Hello ... another week where I wonder how did 7 days get past me??? I did stuff... just not the stuff I thought I was going to do...and not as much stuff as I hoped I would do... so I guess it was a pretty normal week...
We had several lovely Spring-y days... such a change from the week before... all the snow in my yard has melted and there is a nice crop of daffodils poking up... can't wait to see yellow blooms. The warm sunny days motivated me to pack up the snowmen for this year... I impressed myself by getting everything back into the 3 bins it came out of... lots of times I need one more bin at the end of the season than what I started with... but this year I don't think I bought a single large piece of Winter decor... of the 7 big snowman pieces I have, 6 are cookie jars... they are the first items I put out on my displays and the first items I put back in the bins... I take their heads off and fill their bodies with as many littler snowmen as I can fit inside... this year it seemed like they all could hold more than before... maybe they got fatter too during this pandemic...LOL
And when those bins were returned to the storage rooms I ...well actually my son... brought up the bins of Spring decor from the basement storage and the bins of quilts down from the 2nd floor... lots and lots of bins... now usually I show you pictures of nicely arranged knickknacks and stitching...that will not be the case today... today we have the cold unvarnished reality of what my living room currently looks like...
ACCKKKK!! I try to keep it behind the sofa as I can't see it from my chair when it is hidden there... Nick got it all out for me on Friday and I pawed through things a bit...I'm always pleasantly surprised when I unpack the bins because I rediscover stuff I forgot I bought and remember items I've had for years with sentimental memories...
I didn't realize how many bunnies I have and how many are just heads... that's a bit weird... somehow they reproduced like.... rabbits... LOL... I crack myself up ... and speaking of cracking myself up there are a lot of chicks too... oh I'm too funny... not...
My goal today is to get my displays arranged in the living room... that still leaves the porch and the back hallway and the basement... Rome wasn't built in a day...
And speaking of the basement, Dan my handyman came over on Saturday to tackle the new bookcases I want in my sewing studio...now I have 5 IKEA Billy bookcases ... they are stuffed... and they are dark... and I've been changing all the furniture in that space to white... I like how it brightens up the room ... and with some re-arranging we are going to be able to get 6 bookcases on the wall ... so I'll have more space... but there was a bit of a snag in the project...
Dan put together the first bookcase and started to bolt it to the wall when he saw that the new bookcase, which is the same height and width as the old ones is not as deep... in fact it is about 4 " shallower.... insert bad four letter words spoken by yours truly... how could that be??? How could I have purchased 6 bookcases of the wrong depth? Well it was easy... seems that IKEA has stopped making the ones that are 15.75" deep and all but a handful of the Billy configurations are now only 11.75" deep. The height and width are the same... I never read the teeny- tiny fine print that had the depth... I only looked at the height and width.
ARGGGGHHH!!! We talked about what we could do but there really wasn't any other solution but to go ahead with the shallower bookcases... the amount of time/labor and money it would take to paint the five bookcases I have isn't worth it... and it would still only be 5 units...
I had thought this would be an easy project... Dan would put together a bookcase... I would empty a bookcase and when he had the new one in place I'd refill it... one bookcase at a time...easy peasy...
well I can get all the fabric back on the shelves but the bins and baskets I used stick out... and the fabric as it is folded comes out to the very edge...no room for all my little knickknacks I had displayed on the extra 4"...now I could refold all the fabric to a shorter length, but that will make the stacks taller and I've already got almost every shelf stuffed to the brim... I think it is time for a thinning out of the stash... I've thought about doing it but like lots of things I think about (like buying a new car) until I'm pushed to the wall I don't actually do it.
My plan at the moment is to just get the fabric back on the shelves... Dan is coming back on Monday to finish the job... and then I need to go through and do some purging and some rearranging... in the past I have re-folded my stash twice ...and each time it took me about a week... it will probably take longer this time as the older I get the slower I seem to get... but it can be done... big sigh...
As for something I actually accomplished I will show you the beauty of having UFO's and orphan blocks... on Saturday while I watched Dan work I made 3 little quilts... two are table runners and one is just a small 16" square quilt... they are all made from blocks left over from a quilt I started back in 2011... OMG that is 10 years ago!! Anyway I began making the blocks back then... the fabric line is Verna from Kate Spain and the blocks were suppose to be Jam and Jelly from a Fig Tree Quilts pattern but I assembled mine incorrectly and additionally some rotated left and some rotated right... arggh..again!!
Here's what I did yesterday...
I should have added a border at the ends of that top table runner but it didn't occur to me until after I had it quilted... it does look more balanced on the smaller table runner... but for 3 quick projects I happy with the results.
