The cupboarding and drawering in the kitchen continues. It's as dull as it sounds though, so I won't dwell on it here. Although I would like to record fr my own satisfaction that I am ahead of target, despite havingone day "off". And I still haven't found that expensive thermometer thing.
Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about my embroidery machine. I've been swinging between "I don't use it, I'll sell it" and "I want more needles".
I really would like more needles. In the Autumn before Covid, I had decided to buy another, bigger/better, machine, I was just unsure what to get. I'd done a shortlist. I'd started to save seriously towards it.
I wanted to be able to see the non-Brother ones in the flesh so that I could assess whether they would be better than the Brother 10 needle (which is a good machine, but a bit overpriced new and rarely available second hand). Most of the manufacurers are "up North", so I'd been thinking about how to do that. I had decided to maybe go for a few days the following spring to have a look.
Then Covid came, and for two years I didn't go anywhere.
And now we still have Covid, and I'm even less inclined to travel than I was back then.
I'm now wondering about getting a Brother machine (they've released an improved model in the meantime) , but they are a lot of money and I don't want to get one if it ends up being as frustrating (for me) as the machine I already have.
I wondered if I'd use the machine any more than I do now, or would I end up buying something that just sat unused. I spent some time thinking about why I don't do embroidery very much now. I thought about the space I'd have if I sold my machine and all its paraphernalia.
After considering the eleventy ten reasons, I decided that most of them were "..and another thing..." reasons, rather than the real, underlying, reason.
I concluded that I think (I'm not sure) that access to the machine is (one of) the fundamental reason(s).
It's kept on its trolley at the end of my sewing bench, just in front of the sliding door for the built in wardrobe in the corner of the room. It fits perfectly, in fact the bench was cut to size based on how much space the embroidery machine needed. However, it's a bit inaccessible.
I can get to the front of the machine, but I can't get to it from the sides. This means threading and rethreading is even more tedious than it should be (It's not the best design in the first place). It also means the wardrobe is difficult to get in to.
And, of course, when I stack my overspill (and "come in handy") supplies - all neatly bagged and boxed - in front of the door of the wardrobe, it means that the front access space is further encroached upon and it's just too much hassle to keep moving everything.
Relocating the machine it is difficult. I had thought about takig it off its trolley and putting it on the plan table in the boxroom. However, that would make it even harder to get to, and that room is east facing with a window that flood s the room with daylight, so the machine would get damaged by the strong sunlight
I thought about bringing it downstairs, but it will just get covered in fluff, dust and detritis (we have a stove, so dust is a fact of life), and the threads will be a kitty magnet.
It has to stay in the guest bedroom.
The guest bedroom has limited options, mainly due to the guest bed. Apart from the machine's end-of-bench current location, I had identified 2 other places it might be able to go. Neither were ideal, in fact both were worse from a guest bedroom perspective. I considered that I might be able to move the machine to one of those 2 locations for most of the time, and just move it back to the bench end when we had guests. The machine table has wheels, how hard can it be?
That was all a few days ago. It's been too hot, or I've been otherwise occupied, and I hadn't done anything about it. I had looked at a couple of gently used machines online. I'd enquired, unsuccessfully, about using mine in PX on a demo machine.
This morning I knew that today was the day I was going to try moving things around so I could access my machine more easily. Whether that was to prepare if for sale, or to evaluate if I'll actually use it, I don't yet know.
I had to start by clearing the enormous pile of boxes and bits from the floor in front of the wardrobe. Part of me wishes I'd taken a picture so you could see the mountain I was attempting to climb. The other part of me is glad I didn't.
I picked up each box and bag, checked what it was, and then dumped placed it carefully the bed. This enabled me to slide the machine forward and out of its corner. I then went back and picked up all the bits that fell off the rolley during this short journey. I swept the floor (oh that's i where the needle threader went!).
I was tempted to quit while I was ahead, and come back another day. But I wouldn't be able to relax with eth room n such an awful mess, so I decided to plough on.
The first possible (and my preferred) relocation site was already occupied by a chest of drawers with a stash of fabric on top. I had to move that first, adding to the stuff on the bed, and then I swept the floor area ("oh that's where my tweezers went").
I wheeled the trolley over, which was a bit trickier than I expected. I checked several ties to see if I had one of the wheel brakes on, but I didn't. It's just a heavy piece of equipment, even without all the other items that call the table their home. A few things jumped ship while I was moving, I just picked them up and put them on the bed along with everything else.
I ased the stand into it's proposed new home. I could see at once that it wasn't going to work. It was too much too wide. I knew it was going to be too wide, I didn't realise just how much too wide it was going to be in practice. It was going to get bashed every time I came into the room, and it was going to hinder access ot my other machines.
I looked at my fabric storage on he same wall as the machine was standing. I have floor to ceiling Ikea Kallax units, stacked on top of each other, and some well organised and labelled storage boxes on top. I thought long and hard about getting rid of some of the fabric and reducing the number of units I had, slipping them over, so I could move the machine table along.
Even then, I wouldn't be able to get the machine any further along though, because the bed would be in the way. That in itself was quite a helpful revelation, and I was spurred on oo test the onl other location.
While the machine was out of the way and I could access the wardrobe, I had a quick review of the contents.
I found some bits and pieces that my craft-loving niece would probably like.
I moved some stuff around, including underneath the sewing bench.
I managed to stash some of the "project boxes" in the wardrobe in the space I'd created.
I'd had enough of it all at this point (the days of me being able to continuie non stop until something was done seem to be long gone!). I came away and spent time listing some stuff for sale, binning some stuff, and adding some to the charity shop pile. I spent time on other activities, unrelated to the task in hand.
Later, I went back and moved the machine into the spot in front of the wardrobe door. Effectively this was swapping the original "piles of boxes" with the origil location of "the machine", but as the machine was now turned round 90 degrees it would have the advantage that I should be able to get to the sides of the machine. The downside is that I'd have practically no access to the wardrobe, unless I moved the machine each time.
The machine is on a wheeled stand. It's heavy, but it's doable, as I'd proved in my moving it around today. I reasoned that it's probably no worse than when I had the pile of boxes there.
While I considered whether this was acceptable, I started to clear the bed. I put some fabric away properly, which required me using my steps to access the boxes to put each piece in the correct box. I took some of the overspill boxes from the bed, and stacked them where the machine used to be. I did a bit of this and that. And then I looked at the rest of the Stuff on the bed. My attention threshold had again been reached at this point, so I didn't even try to tackle it.
I just walked away for a while to clear my head.
The break was helpful because some of the stuff is just stuff that it seems a shame to dispose of. It's all stuff that will come in handy at some point, it's just very bulky. Things like used (but clean) cushion pads; an old duvet which I use for making pet beds etc; stuff which just takes up so much space.
I've tried vacuum packing it before, but even quality bags just don't seem to keep their seal properly. I guess these are perfect examples of the things that I need to dispose of and just accept that I'll rebuy if and when I need them.
I just need to let it all go. Bin it. Donate it. Sell it. It doesn't matter which of those I do, I just need to do it. The emotional cost of holding on to the stuff is much higher than the cost of replacing it.
I'm going to go back and try and get it all squared away today so that I can look at the arrangement with a fresh pair of eyes tomorrow and see how it looks.
