the floor of my bedroom. So I decided to take care of those for this blog post – and I was happy to have a motivating deadline for getting it done!

I keep my bookshelves in my bedroom, and they were beginning to feel overloaded, and like they were looming over me.

No one pile was really out of hand, but the sum of the parts was making me a bit crazy.

First I went through each section and pulled things that no longer interested me. Either I’ve read it and I’m done with it, or I bought it when I was interested in something I’m no longer pursuing. And let’s face it, if I get interested in it again, I can always find the book again if I need it.

• Quilt books – I culled those that I no longer use for reference. They’ll go to my guild’s book library.
• Art technique books – I pulled those for art techniques I’m not working with any more. I doubt I will ever try landscape watercolor painting again!
• Language reference stuff – when I bought these books, I didn’t have a smartphone in my pocket, and now a lot of the information in those books can be found on the internet in seconds.
• Old travel guides – if I go back to those countries I’ll buy an updated version.
• Old magazines are off to the doctor’s office. I have a huge stack of Uppercase Magazine too… I love them, but I think I might need to gift them on as the evidence says I don’t usually go back to them once I read them. I’m several issues behind, so I might need to re-evaluate buying a subscription again, although dang, I do love to support a woman-owned publication!
• School books – I still had a few dusty art theory books from when I did my MFA in 2010. Trust me when I say some of these are the kind you only read when they’re assigned for homework, so the chance of me reading them again is zero!
• Entrepreneurial books – many of my entrepreneur friends often recommend this book or that, and I dutifully go buy them. And then they sit on my shelf for years. One wise biz friend (whose project planning methodology I use) told me instead to just look for a book to solve a problem when I was actively trying to solve the problem, and not to buy things that weren’t in the “working on this NOW” category. Good advice for keeping the book budget in check, and the clutter down.

The second rule is that you shouldn’t get rid of the things that make you happy, even if no one else sees the value of them!

I have more than a passing interest in mid-century pamphlet-style cookbooks. They were often published by a food manufacturer, and the books stretched to include that brand or ingredient in every single recipe. One of my favorite finds was this one, whose recipes all include salt. I know… salt?!

I also love the delightful mid-century illustrations:

And most of all, I find such humor in the recipes that sound just dreadful:

Once I had the books pared down, I re-grouped them by subject (I would LOVE to do it by color, but not having them categorized would make me itch!)

And then I shifted the placement for some of the subjects… I used to have quilting on one side of the room, and embroidery on the other. Now I feel like my categories flow a bit better, which means they can share shelves if needed. In the process, I reclaimed another shelf on which to store quilts, too.

Now it looks like this:

And this is the pile that I’ll be donating to my library once my friends have had a chance at them:

Oh… and here’s my tidy studio!

Please take a peek at the rest of the studios on the hop – you’re likely to find inspiration there!

April 29 – Linda Bratten – http://lindabcreative.blogspot.com/
April 30 – Sandra Johnson – http://www.sandrajohnsondesigns.com
May 1 – Jennifer Schifano Thomas – http://www.Curlicuecreations.com
May 2 – Becca Fenstermaker – http://www.prettypiney.com
May 3 – Sue Griffiths – http://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com
May 4 – Kate Starcher – http://katiemaequilts.com/blog
May 5 – Jo Westfoot – http://www.thecraftynomad.co.uk/blog
May 6 – Sam Hunter – https://huntersdesignstudio.com <– you’re here!
May 7 – Simone Fisher – http://simonequilts.com/blogs/news
May 8 – Elisabeth DeMoo- http://www.brownbirddesignsquilts.com
May 9 – Sarah Myers –  http://www.quilted-diary.com/blog
May 10 – Amy Bradley – http://www.purplepineapplestudio.com
May 11 – Kathy Nutley – http://www.QuiltingsByKathy.com
May 12 – Carla Henton – http://createinthesticks.blogspot.com/
May 13 – Sherry Shish – http://www.poweredbyquilting.com
May 14 – Kate Colleran – http://www.seamslikeadream.com/blog
May 15 – Pamela Boatright – https://www.pamelaquilts.com/
May 16 – Cathy McKillip – http://wishuponaquilt.com/blog
May 17 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com

The post Spring Clean Your Studio – 2019 appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

If your project list is anything like mine, it’s crowded with ideas and plans for new and unfinished projects. I often say I could go a couple of years without a new idea and still not run out of things to work on!

When faced with such a smorgasbord of choices, how do you choose what to tackle?

