Opening Up Space on a Wall

When I had lunch with Paula yesterday she asked if we had a desk we didn't want.  In fact I do!  I used the desk when i had the other computer before I b ought the laptop that I now hate.  The only thing on the desk that actually belonged there was the printer, so I cleared everything else out.  Mostly the stuff went into the trash or recycle bin.

That is how important it was.  Old stuff and envelopes.  Oh my, so many envelopes!  Why did I keep them?  I have no idea.  I really do hate to toss stuff out.  Anybody?  Do you have your stuff you just can't toss?


I set about thinking how I could rearrange my room and continue the cleaning and clearing.

I came upon a plan.  I decided to remove a shelf and move he bookcase over to that wall.  See the cut out in the design wall?  The shelf on the right was in that space.

But I couldn't budge it by myself.  I have to suck it up and wait for Frank to help.  It will shorten my design wall by a few inches. 

Well, Mr. Muscles came home.  He was like, look, I can move it with one hand!

Here is the shelf in place.  At the moment it is slightly behind the door so that the door does not open all the way.  It upsets Frank tremendously.  Me, not so much.  But I still can move it over and allow the door to shut.  I can decide that later. 

Of course, everything that was in front of the shelf is now in front of the closet.  And the closet is no longer usable.  For now.  Sigh........

We are having rain for the 4th day in a row.  My rain gauge read 2 1/2 inches yesterday.  I have not looked at it yet today, but so far we have only had some light rains.  Everything sure is green out there!

So green, so much yard work.........Look how everything is so overgrown.

Now I have to convince Mr. Muscles to become Mr. BBQ

Quilt Room Clean Up

I spent most of the day in my Quilt room cleaning up.  However, it is but a tiny dent in the big pizza pie! 


 This is what my room looks like!  That is Marjory.  Really.


Here is what I accomplishd.  It looks so small in comparison to what NEEDS to happen in the room around it.  But this is a beginning, I guess.

 the space looks pretty good, until you look at the space directly NEXT to it.

I think I will take Renee up on her offer of help to get the room under control after the first.  I am having some people over and I don't want stuff all over the place that needs to stay in the room. 

I can truthfully say, I need help!  Lots of help!

Drawers Organized

Accomplishment #2 - Getting the drawers in my closet organized.

Put a big fat check mark by that one!  DONE!  It is amazing.  And I attribute it all to the cardboard wraps!  I know my stalker reads my blog because I saw the individual purchase a set one day.  Can't fool me!  LOL

Here are before and afters:

Drawer 2 before 

Drawer 2 after

Drawer 1 before

Drawer 1 after

Here are two I forgot to take the befores of

Drawer 3 has space!

Drawer 4 - Dyeing stuff

Here is the whole set up,
 suspended drawers in the closet

Accomplishment! Design Wall Monday!

This is my Design Wall Monday Report.  Since I am engaged in CLEANING UP I thought I would show you what I am doing.  I have several posts this week about the whole deal, so come back and see what I can accomplish!

Even though you didn't tell me you were astonished at what I was ACTUALLY going to do, I totally feel like I accomplished a lot.  Wait till you see the before and after shots!  Prepare to be AMAZED!  If you want to read the story of the bookcase my dad built, go here.

Of course I have to do before shots for you to ogle.  It really is a mess, but there is no place to put any of this stuff.  I started by moving the pieces of stuff, I don't dare call it JUNK, to clear out a space for the bookcase to go.  It slid easily in place and is not going to interfere with the fan, thank goodness.  All puffed up in his best OSHA voice, he says, "WE need to make sure it doesn't cause undue damage to the fan before any of this can happen."  Yeah, right, power to the man!

Here is my poor ironing board laden with my extraneous stuff.  Remember, not junk.





After about 3 hours of work, I came to this place.  Did I throw away a lot?  Did I put any in a pile to give away ...........only tossed one paper bag and three huge Hobby Lobby bags I kept for some unknown reason.

