Green Deco Shifts

 

I have been making more blocks for the green deco quilt, but it seemed a little bit disjointed. I like the green but the colored blocks didn't seem to be giving me the look I was looking for.

I had liked the way the blue and teal blocks looked when I removed the others and put the blues together I liked it.

So I removed all the colored squares from the blocks and then replaced them with blue and teal squares.

Here are all the new blocks on the wall. It's funny, but the quilt looks greener with the blue squares instead of the colored ones.

As for the office clean up, I've got a big chunk of the room clean and organized. I need a stepladder to get to the top shelf of the bookcase, so that will be later when I clean out the top shelf of the closet. The closet is 75% done, and I am pretty happy with the results so far. I really want to get it done this week because I have to prepare for my letters class next week.

The Office Update

 

I've been faithfully working in the office every day and now my desk, and the file drawers under it, are all organized and cleared of clutter.

I've donated a lot of my "older" Art books to a local Art teacher. I haven't opened them in ten years, so there was no point in keeping them. If they can be used, and they will be, I am very happy for them to go. Now I can organize the bookcase.

I also gave away my big easel. I can't use it, so has gone to an Artist who loves to paint. She was overjoyed.

Here's an Action Shot of a Quilt at Work. This is my son and granddaughter playing a game at the park on one of my quilts. Heartwarming in so many ways.

Reality Bites

 

The Home Office is done. I put up the framed drawing my son did when he was in first grade and I got the new pillow. I think the room looks great and it’s a pleasure to work in.

Reality “bit” when I went to the dentist on Monday. I had a loose filling that needed not to be replaced (because it itself was already a replacement), but a crown. We all know how much $$$ are.

So now I have another crown, and a big bill.

I’ll be sewing later to soothe myself.

Taming the Paper Tiger

I was able to spend some time sorting through my paper mess on Sunday.

 

I organized my boxes and shredded what was no longer worth keeping, then filed away what I needed to keep.

      It may not look like much to you, but it is like the world was lifted off my shoulders.

        And I got a small ottoman for the chair. It’s great, and it’s the perfect size. My mom tested it out on Sunday. She and I spent most of the day together just doing nothing. She read  (sitting in my office) while I worked on sorting through the papers at my desk.       

The new pillows are due tomorrow. Can’t wait.

In the Closet

 

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The metal shelving unit for the inside of the closet finally arrived, and I put it together. I figured out where I wanted the shelves to be, and made room to store some of my plastic bins on the floor under the bottom shelf.

(I’m trying to post using my new iPad. It takes some getting used to, so bear with me.)

I just can’t tell you how wonderful this makes me feel. This is the same stuff I had before, but I had no place to put it!

I bought a small floor lamp for beside the new chair in the office. And while I am waiting for the new throw pillow to arrive, I put a pillow there to use for now, and then I added the small Jigsaw Puzzle quilt for good measure.

I also moved the desk a couple of inches closer to the wall with the bookcase, and it’s amazing what that little bit of extra space gives to that area of the room.

There is a small television on the bureau, and the chair is a great place to watch it from.

OH! I am so happy with this room. No longer is it The Pit of Despair! Now it is a room I am proud to show.

The Pit of Despair

I am not great at managing paper. My friend Julie calls it "The Paper Tiger." 

In January of 2019 my office looked like this. I spent the better part of a weekend cleaning the desk and getting rid of the junk. It was a good thing I did it. 

A few weeks later I was sent home to "work from home until this blows over." 

I pulled out an old card table and put my own papers on it so the desk was freed up to work.

Never in a thousand years did I expect to work from home for fourteen months.

In January of this year I built a pantry in the office closet. I still had to rearrange the rest of the closet, so, naturally, the stuff inside ended up in the office itself.

And then I got the brilliant idea to renovate my guest bathroom. The only problem is access to the shower plumbing is through the wall in the closet. So the pantry had to come out.

Of course it all ended up in the office, along with all the fixtures and things that were going to go in the new bathroom.

So when the plumbing was done and the closet was cleaned out, I was more than eager to put the pantry back together to get my room back.

