Snow Weekend

Two more tops have been assembled on this snowy weekend. I was considering donating the rainbow one-patch tops to the Power of the Quilt Project. I decided not to - it's all my fabric, so no moral dilemma, and I love them. So, for kids, future grandkids, or whoever is around when I get around to finishing them. For now, it goes into the closet with my other UFOs.

But not to worry, I made the fence rail/roman square blocks for the PQP a while back, and they were in one of the fabric bins. So I put them together on the diagonal, and filled in the edges with PQP fabric. This one will be made into a quilt for someone who really needs something cheerful in their life.

I also dragged out all the flannel that we had to use for quilt backing, organized it by color and assembled the pieces that were too small into larger rectangles. The day after the blizzard was bright and sunny, and light flowed into our house from all angles. So it was a great time to sort large quantities of colorful fabric. Here's the pieced flannel backing for the diagonal quilt. None of the pieces were big enough to make a whole backing, and it's more interesting this way.

Rainbow one-patch

I made this quilt top from a collection of four inch squares. I have too many boxes of squares, triangles, strips, etc. to fit in my new workroom. So I am trying to use them up.
I didn't put in most of the purple squares. I think I have enough squares left over for another one.

Origami Icosahedron

This fell apart before the big workspace move. I put it back together today, then put it in a cabinet behind a glass door. I made it many years ago.

Working in my new sewing room

I prepared for the quilt-a-thon in my new small sewing room. I was slow getting started because I had to accept the fact that the (unfinished for a few years) origami quilt project that was on my sewing table needed to be put "away." But there is no such place anymore, so I moved it onto a flat object and put it out of the way on top of other things. Once that was done, I was able to finish sorting a few dozen large and small bins of fabric of assorted shapes and lengths and various quilt-a-thon supplies. I cut and pressed fabric to finish quilt kits and sewed a couple of things that needed sewing.

All the bins went to the church on Monday (yesterday). After the quilt-a-thon was over, I organized everything as well as I could so that the stuff would be ready to go for the next event without as much work.

It's hard to describe in words, but once the dust had settled, everywhere I looked in that room there were large and small piles of homeless objects. For instance, my old bureau didn't fit in the new room. I emptied it out and got rid of most of what was in it, but what to do with all the incense? What about my third art project from Pacifica? (The first was February 2011 UFO and the second was the solution of Schrödinger's equation for the hydrogen atom drawn in oil pastels approximately the color of the visible lines of the hydrogen emission spectrum on eleven sheets of watercolor paper that was then washed with black watercolor paint.)

It's supposed to have something to do with Mexico and psychology. The pictures visible on the inner wall are a cup of coffee, a gargoyle with a pencil in its mouth, and a view of the earth from the moon. The other three walls are equally silly. All of this is protected by shards of broken glass, and of course there are no doors. The four large bottle ends were an afterthought. They can be removed easily. Maybe that would be a good first step.

There will be a place for my castle at some point. It was built to fit a box that I used to transport it to Pacifica, back in the day when I could take something like that on the plane. Today I would have to drive to Carpinteria. I stuffed the incense in my desk drawer, and today I hoisted about 20 boxes of old letters, school notes and other valuable papers that I cannot part with at this time into the roomy attic over the ceiling. Thanks to my inability to cancel sessions with the personal trainer all those days that I wanted to, my back doesn't hurt one bit, and the job was done in about half an hour. I did manage to empty one box of stuff, but it was promptly filled with other treasures.

New library

Cathy and I traded rooms. My big sewing room/office/guest room over the garage is now her bedroom/workspace, and her old bedroom is now my sewing room/office/guest room. I thought I would just put my 1000+ books on the shelves along the back wall of the new sewing room, but that's not going to work at all. Those shelves are now full of boxes of sewing stuff, photographs, origami paper and other assorted projects. I am going to have to create a library, and after racking my brains and looking at home libraries on the internet, I have come up with a solution. All my books are stacked in the upstairs hallway, open to the living room below, between Cindy's room and the new sewing room. I ordered ten short bookcases from Walmart which will line the hallway along the railing, and the hallway will become the new library. The bookcases should arrive this week. I know I should get rid of many these books, but until I can make up my mind which ones to fling, it's not going to happen. I picked up one to consider tossing this morning and ended up reading it. I liked it so it will stay.

The new space is quite a squeeze and I've already found lots of paper I can throw away. I hope to get rid of more junk. I am feeling like a major hoarder right about now in spite of the superficial neatness of my home.

Tie-dyed Tote Bag

I can finally post this picture - Charles delivered this tote bag to his mom (my sister) on Thanksgiving weekend just three and a half months after her actual birthday! Charles tie-dyed the fabric and we made him a kimono, and there was enough fabric left over for me to make a tote bag for my sister who loves to read and shop.

Origami Books

Most of these books are a ten-page book designed by Kunihiko Kasahara in Origami Omnibus. There are a couple of David Brill books and a few easy eight page books. The thicker books are made with heavier paper. The slipcase with the hardcover book on the right is also designed by Kasahara, as is the bookcase itself. I made the paper for the bookcase about ten years ago with Michael LaFosse at the Origamido Studio in Haverhill, which is closed now.