Cleaning Up to Be Creative, Quilting Friends Podcast #94

This week I’ve done a major clean and clear up of my sewing room in order to be more creative. This is something I have to do regularly because I’m just not a tidy person. In this podcast episode I share a new perspective on keeping things clean to be my most creative self:

Enjoy this podcast by watching above or listening using the player below. You can also download the audio to your computer to listen offline:

This is the first podcast I recorded in my new sound booth (bedroom closet)! Let me know what you think of the sound in the second half of the show and this different format. I loved rising to the challenge of writing and narrating this week. This has helped me take the first step on a much bigger goal of narrating my own audiobooks!

Click Here to check out the new Ms. Bunny sewing tutorial! I shared a long video on how to sew her dress, and a second video on three different ways to finish the back with buttons and button holes, velcro, or snaps.

Pantographs are coming soon! This is just taking a lot longer than I expected, but I hope to have the first tutorial ready on Friday.

I got quite a lot accomplished on my new goddess quilt Eye of Calm. I decided to switch to turned edge, freezer paper applique and this is going very smoothly now, but it will take more time because I’m going to hand applique all the pieces together.

And just in case you’d like a picture of the little shed James and I started building together:

This little project is just going to use up scrap wood I have around the yard and be used to hold garden tools and equipment. I love being able to put things like this together myself and teach my son the basics of construction.

Cleaning Up to Be Creative

This week I’m thinking about all my STUFF. I have a lot of different interests from quilting to wood working to sewing dolls and each of these crafts have a lot of tools and materials that come along with them.

I tend to jump into projects on the fly, following inspiration and ideas as soon as they pop into my head. But I’m also one of those people that never learned to put her toys away after playing with them.

Lately I’ve been very busy and distracted, and I can tell because the surface of almost every table, every cabinet, the top of every drawer is covered with at least one, if not two projects in some stage of completion. It’s not Buried Alive Hoarder level yet. I can still walk into every room of my house, but it’s very distracting.

This is honestly driving me crazy.

Because the tables are covered and every room is a mess, I can’t follow my inspiration. I can’t run with that idea that just popped into my head. There’s so much stuff in my way, I can’t make anything.

When things get this messy, it’s like a physical barrier to my creativity. When I walk into a room where I want to work and just seeing the clutter is a turn off. Where is this stuff going to go?

I should clean up, I should get this under control, but when it’s gotten this overwhelming, it’s hard to know where to start.

I usually just turn around and walk right back out of the room.

Unfortunately the clutter follows me to new places like my dining room table or couch. Wherever I park myself to make something, a work in progress and accompanying bag or bin of materials soon follows.

It’s exhausting just looking at the messes. I don’t want to take it on. I don’t have time or the energy. And the clutter just builds.

I start schlepping the junk off one table and setting it on the floor while I use that surface, then I throw it all back on the table when I’m done. It isn’t any fun to work this way. I’m tripping on stuff the whole time. It’s more stressful than fun and I rarely produce my best work in this state.

The fact that I know this, but continue to let my life clutter up to this degree is beyond frustrating.

My current mess of dolls, fabrics, quilt patterns, and Lino cutting materials would probably have continued to build if it weren’t for something new that happened this week.

This week my neighbor started cleaning up. I think the best way to describe this property is a junkyard.

When we first looked at our house, this was the biggest detractor from buying it. We drove up and saw ten rusted law mowers and tractors lining the edge of the property.

The neighbor, an elderly man, had been hoarding lawn equipment for decades and dozens of rusted hulks littered his yard.

After seeing our house, Josh and I decided having a junkyard next door wasn’t a deal breaker. As soon as we moved in, we put up a fence and planted trees to block the view.

That neighbor passed away last year and this week his family hired a crew to clean up the yard.

That’s right – a crew of people.

Because it turns out the rusted lawn mowers we could see, were just the ones on the surface. Everything is trapped under layers of weeds and brambles. A chainsaw has been running all week to chop down the trees that grew up through the middle of his tractors.

They have a little bobcat they’re using to pull things free and get the equipment on trucks. But as they dig out one rusting hulk, two or three more pieces of machinery are revealed. This junkyard only seems to be growing.

It is five times more STUFF than I ever thought was out there. They’ve opened the doors to a big barn and you can see boxes and bins filled to the rafters, packed so tight they can barely walk into the building.