Anyway in 2014 I did assemble some of these blocks into a wall quilt ... you can see it here at the moment... but I only hung it in 2014 but I'm planning on bringing it back this year... I'm into the softer colors for the living room and I'm going to hang the bright little tulips from Lori Holt's Quilty Fun book.. you can see it here... in my sewing studio... changing things up a bit...
As for cross stitch I worked on another chart from the Jellybean Jubilee but it isn't finished... and I worked on the second sock for the one I did last week... turns out that the second skein I purchased didn't repeat the color sequence in the first sock... not even one time... I unwound the whole skein searching for the pattern ... not there... there is a bit of a repeat in the first skein... hopefully it will be long enough... if not, oh well... it is just a pair of socks...not world peace...and the second skein will make a cool shawl... so it won't go to waste...I did stitch a little on the stocking... sat out on the sunroom porch for the first time in ages ... I've missed sitting out there... looking forward to more sunny days that are above 40 degrees...the porch stays about 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature... no insulation, just the windows and storm door...but I have a space heater and if I turn it on, the temperature rises quickly... I had it up to 72 degrees in about 15 minutes... but I miss having the Dude keep me company out there... it was his favorite spot...
So I'm taking it easy today... doing dinner on Monday with my son and his family... babysitting on Tuesday, got a hair cut on Wednesday, and appointment with my younger son on Thursday and I think on Friday I'll take him to do lunch with his friend... doesn't appear I'll have a lot of time to work on re-arranging the fabric shelves this week...oh well... it won't go anywhere and sewing fairies won't drop in to help... it will be there when I get around to it...
Hope you have a good week ahead... better weather is here for us in SW Ohio... above average temperatures... I love the sunshine ... I'm already plotting my bedding plant purchases and my box of seed purchases keeps getting fuller...can't wait to get something colorful planted!!
I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... always enjoy seeing what others are up to...
happy stitching-
carol fun
You have your work cut out for you this week with all those bins. The effort will be worth it in the end! Love your little quilts!
ReplyDeleteThe runners and small quilt are beautiful! Bummer on the shelves being different sizes, but hey, they are still shelves! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your Spring/Easter Bunny set ups...YAY--Spring must be just around the corner, right? It is 40 degrees here; but temps will plummet overnight we are told--so not quite time to turn any earth here--itching to get out there...will try dahlias this year as I hear deer are not interested in those...we shall see...no daffs as yet...hugs, Julierose
ReplyDeleteThat is just so funny! When we expect it to be the same and it is not. Your fabric will thank you for folding it again, as it will not have any permanent creases in them. The bunny heads was a tale worth mentioning. A pet bunny escape once in the corner of the bunny enclosure and the farmer down the road had a field filled with bunnies, wonder how that happened?...
ReplyDeleteBoy you have really been busy! I know about not getting what you thought you were going to get done. I got sidetracked lining up roofers to fix a leak last week, the first one came over and told me that the brackets around my solar panels had lost their sealant and that was the problem that needed to be fixed before my roof could be repaired. So waiting for the solar guy to come next week. But I spent a whole day arranging things, and then have them fall out because of needing to wait for the solar guy! Hope you get your various projects sorted out this week.
ReplyDeleteugh...Pinwheels - There are left-hand ones and right-hand ones. And nobody mentions that in the instructions. The designers just assume that you can see theirs are one or the other.
ReplyDeleteYou have way more ambition than me. I'm at the point in my life where I'm wanting to eliminate, down-size and get my surrounding as simple as possible.
Beautiful runners and table topper.
ReplyDeleteyou really worked a lot organizing your criative space.
Look at all that cuteness!!!! You'll figure out the best use of your new Billy cabinets - just go with the flow.
ReplyDeleteYour first paragraph is me.... every single week! It sounds like you got a lot done and I love how your little quilts turned out.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry the depth wasn't right, what a bummer! It takes a lot to decorate for each season getting it all out is half the battle! Your little table runners are very cute!
ReplyDeleteWell,at least the bins are out, that is ahead of me. I am trying to get Spring cleaning done first but I am beginning to feel the urge to decorate. After this week, I hope to only have my family room to clean on the first level. The bedrooms are upstairs and I do them last. The guest room gets very little use so that is a snap. I have lots of Spring bulbs coming up , the deer don't seem to bother the daffodils like they do tulips so more daffodils next Fall. I did fill my kitchen window box with primrose. They look pretty and Springy! Hope your nice weather holds and you have a good week!
ReplyDeleteI'd be using foul (ok, even fouler than normal) language on those shelves also. I suppose the items they didn't change are not what you needed?
ReplyDeleteLet's see, a month to Easter - will I get to the attic to drag the few bits I already have down? Will I buy an new item or two instead? Or will I ignore this years holiday decorating like I did all last year?