No Time to Sew: The Big Cleanup

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the end of the school year marks the end of my sewing season. It doesn’t mark the end of work, though. In fact, I find summer to be a great time to catch up on many otherwise-neglected projects.

My creative work process seems to require a mess. Despite my many efforts to rearrange and clean up my studio (see the posts My Work Space (aka "studio") and Finally organized! from a few months ago), I just can’t seem to keep my work space tidy. It takes hours (days!) to put everything away, but then, when I start new projects, items just naturally find their way out again. Different-colored thread spools start accumulating near my machine. Fabrics in different stages of cutting and sewing sort themselves into different piles on the bed or carpet, each waiting for the next stage. Metal hardware boxes lie open, waiting to be incorporated into bags. And on it goes. Here, for example, is a recent photo of my sewing table:

But the truth is that in order to feel at peace and be able to concentrate, I actually need my surroundings to be reasonably tidy. By “my surroundings” I mean my house, an almost impossible goal with three kids as roommates.

Hence, a few years ago we started a new summer-vacation tradition: “The Big Cleanup.” The Big Cleanup is just what it sounds like: a thorough cleaning/organizing/rearranging of every single room in the house.

This is how it works: after the last day of school the kids and I give ourselves a couple of days to unwind and relax. We make no plans and set no rules. Everyone has time to do whatever they want to do, be it stay in pajamas all day, read on the sofa uninterrupted, or disappear behind a screen. Then we start working. We work every day for about two weeks, taking breaks for snacks, meals and the occasional rest. We set reasonable daily goals, and bribe ourselves with fun things to do in the afternoons (if we finish everything on time). The actual work is long and tedious. We get cranky, we have difficulty parting with some things, we fight, we grumble. But when the day’s work is done everyone feels great (or at least I do). The room we just worked on looks nice. The drawers and cabinets are all clean and tidy. We feel like we really earned that relaxed stroll downtown, or that tasty ice cream, or the coffee-house visit with its drinks and cakes:

And when the Big Cleanup is all over we celebrate by doing something fun together, which makes us forget the ordeal we endured over the last couple of weeks.

A Little Late but DONE!

Despite all my good intentions, I was unable to finish my mother-in-law’s purse before the school year ended. Some of the distractions I should have anticipated: Voting Day fell right on that last week of school, and reading through the voting materials and filling out the forms took some time. Helping with the parent-part of the eighth-grade middle-school graduation ceremony also required some attention. There were a couple of primary school rituals I just HAD to attend, and I also had to shop for and drive to three different end-of-year parties. Then there were the unanticipated obstacles: my four-year-new washing machine chose to break down right at that time (of course!), leaving me with piles of unwashed clothes. This required two different technician visits (one to diagnose the problem, the second to change the broken part), and left me with two-weeks-worth of laundry that had to be done all at once, and which took hours to do. In the end, I had a lot less time for sewing than I expected. Still, I managed to at least start that green-and-yellow summer purse before school was out.

As Expected, the first few days of summer were busy. But today my husband’s company had a “Take Kids to Work Day,” which gave me just the break I needed to finish my own project. I hope my mother in law likes it!

One Last Sewing Project Before Summer

In three days the school year will be over, and my sewing season will come to an end. I am looking forward to spending relaxing summer days with my children, lounging around in pajamas until mid-morning, eating breakfast late and not having to live by the clock, to rush and be rushed constantly. I’ve lived through enough summers to know to expect the occasional squabbles and the many “I’m bored” complaints, but overall I feel like we could all use a break. Knowing my kids, I am quite sure that I will not be able to get even close to my sewing machine all summer long, not to mention to actually work on a sewing project.

But in the three days I still have left, there is one thing I need to finish: a gift for my mother in law. A while back she asked for a summer purse, and I promised to make her one. I haven’t had time for this so far, and will therefore need to act fast. The next couple of days will be dedicated to this one last project of the year!

My mother in law LOVES sunflowers. In the summer, she goes to the farmers’ market every Saturday, and buys a huge bouquet of sunflowers, which she then places in a prominent location right at the entrance to her house. Whenever I see sunflowers I think of her.

Miraculously, I found a fabric that had sunflowers on it. I bought it for the lining of her bag, and selected the outside fabrics to match it:

I will do my very best to finish this purse before the last bell of the school year rings!