TheMerkleFamily

Congrats on your upcoming retirement! This is a wonderful thread filled with great insight.

My thoughts... retirement is no different than working it's just a different 'routine'. We still must set goals, establish priorities and discipline ourselves in order to accomplish what we wish. I find if you don't manage your time & energy well then everything about you ages very quickly. I'm actually much more organized than when I was working and feel much more accomplished too! I'm also more decisive about what 'things' are useful vs useless in my sewing room (in my entire home as well). As for working through stash or acquiring more - I think it's a personal preference limited only by ones finances.

Congrats again - I'm sure you'll find what works best for you and I hope that you enjoy it to the fullest!

Snooze2978

I found I got more done while still working than I do now. Seems life keeps getting in the way. At times I settle down and get a lot done. Other times like in the summer when I have a garden to tend to as well as mowing and weeding, it takes me away from the sewing room. Plus who wants to spend inside when its so nice outside?

I try to clean my sewing room after every project. Just started looking in my scraps for a future project and found I'd been throwing my scraps under the cutting table and they've gotten out of hand. Now I need to sort them out and put them in their perspective tote for future projects.

JanieH

1. Can you keep your sewing area clean and organized after you retire? I try but my sewing room is also the "catch-all" room in my house so it is really hard to keep it organized. So much gets dumped in there - and all by me since I am a widow.
2. Can you put together Large blocks of time to quilt? When I have a project going I sew, sew, sew. I keep trying to set aside a set time but doesn't seem to work out.
3. Do you actually use up your stash and happily keep from spending retirement funds? I do both - enjoy many of the fabrics I have bought in the past but sometimes just need a special fabric.
4. Or, does your stash bore you and you keep right on shopping? I am trying to keep this to a minimum. Going through my stash periodically and really looking at the fabrics reminds me of how much I already have and what they are. I am trying to pick patterns that I know will work with the fabrics that I have.
5. Are the floor-to-ceiling stacks of magazines being utilized like you intended? I have cut back on magazines and only take Fons and Porter now. I have given most of the other magazines away to a local church quilt guild. I have done the same with most of my books. There are so many patterns available on line now that I want to make and I felt guilty because I had all these books that I was not using. I went through them and gave over half of them to my local library. They were thrilled because they said they were always getting requests for more quilting books and knew this was a need they could now fill.
6. Are you able to take the classes, or go to the Sit and Sews like you planned? No but then I hadn't planned to sooo...Also, there is only one close LQS to me, most are almost an hour away. The one that is close has one but I just do not feel comfortable there.

All that being said....I got really involved in volunteer work. One thing led to another to another to another and suddenly I am volunteering any where from 15 to 30 or more hours a week. Sometimes I feel like I am volunteering more than I used to work. When I do get home most of the time I really don't feel like sewing. I am starting to cut back on my volunteer hours. Plus, I will probably be moving sometime this coming summer and plan on having a room that is just for sewing and nothing else (I will be moving into a double wide trailer). I hope that will help inspire me to get back to more sewing and keeping my area organized and neat. I am starting to go through stuff now and pull out things I have duplicates of or don't want and finding new homes for them. As I clear out stuff, I am already feeling freer and getting more enthused to sew again. For me, having too much seems to weigh me down and I find I do less and less because I begin to feel overwhelmed.

I hope you continue to be excited about retiring and that you have all wishes come true!

Doggramma

I've been retired almost 8 years. My dream, while working, was to sew sew sew after retirement. I find that I don't sew as much as I thought I would. And even though I have tons of fabric and quilt kits, I'm still buying more. A few years ago, I accepted the fact that it won't be my problem when I'm gone. Living life and low energy unfortunately seem to be my biggest hurdles in actually getting downstairs and sewing. Hope you can do better! Retirement is definitely funner than working.

Pat G

It’s always more fun to dream about something than reality so don’t set yourself up for disappointment. My reality became my husbands health. We managed to travel a little. My stash & patterns piled up but now I’ve lost interest in much of it.
After a few yrs of freedom to sew, I burned out a little. Yes, I have sev projects going right now but am stumped by my new sewing machine.
Just do whatever makes you happy without a lot of pressure. Happy retirement.

