AS 2020 comes to a close, I am cleaning up and cleaning out. By cleaning up, I mean clearing up loose ends and making those last minute deadlines.

I had three of them yesterday and now I am down to 1 1/2 today. With any luck, I will have the others done in time to celebrate for the New Year. One of the clean-up items was finalizing a contrast pattern designed to go with Northcott/Patrick Lose fabrics Basically Black and White. My pattern tester Becky Carr did a fabulous job with this one in Red and White.

Cleaning up also means, picking up after all of my crazy holiday projects. I am putting fabric away, gathering scraps, even puling out the dreaded vacuum cleaner to remove the layer of threads piling up on my rug. It always feels better to start the new year with a clean studio – kind of like a clean slate.

As for cleaning out, it is time to clean out my sewing machine thoroughly, which again means the vacuum cleaner and my special attachments, purchased at JoAnn’s. Cleaning out also means cleaning out all of the fuzz from my cutting mats by soaking and scrubbing them. Cleaning out means really evaluating my scraps for their potential usefulness… This is a hard one for me. I hate throwing away any scraps, but I have decided that anything smaller than 2 x 2 is not going to have much use except for a collage quilt, which is on my bucket list. Thus, you see my dilemma…. I guess I will always have more minute scraps if needed.

Well, it is time to get moving so I can finish my end of year task list. How do you finish out your year?

Happy Quilting

Laureen