 I guess that puts me squarely in the category of Ultra Pack Rat.  I accept that designation.  UPR Proud!



Here is the bookcase in place.  Or most likely  very close to where it will live.  I want it closer to the other bookcase to form an L.  Like a nice quiet library.

Now I will work to fill it.  I warn you, when you see the next picture, it will be of my stuff put on the shelves in no apparant order.  That will come in later bursts of energy.

 Here is the bookcase filled with my precious stuff.  There are many things there that represent the entirety of quilting.  From just plain ideas, to fabrics, to cut out fabrics ready to be put together, to blocks ready to be assembled to tops, to tops, to things that just need to be quilted.

Keep in mind that I still have to go through and organize those shelves yet.  I think I want to get the same size containers and organize like that. the small drawer unit between the bookcase and the window is a series of drawers.  I can clean the useless office supplies out and put in my sewing notions and small stuff.  It is not really sturdy but it will hold a lot of small things in a small space

Before

After

 Here is the far shot of that part of the room, I can put a Before next to it, wait a second.......well, this is how ie worked out to be.

I really feel open and  cleaner.  I did sweep and debated about how much of the tiniest scraps to toss.  Yes, really.  You never know when you are going to need those splinters of fabric.  What if they stopped making fabric and you needed a quilt?

Stash Report - You Are Going To Be Entertained!

Have I got a treat for you!

I didn't get much done, in fact I don't think I got ANYTHING done this week.  It was a wild week with Frank spending a week in the Houston Airport one night.  (Think about that one for a minute.)

But I have great news.  You know how I have to clean up my quilt room, DESPERATELY   Well I took a step in that direction on Saturday.  But first let me tell you a story.

When Frank and I got married 40 years ago, we were really poor.  Like $400 to our name poor.  And we moved into an apartment in Baton Rouge for him to finish college at LSU.  And we had no furniture.  My friend had made a sofa.  I sure wish I had pictures of it.  It looked sort of like a huge bean bag.  And it was the most comfortable thing ever.  Her husband bent over to pick up the newspaper one day and threw his back out.  No more low-on-the-ground sofa for them!  So we got it.  After we were able to afford a real sofa, my cousin got it.  And she used it until she got married when she turned 40.  It was certainly a comfortable and well loved thing.  

My dad was a fairly good woodworker and he offered to make us three bookcases.  They would give us our 3rd, 4th and 5th pieces of furniture ever.  After he graduated and enlisted in the Air Force we moved those bookcases from Baton Rouge, to San Antonio, to Wichita Falls, to Abilene and back to Kenner, LA (a suburb of New Orleans where we grew up).  When we bought the house in Hammond, north of us, there was no place for the bookcases and Frank's mother took them in Shreveport, LA (the very farthest north of Louisiana).  And when she moved to Baton Rouge to die they went to my mother in Laplace and then to Baton Rouge when she moved to Assisted Living.  Now, with her in hospice, they live in our storage shed that holds most of the stuff that used to belong to Frank's mother (because he can't get rid of it).

So this long story has brought you to my quilt room.  I was impatiently waiting for Frank to get off my computer and I was folding up some fabrics.  I imagined being in a library with a bookcase extending into the room and holding all my stuff that is sitting in the middle of my studio floor.  It hit me that I needed a bookcase!

So we have struggled for the last two hours, putting one of those bookcases into my studio and cleaning up some of that center room area.  I think I can get a lot of stuff into that bookcase.  It is currently standing in the hallway, waiting for me to make room for it tomorrow.

My hallway? you inquire.  Carrie and I painted it when she was a wee girl of maybe 12.  I can't imagine painting over it.  She designed it, created the stencils, and chose the pattern and the paints.  She was a designer even then.  That is a commissioned watercolor of my beloved Max, my greatest dog ever.  He was my shadow, my thoughts were his.