Abashobbes

I am loving this thread. I Have been quilting just a few years and looking forward to my retirement hobby/ "business" of quilting. I'm mid 50's with a career in nurse anesthesia, and still have many years to work providing my health allows. I've been teaching sewing classes for 6 years to 2-5 graders after school, age ranging from 20 - 40 kids in fall and spring sessions. My recent dive into quilting in order to pass along a quilt to each of my 17 nieces/ nephews has sparked the fire to quilt whenever I make the time.

Rather than waiting till retirement, I started working part-time in order to have time to quilt. I made 6 large quilts this year and plan to do more next year. I continue to work so I can continue to build up my stash. I love, love Craftsy, and buy as the project kits go on clearance. I think I've purchased twice as many kits as quilts I've made this year. I have a small 1000 sq ft home as my studio. One bedroom is my stash room, the master bedroom is my sewing room, my church sewing group meets twice a month in my living room, and I rent out the third bedroom. My husband loves that my sewing stuff is elsewhere.

I'm excited to use the accuquilt I'm getting for Christmas to bust up the scraps I'm hoarding. If any of my nieces or nephews get married this year it'll be a scrap quilt. I'm currently working on an infinity quilt and another memory quilt for a friend and her daughter. I'm using the mother/ grandmother's clothing for these two quilts.

Merry Christmas to all here.
Anita

Kitsie

Sure is for me! I do not have a dedicated sewing room. And living alone allows me to use the kitchen in my "double-wide" for my quilting. The back window looks out on horse pastures, Mt St Helens in the distance and either the radio or TV on to stations I like! Mostly now I'm using up my scraps and haven't bought but one or two special fabrics for years, usually less that 1/2 yd.

I love the birds, too and feed them all. The hummers are really bulking up right now so if you feed them, make the nectar with extra sugar!

My point is that yes, especially if you live alone, you can sew where and wne you want and your dream certainly come true.

Innov8R

Retirement, like anything else in life, is what you make of it. I wanted to sew, so my days are filled with quilting and sewing. If you enjoy other things and put them before your quilting, that's fine too. I came to quilting late, so I have had to acquire a quilting stash. My sewing stash was filled with the kinds of fabric that make career clothes. Now, I get up and put on my comfortable jeans and sew as much or as little as I want.

My studio stays clean because I set things in order between every project. I chose to live with organization. If you chose to live with clutter that's what you will have.

I am a process oriented quilter who constantly enjoys the planning portion of the quilting experience, so I start planning my next quilt as I put the final stitching on a current quilt. I have never purchased a kit and most likely will never purchase one because a great deal of the fun for me is the planning.

I have a supportive husband who encourages my sewing pursuits and even comes into my studio and reads books to me while I quilt.

My golden years are truly golden. These are the most joyous and creative years I have had. My sewing and quilting are key to my happiness, so I keep them as priorities. I could let all kinds of other people and events dictate how I spend my retirement years, but I have chosen to do what I love and do not succumb to outside pressures.

Crispy_Frog

Thank you Pagzz for the invite to the Plano guild and your sewing session. I live right outside of Plano in Garland and it would be easy to get there!!

I am really getting motivated now by all the posts. I can see how life and circumstances could change on a dime and go into an unexpected direction. I've had three knee replacements in the same knee. I guess my body and knee replacements don't get along. The doctor once said that I might eventually lose that leg. I smile and think, as long as I can still sit in front of my sewing machine!

Someone mentioned that they get to go to quilt retreats Every month! That sounds amazing! I've been going once a year. I do get more done in a group like that....talking, joking and sharing ideas. I hope to have more of that!

Mariah

I don't have trouble keeping the sewing room organized and ready for company. It is a combo-sewing room-guest bedroom. What I do have trouble with is doing as much quilting as I had thought would be possible.
I think we all expect a lot of ourselves in Retirement. As others have said, there are lots of other things that crop up on us; grand-kids, church, volunteer work, family commitments, and the list goes on.
I have decided to just do what I can do and be glad for it. Mariah