Five Things

My friend Sarah Goodman (author of Ferry Ride and other books) approaches her journal writing with this structure lately –

Write five things –

1. The Weather
2. One thing I did well today (or, since I write early, yesterday)
3. One thing I could have done better, and
4. and 5. Two things I commit to doing today (that I might not otherwise do).

The weather has always and naturally been noted on my pages, but the other four things are new and helpful.  The evaluation of things done is structured perfectly for a self-flagellant like me — notice, it does not say, “one thing I did well, one thing I did badly“!!!  This teeny exercise helps me note the things I am accomplishing, which I tend to skip over.  It also allows the discussion of things I am doing badly (mostly in the parenting department) to take a softer tone.

The last two things are also helpful and decidedly different from items on a To Do List.  Now, I am a big fan of having a To Do List, and when I can find mine, it is helpful (that speaks volumes, doesn’t it?!)  Lately, I have been housing my To Do List in a beautifully hardbound daily calendar — a strategy which helps with the location bit (the clip board didn’t work, the post its didn’t work, and it’s too much script to include in my weekly APPOINTMENT calendar).  The TO DO items occupy the entire seven days, without reference to particular days of the week.  This tends to encourage more Long Term Goals making the list.  I can easily refer back to earlier weeks and bring forward things which did not get done and which are still important.  I cross off items with enthusiasm.  This may be childish, but for instance, “Pay Sales Tax”, was on my list every week since Newton Open Studios in May, and when I finally did it a couple of weeks ago (Note to Self — it only took two minutes online), I got to cross off about 10 entries!!

But here’s the difference with the “Two Things I Commit To Do”:  To Do Lists tend to be lengthy and aspirational to some degree, whereas the Two Items are more like commitments.  Try it.  It’s different.

Yesterday one of my two items was to sort the bins under my studio desk and put more fabric on the curb.  I did not do it.  (I DID call the friend, though, which was the other item).  So, TODAY, again, I put that on my list and make myself even more accountable by posting the intention here!

The yarn pictured above was dumped out of a bin which we needed to take on our canoe camping trip.  Without this commitment, it might sit there for months!!  The other bins have been recently sorted, during my Big Sorting weeks, but have no where to go.  This poses an organizational challenge that is going to require many, many daily plugs of effort.

In keeping with the spirit of The Five Things, here is the commission for a boy’s baby blanket, finished!

The satin binding is a crucial element.  My two boys (and I) used the soft satin bindings of their (my) baby blankets for comfort, rubbing them while sucking a binky (in my case, my thumb).

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Birthday Quilt

I am finishing up this quilt today, which is for a friend whose birthday was two weeks ago.  I SHOULD have made it for her 50th, two years ago, but sometimes gift-giving has a timing all its own.

The green side silk panels are not quilting well at all and I am bummed.  Usually, if fabric is unruly or my piecing not exactly perfect (and it generally isn’t), I can stabilize and correct with handquilting.  Not sure this time.

The good news is that this orange scarf from Japan (above — polyester?), which I stabilized prior to piecing but was still nervous about, is behaving.

I like the way this nubby floral adds a robust contrast to the delicate scarf — but what I have discovered with this piece is that hand quilting bark cloth with regular thread is not worth the time because the stitches disappear into the surface of the fabric.

Here you see what is supposed to be a pool of light from the little house — it is organza stitched over a fussy-cut yellow flower, all on top of a small strip of pieced squares.

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Fabric, fabric and MORE fabric!

Heart Quilt, about 2' x 4'

I promise better pictures of this quilt, made many years ago and given to my husband on one of our anniversaries. It hangs above our bed.  It belongs in this post, because the entire bottom section of the quilt was made with CHIPS of fabric… some of them the size of postage stamps.

These doors and windows, from one of my Village-Quilts-Turned-Pillow, are TEENY, some as small as 1/4″ x 1/2″.

You can see how being able to construct a design using such teeny bits of fabric makes throwing ANY scrap out difficult.  This would be true even if one were NOT a fabricaholic (am I?!!), or a pack rat (YES!), or a curb-side and thrift store aficionado (many decade member of that club!)

So here are a few before pictures.  You might want to sit down.

YIKES!