I am excited.  My room will be cleaned.  And my dad would be very happy to know I am still in possession of his work.  He has been gone since 1989.  Not all my memories of him are happy, but this one is.

Yes.  And I still have two bookcases left!  LOL.

Some Things Never Change - Like the Obscene

I have not gotten an obscene phone call in many years.  I thought most likely because Carrie's friends were all working productive jobs and had no time on their hands with their young families and that I am almost 60 and there was no interest any more.

However, I don't know whether to be excited that they began noticing again or worried that the new crop of young people have too much time on the hands that hold their cell phones.

It was startling, simply because I have not had one in so many years.  I was so startled that I said, What?  and they REPEATED what they just said!  LOL.  It sounded vaguely like my friend Press, which is why I thought I had not understood what he said.  Press is a fairly religious guy, and while I am sure he knows how to do what this person said, I am totally sure he would not have called me on a Friday afternoon and actually said it!  When I looked at the Caller ID it definitely was not Press!  Even that was obscene!  LOL.

So, I am right, some things never change.  (segue)  Like my sewing room.  It too, is obscene.  The pile of UFOs will always be there, the fabric will always be piled up somewhere it doesn't belong and my work space will always be barely visible.  That doesn't mean I am giving up though.  I am working hard, or hardly working, to make a sincere effort to move something today.

Everything I own that is personal to me is in this room.  Our "common" stuff is in not much better shape outside the room.  It has taken about 5 years to get it to this state.  I am not normally a neat person; I tend to be a pack rat as well.  But I have outdone myself here.

PattyA - this is for you, my exposed breast, my chain, my nemesis   For all you others, soak it in -- I have stuff and you are lookin' at it!

I even used the panoramic feature on my stupid camera to show you the breadth of the surface of my cutting/work table.  Do you think anyone could work in there?  And this tall one is the center of the room against the closets and the window where DiNozzo looks out.

The closets have fabric in them as well.  That is why I have to keep that pathway there.  Also, I get balance practice whenever I go that way picking my way through the debris.

So don't start suggesting things, now, all of you with neat as a pin sewing rooms.  I know I need to clean up, throwing out stuff is a very low, low option.  I would rather use it for a raffle quilt somewhere like my beloved Swissy Club or for CAAWS.

Oh, and you have not even see the dining room where the long arm resides.............

Tuesday Cleaning in the Quilt Room

Frank is all better.  Thanks for all the well wishes.  I saw quite a few people over the weekend and and was surprised to see how many actually read what I write!  Thanks to everyone!

I am going to spend today cleaning up and trying once again to organize my sewing area.  I need another Clean Up Your Crap Challenge.

I have been doing large work on a table set up in the den.  This lets me watch TV while I work, but it really is not conducive to being in my sewing room and with all my stuff I need.

So I am going to, once again, clear off my sewing table.  One of the ends has separate and Frank is in full fix it mode.  See the clamps right where my knee goes under the machine?

Fun.  Really fun.  But hopefully he will remember to fix it this week.

And I will have a clearer place to work.

glen

The Three Legged Dog, Dinosaurs and a Serious Sinus Shutdown

Will 2011 ever end?  Pleeeeeeeease??????

It is a good thing I have lots of patience.  When I left to run some errands 4 days ago, I put DiNozzo in his crate and tossed in a Milkbone.  Normal procedure.  DiNozzo uses the crate Dutch had when we were on the show circuit.  It is huge!  Dutch, as 120 lbs, could stand up and turn around comfortable so I know DiNozzo at 55 lbs and short as a stump is way comfortable.  But when I got home and opened up the crate, he came out on 3 legs.  What??????



Chloe is now sleeping on Dutch's bed



Is it some unwritten law around here that a dog can only have three good legs?  Bonnie Doon had bad hips and her left one sometimes gave her a bit of trouble.  Dutch had a right front leg in which he tore a shoulder muscle when stadium jumping.  And Chloe the Smelly Basset has that torn ACL from when I fell over her and ended up with my own knee surgery.  Three good legs, all of them.



