Time and Space

The crafter's tote spread across my workstation

Bradley wants to help.

A shortage of time and space is still a factor in making progress on the crafter's tote that was supposed to have been my sister-in-law's Christmas gift in 2012.  Two years late!!

I really thought I was going to make it for Christmas 2014 when I finished the Mobius strip in late September.  But I ran into another engineering problem in November that took me several weeks to (maybe) solve.  The solution entailed shopping for supplies, including online which order did not arrive until ten days before Christmas.

I'd already set it aside to focus on the Christmas gifts I could get done for local family once it became obvious I could not get it in the mail in time to reach the Rogue Valley before Christmas.

Last summer I rearranged this room again (an endless project itself) to make room to set up the card table so I'd have room to spread the tote panels out to work on them and to assemble them with the Mobius strip into the bag.

But then I unpacked the rest of my craft and sewing supplies which were still in the boxes I'd packed when moving out of our trailer spring of 2013.  A necessity since all my holiday supplies where among them.  I'm still have trouble finding homes for everything without resorting to piling the card table high with whatever is not in use that moment.

The big Joanne.com order in December and the several craft shopping sprees between my birthday in November and Mom's birthday January 3rd added to the problem.

*sigh*

It's only when Mom spends the weekend with my brother's family in Portland that I can clear the card table by piling stuff on her side of the bed.  She leaves Friday afternoon and returns on Sunday evening.

That is also the only time I can work on the big sort and organize project in this room, the bedroom and down in the basement.  A project which competes for urgency with the tote as it's not only for making daily life easier while I'm here at Mom's but to make moving and setting up my own household easier when the time comes.

So its a tradeoff.

This weekend I'm working on the tote.  Which will mostly mean getting reacquainted with it after a month's hiatus.

The active project surface has been this corkboard set across the edge of a box and a stool.  Bradley knocked it off twice and I once.  All three times it was loaded and spilled thread, hooks, needles, pins, buttons, beads, ribbon, pattern pages, notes, threaders, thimbles, scissors, measuring tape....

...and whatever WIP(s) were on it.

The time I knocked it off the corner landed on my toe.

I solved the problem by giving up leg room to move the stool to the front right corner.

The corkboard is covered with microfiber pads for blocking projects off the hook.  The picture of the puppy and kitten is a laminated card I use when working with glue or tape.  The stack of candy boxes are trays containing small projects or materials and tools. There's another stack of larger trays behind that one.

The box under that end of the board used to contain materials, tools and small projects but it was a hassle getting into it so I stuffed it full of yarn and thread not on the hook which needs to be wound before use.  That's what's happening to that ball of yarn on the corner.