I say “YIKES”, but actually, I can and do work pretty productively in this environment.  The biggest problem, in my eyes, is not that I have too much fabric (the gross insulation hanging from the ceiling is not up for discussion today), or my storage system (I like bins), but that pin board.  That pin board is 8′ x 4′ and is a piece of my booth.  I use it as a design board when not out selling, but then have NO WHERE to put it.  I prefer to work on the floor, squatting and not having to pin or unpin, but there is very little floor room, and then, if a quilt goes into a resting phase, one has to walk on it (alright, the lack of floor space is directly tied to there being too much fabric).  Maybe today I will cut it into thirds — which will seal my commitment to redesign my booth (a much discussed project that has not really materialized into a good working concept).

Free fabric is so hard to say "No" to!

That TV is gone, sad to say — a 13″ B&W which I bought when I was a 1L at Boston College Law School.  It was not worth a converter box!  I have been sorting the patterns, which can be difficult to lay my hands on.  But so far, I have been unable to heave most of the fabric under the desk (and a LOT of fabric went on the curb in the last five weeks!)

Here are some shots, post-clean up.

I’m not a huge fan of folding fabric, but fellow-blogger, Mal, was undertaking a monumental fabric-sorting task and reporting about it on her blog, turning*turning, in a way that inspired me.

Some of my crates and boxes read:  TROPICS, PRECIOUS BITS, LANDSCAPE, BINDINGS, STRIPS, CHICKEN, FARM, WEIRD & MISCELLANEOUS, FELT, FLAT FELT, UPHOLSTERY, BLANKETS, I SPY, and CIVIL WAR.

The problem is, after sorting, chucking, folding up in the living room (Ken was away), once the bins and boxes and piles returned to the cellar, I used up floor space again — rendering the bottom shelves less useful.

There is more to be done!

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Rant — “Resealable” Plastic Bags

Is it just me, or do other people have a hard time resealing the “resealable” bags that a vast variety of foods come packaged in these days?!!

If I was the type of person who sent emails or letters to Living Magazine or Cook’s Illustrated (two publications I enjoy, by the way), I would send in these items as some of my MOST indispensable kitchen tools:

1. Kitchen scissors  (at least three pairs, because even in a house LITTERED with scissors, these babies walk!)(Actually, those are gardening scissors on the left above, because FOUR pair of black-handled kitchen scissors have gone missing).
2. Rubber bands
3. Clothes pins
4. Zip lock bags.

Why these four items, you ask?  Because whoever thinks they’re making our lives easier with “resealable” bags are really NOT.

Actually, I don’t really know if they’re resealable because I can’t even get the fucking things OPEN.

Somewhere ( in the Boston Globe, maybe?), I read a funny comment by a columnist suggesting that the horrible, dangerous, impossible-to-remove-without-pliers-and-medication twist-ties that hold children’s toys to their packaging were designed by Asians specifically to drive American nuts… and I agreed.  But, think about it.  Toys are purchased now and then, with a big bunch of them during the holidays…  but, cheese or soft tortillas packages need opened every single week!  Sometimes, many times a week.

Anyway, long ago, I gave up trying to open and reseal those bags.  And, I don’t make a fumbling attempt and THEN bring out the scissors.  I just cut the bags open — snip, snip, snip.  If there is enough plastic left, I clamp it shut with a clothes pin or roll it closed and whip a rubber band around to act as a seal.  Sometimes, I shove the entire package into a zip lock bag (I like the gallon freezer size).

Not green enough for you?  Well, I DO wash the baggies.  And, sometimes, you can’t put a price or a carbon unit on sanity!

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Pin cushions for Etsy Shop

Have spent some time updating my etsy store, ClothCompany.  The two figures above can be pin cushions, or not.  The faces are historical renderings of Catharine of Aragon, transferred onto fabric.  The smaller figure wears a chenille shawl that I made in a class at the Button Box a while back (meaning — I made the chenille).  It feels a little weird to stick pins into a human figure, but I think without any bad intentions, there’s no possible harm (and in this case, it’s hard to be deader than dead).

I have discovered that a pin cushion without ballast is a pain in the ass.  That’s one reason I love tea cup pin cushions.  They don’t move around.  The other reason I love them is that they’re so pretty!

You might think a pin cushion this small is not very useful, but I have discovered otherwise!

For the cupcake pin cushions, I recycled and felted some sweaters from the thrift store.  This is a project that is easy enough to do with elementary-aged crafters.

All of the pin cushions shown here are available in my store, and I’ll be posting more, probably tomorrow!

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