This was a massive improvement, but as you can see, I had a long way to go.

So yesterday, two days into a long weekend, I started in on the office. My goal was to reclaim the floor space taken up by the folding table and clear off my desk.

You know you collect more than you need when you get rid of the excess and find yourself with empty storage containers (LOL) The stuff on the cat tree is stuff that's going in the renovated bathroom. I'm keeping the cat tree because I think I might someday get another cat.

Last month the town had a shredding event, so I had sorted through all my papers and brought a big box for shredding. The stuff in the corner is stuff I am planning to sell at the neighborhood yard sale at the end of June. 

So now the Pit of Despair isn't. It's now my Office.

It has been a hell of a year for me so far, and I'm looking forward to doing not a whole hell of a lot during the second half of the year.

Except in the Studio. I can't wait to spend more time in there doing my favorite thing... taking big pieces of fabric, cutting them up into smaller pieces of fabric, and then sewing them up into big pieces of fabric again.

Heh.

Lady Snaps

I had the idea to make another Snaps quilt for my dad's friend, the lady priest. Here are some pictures of previous iterations of the Snaps quilts.

This is Blue Topaz, the baby quilt I made when my son & DIL told me they were expecting.
 

This is Ola Pola, a quilt I made a year earlier and ended up giving to my friend Daniela.

It came from this book, except I rejiggered the size of the pieces so they would be easier for me to cut. So I think, how did I cut the blocks when I made these back in 2015 and 2016. I should have written the details in my notebook, don't you think?

Not really. Kinda sorta, but not really. There look to be two versions here. Which one did I use? Let's look at the next page...

Not much more help, but it does make me think I worked out the blocks to be 6" x 8". Still not sure, I decided to make a couple.

That confirmed it. The one on the left is 6-1/2" x 8-1/2".

My idea is to make a happy, colorful quilt with alternating blocks of lightish big florals with brightly colored centers and blendish blocks of rainbow colors with creamish center blocks. (Haven't got quite that far yet.) I know I've met this woman, but it was a long time ago. I remember her as being very nice with a big heart. I figure somebody like that will love a happy quilt filled with colors and flowers, so that is what I am going to make.

I grabbed these colored florals on lightish backgrounds. We'll see what happens when they get to the design wall. I do not edit myself at this stage. Yes, you can see a couple of dinosaur fabrics. I think they are fun. And there is a cat print, and a print of children from all over the world, and the really observant amongst you will see the fabric with the bras, and I just think that is way to funny to leave out. There are more fabrics, however...

As you can see I cut out a bunch of fabric already. I don't know if I have enough to use each big print only once (don't think so), but no matter. I will worry about that when it's time to lay out the blocks.

So that is the current sewing project.

The Really Big Thing in my life going on right now is I am going to be working at the office starting on Tuesday, so I have been packing. I am eager to see my friends and get back out in the world. I am under no illusions that Covid-19 is going away any time soon, so I intend to continue to protect myself and take precautions. I have a box of disposable masks that will come with me, along with some antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer. I am pretty sure I won't get a whole hell of a lot done on my first day back (I am planning to bring a cake to share), and I know there will be an adjustment, but I am ready.

The Office

These pictures may not mean much to you, but they mean a lot to me. This is my office at home. I am good at a lot of things, but managing what my pal Julie calls "The Paper Tiger" isn't one of them. I spent much of the day yesterday cleaning up in there. I emptied the shredder at least three times.

This is the view from the door of the room. The room faces east so it gets the early morning sun. When the weather is cool, Millie spends most of her mornings on the kitty condo in here.

I still have some files to sort through and organize, but those are small tasks.  Yes, that's a dog crate under the folding table. When I have to bring Millie to the vet I can never get her into the usual small cat carriers, so I bought a crate. I haven't got much storage space so I just keep it out.

You can see my collection of bowls on the top of the bookcase. I have to put them somewhere! You can also see the rest of the house through the doorway on the left.

The small quilt on the door at the right was made by Gemma, from Wales.