Better than a new box of crayons

I have spent the last week lovingly caressing, fondling, folding,  refolding, patting and smoothing my collection of quilting fabrics. I'm sure I touched every piece of fabric that I have. The top shelf is lengths for backing, the next 2 shelves have stacks of fabric two deep with longer yardages of similar colors in the back stack, the fabrics are sorted by color and theme.  It really is better than a new box of crayons!  The two totes are filled with bags of leftovers from various projects and the seeds of inspiration if I need to make something small and quick.  Oh the ideas I had while I was working..............next to get the sewing machines set up and find the cutting mat, rotary cutter, thread and scissors.  And get the design wall up and running again.  --Ann--

On the Needles

I thought the movers were going to pack all the things by my favorite chair into one box, so far I have found my baskets of yarn and patterns and stuff in three boxes and still haven't found the books that were sitting by my chair. Four moves with professionals and they all pack a little different.  Good thing I kept these socks with me.  Knitting is so calming when everything else is not.  I haven't written anything for weeks and the words just seem clumsy between my head and the keyboard.  I haven't found my blog notebook where I write ideas for posts and rough drafts, or the chunk of batting that all my socks pose, or my box of buttons.  I guess I have a lot of unpacking to do today, I need to think of it as a treasure hunt since the last big room to unpack is my sewing room and stash of lots of fun things then I can knit tonight. linking to Judy's OTN  --Ann--

New View

Here's the new house and the new view .  Its a twin home so the window to the left is not ours.  We are realizing that we need to downsize some more.  The square footage is about the same as our old house but it is lacking in storage closets.  The closets in the bedrooms are huge but its not the same as a closet with shelves in the family room for games and toys and quilts and seasonal decor.  I'm slowly unpacking the boxes and deliberating do I find a place for it somewhere or do I let it go.  So far the granite countertops have not helped in the process,  I haven't broken anything yet!  This is our 11th move in 38 years and by far the most stressful but I'm not going to go into the stress with the people who bought our old house other than to say if they would have been working with a realtor they would have been told not to even ask those questions especially when they didn't have their finances in order.   I'm letting that go too.
The unpacking was interrupted by three days of sleeping and it wasn't just from exhaustion and stress.      I could understand my back, shoulders and neck aching from unpacking and lifting but when my hands ached and looked swollen and red, then my knees hurt I called the clinic. I was walking like I was 25 years older than I am.  By the time of my appointment my right ankle hurt and before I left the other ankle hurt too.  Anyway I'm being treated for Lymes.  The antibiotics have worked wonders and kicked out the sore threat and sinus infection which started the day after the truck was unloaded.  I feel back to normal nothing hurts!  Now I can start unpacking and organizing my sewing room.  Cheers to modern antibiotics  --Ann--

I'm gonna miss this view

(taken in early summer a couple years ago)

I'm gonna miss this view when I sit on the patio in the morning with my cup of C and get a little vitamin D.  Watching the prairie grasses in the breeze is as mesmerizing as watching the waves on a great body of water.  The moving truck and packers come today.  I have sorted and tossed as much as will fit in the dumpster every week plus a couple trips to the dump with big things and numberous trips to the places that take used items.  And I spent a couple evenings with the chimnaria burning papers because we had a little rain and there was no wind those nights.  It was very liberating to watch old papers and small scraps of fabric burn.  The movers gave us a considerable discount if I would pack my sewing room.  I'm free of old projects and have made a list of things I'm going to do anymore:

1. Calligraphy
2. Cross stitch
3. Crafts
4. Canning
5. Camping
6. Composting
7. Gardening
8. Collecting containers
9. ??
10. ??   

I left 9 and 10 open because I'm sure when I unpack I will look for something and when I can't find it I will add it to the list so then I can refer to the list when I need a reminder that I don't do those things anymore.  Odd most start with the letter C  the only C thing I'm keeping is Coffee.  I could just say I don't do C things anymore,  kinda like the guessing game where the cook only cooks peas.   The list will save me time looking for stuff!

I'm simplifying and specializing  I will still 

1) Quilt  2) Knit  3) Needlepoint  4)  Sketch  5)  Read.  Isn't 5 really enough things to do?!?

The movers will pack the rest of the house the books, needlepoint and baskets of yarn and necessities they will all put in a box labeled living room so when I start to unpack I can put all those things right back by my favorite chair.  I'll pack the socks I'm working on in my overnight bag.  I'm ready!
The next post will be of my new front door.  --Ann--

On the Needles

 Wink, wink

 I like those eyes better

One pair of socks finished during the olympics and another pair started. Those were such fun colors to knit.  We have had a little rain here enough to green up the lawns which makes knitting brown yarn a little more pleasant.  So sad when everything was so dry and brown but thats what happens to South Dakota when we go for weeks without rain and temps in the 90's and 100's and wind like a generator on the midway at the fair.

I stopped at the bank the other day to cash in my coffee cans full of change, they were heavy!  The bank here is fortunate to own a Harvey Dunn original painting.  He is a South Dakota artist, his painting of the prairie are so beautiful.  The colors are vibrant, from a distance they look very pastel but step up close...........the colors are brilliant.  I can feel the heat and the wind when I look at them.  There is an intense lime green in the grass similar to the green in the socks, the sky and the turquoise are very close and there are little spots of bright pink and orange in the painting.  The painting is about 4 feet by 6 feet.  His most famous painting is The Prairie is My Garden it seems like every other grandmother has a print of it in her home, including my grandmother.  My brothers were almost fighting over who would get the print, they noticed that I wasn't interested and asked why.  I said have you ever seen the original?  Its at the art museum on campus.  Of course they hadn't.  Harvey Dunn's painting like our shrinking native prairie are filled with color if you just look.  --Ann-- Linking to Judy's OTN

another one out of the cupboard and into the box

Here is another quilt that was my Grandma Elsie's.  I'm guessing another farm sale find.  I think she added the green binding to make it usable.  Doesn't the paisley look like a Moda?  I enjoy just looking at this quilt, there are so many surprises in the 9 patches.  They don't all match some of the miss matched squares are close in value or color and some are not, sometimes the 5 squares dominate and sometimes its the 4 squares. I like the blacks and all the shades of grey and of course all the indigos.
600 posts today --Ann--

Out of the cupboard

This is a quilt from my Grandma Elsie but I don't think she made it.  The only fabric my aunts recognized in it from clothes that they wore was the green stripe of the binding.  I'm guessing that Grandpa bought it at a farm auction in the late 20's or 30's and grandma replaced the binding to make it usable. Back in the days before box springs old quilts or blankets were placed under the mattress to protect it from the open bed springs, I think that is where the quilt was when Grandpa bought the bed and quilt.  I think someone  cut out a severely damaged section and sewed the good parts together so it could be used.  I love the indigo blues and the red and black 4 patches.  Wishing another old quilt had a label.  --Ann--