To say it straight – it’s a hot mess.

I’m not sure if the landscaping crew knew what they were getting into. They’ve been making progress, but every day the job seems to be getting bigger, not smaller.

It’s also a cautionary tale that I immediately took note of. It made me think about my stuff and the things I’m keeping.

How much do I really need? And how much is getting in my way and stopping me from being creative?

Because I think my neighbor once was a creative person. He had that big barn after all and he could have been a welder or a blacksmith or any number of things.

But somewhere along the way, he stopped being creative and making things.

He just started buying stuff.

That stuff piled up and piled up and piled up and eventually he ran out of room in the barn and started piling it up in his yard.

And there it rotted.

Trees and brambles grew up through these things he spent his money on. And now his family is having to spend more money to deal with this mess.

I took this as a sign: I need to clean up my stuff.

I got started in my upstairs sewing room. This is where I stash books, paint, yarn, sewing supplies, and my best quilts in the closet. I’ve been sewing Ms. Bunny dolls in this room so one table was entirely covered with dolls in various states of completion, along with fabric, and pattern pieces.

But the problem is far bigger than just what is sitting on the table.There needs to be a place for the things to go. A correct place so that I can find these materials, patterns, and tools easily later.

Too many times I’ve cleaned and purged my craft supplies only to wish for something just a few months later. But no matter how many bins I check, I can’t put my hands on that tool or pot of paint. Did I get rid of it? I can’t remember.

Just last week I started searching for my small collection of Pearl X pigments for mixing with resin. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Did I stick them in the paint bin? Did I take them downstairs to go with clay or out to the barn with the resin? I can’t find that pack of pigments anywhere and it’s frustrating to not know for sure if I threw them away or just misplaced them.

So I’m trying to be careful about throwing things away.

I’m also being careful not to put things away too well, or else I might never find them again.

As I started to clean up, I found three big books sitting on my sewing machine table that should have been on the book shelf. But the shelves were bursting at the seams.

I stopped sorting the stuff on the tables and took a good look at the books filling this space.

Many I’d picked up when I thought I liked mixed media art and collages. Turns out I really can’t stand that messy style. I started yanking books off the shelves. More piles form on the floor as I pulled out dozens of books I no longer love.

Now there’s space for the books and magazines I want to keep and they’re better organized so I can find what I’m looking for.

But now I’m starving and I have to stop. The room is even messier than it started and I have an added trip to the used book store in mind.

This is the thing about cleaning up – it gets worse before it gets better.

Once the bookshelf is clear, it’s time to get back to clearing off the table. I’ve removed the top layer of stuff that was just set on the table to get it out of the way. Now everything left is in some half finished state of completion.

What do I do with a half stitched Ms. Bunny head and ear? I’ve made 6 dolls, do I need to make one more? But it seems a shame to throw it away.

I don’t really know what to do with it. It’s not done. I can’t give it a home.

Then I cleared off another set of shelves where I keep 3 ring binders and found a sash of plastic page protectors. These see-through sheets act like pockets inside a binder.

Suddenly I had a solution! I placed the Ms. Bunny pieces into the pockets, organizing them so I can quickly pull out the pieces when I need them. A quick label on the front and this messy set of pattern pieces and fabrics became a binder on the shelf.

I found many creative solutions like this.

If it’s flat enough to go in a binder – I stuck it in a binder. A lot of projects and materials needed to be moved downstairs so I made a pile near the door.

The hardest part is knowing what to do with the a project I want to work on RIGHT NOW but have no time to work on. Should it go on my machine or in a bin?

On my machine it will hang around guilty reminder of what I’m not doing. In a bin, it will be too easy to forget about it.

I selected one project to rest on my machine. All it requires is for me to wind bobbins and begin quilting. All other projects, even the ones I really want to pursue went into drawers nearby.

If I left them all out, after all, my sewing table would be so covered with stuff, I wouldn’t be able to find it.

As I cleared out this room, a lot of icky emotions came to hang out too. Frustration was like an overbearing librarian, constantly breathing down my back. So many things are in my way.

Guilt hung around like a black cloud. Why did I spend money on this thing? I thought, Why did I start that doll only to stop at that point where it will be very difficult to pick it up and finish it?

Anger nodded along with me as I berated myself, “Why can’t I be a neater person? Why do I do this?”