This is a list of the questions I ask myself whenever I start a new project, and usually my answers give me clarity about my choices:

Is it a clear YES? Am I passionate about it, or is it something that must be done to meet a promised obligation? If it isn’t a clear YES, it’s often a NO that we just haven’t come to terms with!

Can I finish the project by the deadline in a way that makes me proud of my work? This is a big point to consider if you’re trying to build a reputation for your work, and this is where tracking your time helps you make these decisions.

Can I finish the project by the deadline without being super-stressed out about it? There’s enough stress in our lives without adding more!

If I work on this project, what might I be missing out on? Is there another project that will make me feel more fulfilled? Is there something else I would rather do or learn?

Is it the best use of my time right now? Will working on this be sweeter if I get other obligations done first?

Am I working on it because I already have invested time and money into it? Sometimes, we throw more time and resources at something because we think that honors our initial investment; it’s called sunk cost bias. But if you stop to ask yourself “Would I buy this fabric again and use it for this pattern again” and the answer is NO, then abandoning the project might be the wisest use of your time and money.

Will making this project affect my important relationships? Will I be cheating myself of time with my favorite people? Time with good people is so very precious.

Can I hire out or delegate any portion of the project? The actual quilting has always been my least favorite part of the process, so I began hiring that out to two wonderful long-arm artists a couple of years ago. Yes, it took a shift in my budget, but I now have time to do more of my favorite parts (designing and sewing the tops) – and I no longer stress (or stall) when something needs to be quilted.

Can I change my process to make a step easier or more efficient? While I love to finish my bindings by hand, I’ve started finishing them by machine sometimes so that I have more time for other things. I also recently bought a new, faster machine!

Am I doing this because it’s popular? Good things are popular for a reason, and there is great camaraderie in being in a group or quilt-a-long, but do I really want the finished product more than I want to do something else?

Will it teach me something I want to know? I recently took a very cool curves class from Jen Carlton Bailly, and came away with a handful of blocks that begged to become something bigger. But what I wanted was the knowledge of how to sew curves, and I got that in class. So I put one block with the instructions in my reference binder, and donated the rest (and some supporting fabrics) to my guild’s charity sewing program. My cast-offs will be someone else’s treasure, and I don’t have this cluttering my to do list or taking time I would rather spend differently. I give you permission to do the same!

Remember, you probably got into your hobby or practice because it was fun. A few strategic decisions will help keep it that way!

The post Studio Habits: SHOULD you make that project? appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

As we hit the middle of January, and I read across my social media feeds of everyone’s epic plans to ramp up this and change that, I find myself retreating to my studio armchair with a cuppa to ponder what advice I would offer for giving your sewing practice an infusion of new year’s intentions.

Of course I have an ORANGE pillow!

No, I’m not going to give you an insurmountable list of how to be perfect – really, who needs ANY more of that! I find it beyond overwhelming to think I could change that many facets of my life in the single stroke of a late December midnight! But I do believe you can shift your life one thing at a time, thus I’m offering you ONE thing I think can improve your studio practice right now, and yes, it’s free, and doesn’t require you giving up chocolate

The Studio Project List 

Every time I work on a project, at the end of the day, I write down what I was working on and how much time I spent on the various stages of it. I break it into stages because I’m one of the weirdos who loves checking off small steps of larger projects.

I also use this to track the number of things I work on. Sometimes I get to the end of a year and feel like I didn’t accomplish enough, and this list usually sets me straight on that. We often forget the hours we put into making blocks here and there for various things, or don’t count the time we spend sewing things that are not quilts. For instance, I made 26 Chunky Wee Zippy Pouches, 2 Chunky Wee Bags, and a couple dozen blocks, pincushions, etc. in 2017, beyond the 47 quilts I finished!*

Lastly, by tracking these broad numbers as I work I’m better able to estimate the price of custom work, should someone ask me to make them a quilt. Estimating the cost of materials isn’t hard, but we usually have a tough time estimating the amount of labor we might put into something. Because I have this historical data, I can go back as see how many hours I put into any given quilt, which allows me to make a more accurate proposal. Even if you never plan to sell a quilt, knowing this number allows you to see if you actually have the time to make that last minute gift you though of!

Give it a try!

Feel free to use this document as a starting point for creating your own list using the categories that are important to YOUR practice.

And for a New Year’s blast from the past, I wrote this a couple of years ago – and I still wish all these things for you!

For more on tracking the value of what you make, go here.

* With MUCH help from Nancy and Kazumi, my trusty long-arm artists!

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