Is that not pathetic looking?



Now DiNozzo.  So I did when I always do for dogs.  I treat for 1 to 2 days and if it isn't better, head out to the vet.  In fact, I knew already the vet would say, Rimadyl twice a day and rest.  So that is what we did. 

DiNozzo did get better.  He was no longer limping on day 3 so I stopped the Rimadyl to see what would happen.  I really had no idea where he was hurting.  His patella was not moving, he had no tenderness in any leg part, nothing wrong with his foot or toes or pads.  I was stumped.  So off to the vet.

Vet laughs at me.  He always laughs at me and my three good legged dogs.  He pushes and prods and pulls and pokes.  All the P's.  Then he runs his fingers down DiNozzo's back.  In the lower back section he is weakness.  Sciatica.  Can you believe that?  Yep.  So he is on......let's hear it......Rimadyl and rest!

I have my first actual finish on a UFO for 2012.  Even though it is in 2011 on Dec 29, it is actually for 2012.  I needed to get it off my floor because it involves more than just a quilt.  It involves a whole sack full of dinosaurs.  I bought the dinos from a garage sale for $8 and the quilt is from my stash.  I don't really have too many kid fabrics, but most of them went into this effort.  A great stash buster and UFO finish.  Oh, can I claim this on my stash busting report maybe???????

last but not least, not least at all, because of all the cleaning and sweeping and moving of stuff it stirs up all the dust and fabric fibers.  Which in turn causes my sinuses to object.  To top that off, yesterday, and he swears he did not do this, I picked up the Windex Vinegar Cleaner I was using to clean surfaces and blinds and shelves as I went.  The top sprayer thingy stayed in my hand but the bottle with ALL the liquid fell to the floor.  I was on the stepladder and it poured out over a large area of the floor and stuff.  So the smell was quite strong despite the fan and an open window.

So I can't breathe, I have another three legged dog but I have a dinosaur finish! 

 glen:  2012 where are you?????

Stuff I can't show you........

I have been cleaning my room, you would be so proud of me! I actually cleaned off a corner of my quilt table!  This piece of my table has not seen daylight in, like, three years!  It was soooo happy. 

Then I organized my shelves.  I took projects that were coordinated fabrics and a pattern (whether it was a pattern or a magazine with the pattern in it) and put them in plastic boxes and shoe boxes.  The boxes fit on the top shelf up to the ceiling.  That moved a lot of stuff

 from the floor by the door where you could barely get into the room!

I can't show my houses yet.  Not until the first of January.  But I have 8 in progress and 4 or 6 finished.  I spent yesterday working on cutting out tiny pieces to make it easier to paper piece the bottom part of the house.  I think I got this conquered.....I think.

Aren't these windows too cute?  A lion and a hippo are looking out of their houses!  LOL.  

I also can't show you the center block I made for the Cotton Robin.  It is too cute!  So instead, you can enjoy this one I did for the 100 Blocks from Quiltmaker Magazine.  Well, I tested the block for them, I didn't design it!  It is in Volume 3.  It is my most favorite block I have done for them.  I really love it. 

I have been piling up a bunch of stuff to give away.  So everyone who responded to the last post, send me your address and I will send you something in a package.  It will probably be next week before I get back to the post office to mail things, but that should be OK. 



You are ALL winners!  Yeah!

My email is obed101(at) cox (dot) net

It feels so good to be back in the world after Dutch, my mom, and all the other crap that has happened recently.  I am quilting with 2 separate groups a couple of times a month, I am doing the Cotton Robin, I created the Mystery Quilt for one of my guilds.  I am in two local guilds.  A group of friends are planning a quilting cruise this year and we have a couple of retreats in the works. 

2012 doesn't have to work all that hard to be better than 2011 !

glen:  Paula and I said we were going to stay drunk until 2011 ended...........