Because clearing out this stuff forces me to face not just the mess of my own making, I have to face the choices that have lead me here.

I’ve obviously fallen into the same trap as my neighbor – trying buy my creativity with more stuff.

I do this most often when I feel too busy to make decisions. Makings things, being creative, is all about decision making. What color thread should I use? How tight should that doll dress fit? How dense will this be quilted? What designs should I play with?

When I’m too busy or stressed, making decisions like this is impossible. I want someone else to tell ME how to do it. I can’t think for myself when my brain is overwhelmed.

So instead of taking action on one of those projects, it feels so much easier to go buy something new.

I rush off to the craft store and find some new gadget or gizmo to buy instead. Now I have these extra tools and materials and they need a home too. That’s more stuff to organize. More stuff in my way. More stuff to misplace and have to search for later.

This is making me less creative, not more.

I’m sorry, but I really don’t like the saying “she who dies with the most fabric, wins.” It’s disturbing and where do you think that fabric will end up?

One of my friends in college worked at Goodwill and explained that when things like fabric are donated, they’re usually thrown away. Unless the staff at Goodwill know how to package and price an item, it will end up in the trash.

I’m sure my neighbor thought his tractors were very valuable at one time, but I can bet his family isn’t very happy with him about it today.

Creating in a Clean Space

After clearing and cleaning my sewing room, I took a break from it for a few days. Last night I realized in order to finish this story, I needed the pay off of creating something new in my clean space.

I picked the small embroidery project I’d set on my machine. Over a month ago I embroidered the words Embrace Change, my words of the year, onto a small quilt sandwich. It’s been waiting to be quilted and turned into a hoop quilt ever since.

I sat down, planned my design, and quilted it in less time than it took my son to make a small batch of cookies.

As I popped the quilt into the frame, I took note of two things: that was very satisfying, and a lot faster than I expected.

That’s the thing about being messy – when that becomes the usual state of everything, all projects automatically take longer and feel more exhausting. I went into quilting this little quilt thinking it would take hours. It ended up taking twenty minutes.

I had time that evening to finish a second project. I’ve been trying out wood burning on a set of balsa wood doors I designed for Ms. Bunny’s closet.

It’s a weird project. It hasn’t turned out perfect, and even now I’m not sure if I’m going to use these pieces or remake them out of thicker, sturdier wood.

This is the kind of project that can easily get stuck on unanswered questions. Is this material too thin? Will it wear well or just fall apart? How am I going to attach the hinges?

Each question represents more decisions I need to make about this project.

But last night I realized I just needed to complete one task. I needed to burn the design onto the second door, then I could figure out the next step.

Again, this went much faster and easier than expected. It still wasn’t perfect. I’m not very good at wood burning, but it was fun and satisfying to get the job done.

Tomorrow I can answer the question about the hinges, attach the doors to the closet and see if this project is going to work.

I’m at the next step, I’ve answered questions, made decisions and this creative project is not getting stuck in process, but moving forward smoothly.

So this is the lesson I want to remember from this whole ordeal: being creative is fast. It’s very easy and fluid and peaceful, if my space is clean and clear and easy to work in.

I never got bogged down by all the stuff I had to schlep out of my way. I could easily find the tools and materials I wanted to play with. Junk wasn’t falling off the table top or getting clogged in my chair wheels.

I know not everyone works the same way. I’ve met many creatives that seem to thrive in a messy, disorganized spaces. I’m not advising a one-size-fits-all strategy.

But I wanted to share this just in case. Life is busy. Messes happen. If the idea of making something, or finishing a project feels heavy instead of light, that’s a sign something else may be going on.

What does your creative room look like? Is it the mess that is weighing on you, or a series of decisions you need to make in order to finish that project?

Does it feel easier to go to the store and buy something new?

If so, I promise you the weight and difficulty you feel have nothing to do with that project or being creative. If you clean up a bit, give yourself more space, you will find it easier and faster and lighter to work and be your most creative self.

So that’s it for this podcast! Let me know what you think of this different format. I certainly enjoyed the writing and narrating challenge this week and hope to bring you new lessons and stories from the Mally the Maker universe coming soon.

You can find all of the podcast episodes I’ve shared so far at LeahDay.com/podcast

Don’t forget to join in the fun of the quilt friends club and help support this show and all of the quilting tutorials I share online. Check it out at QuiltFriends.Club

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day