Good talk, not necessarily good-bye

[This is a smallish wall quilt I had forgotten I had but I like it. I discovered several I'd forgotten. Also, there's one I can't find that I saw only a couple weeks ago. It must be folded in with others but I haven't seen it in the whole packing period. More looking for it tomorrow.]
Meanwhile, I awake rather early each morning with a burst of energy and plans what will get packed I work hard until somewhere around noon and then kind of wear out. It's okay, things are moving along and there's really not much left to do. Plus a lot of straightening has happened and some disposing of extraneous stuff -- a lighter, cleaner, freer feeling. Good!

In the last two days I've had four different conversations with four very different friends. Good talk, good reading, good theatre or movies, those are the things that make me feel wonderful, get the brain spinning and the endorphines buzzing happily in the brain. I'm good with long periods of silence [or classical music] when I'm alone; that's a necessary offset to the other periods of stimulation -- although the alone periods are stimulating too if I'm writing or reading or doing other things that are very satisfying. So just now, I'm working hard, all is generally good -- with the exception of my recent hair cut. The less said the better on that score.

Still April, Still Poetry Month

It's still April, still Poetry Month and I'm still packing, sorting, and discovering quilts I had forgotten existed and some that are so embarrassing I don't know what to do with them. While I contemplate the fact that, yes, I have lived and learned, I am making nicer and better quilts these days, instead of more personal assessment which has been going on for weeks now, I'll take refuge in the felicity of a poem.

Here is Grace Paley's Here, which is much anthologized but always so warm it does good things to the blood pressure.

Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen
Well, that's who I wanted to be

at last a woman
in the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration

that's my old man across the yard
he's talking to the meter reader
he's telling him the world's sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa ask him
to sit beside me for a minute I
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips.

[With their tremendous technological wisdom, the good Blogger constructors -- not a poem amongst them] have set up the program so that the spacing in Paley's poem which I faithfully copied, with indented lines and places where there are extra spaces between words -- which makes the poem read different -- have be "corrected" so there is a flush left margin. GRRRR!]

[The quilt above has humming birds which were among my first attempts at paper piecing. I had forgotten it, but now have sent it to a two month old great-niece.]

Another Quilt Gets a New Home

These are just some of the quilts I brought out for possible sale over the weekend. I also taped quite a few on the wall. I was a little surprised that the concept of quilts on the wall was foreign to most people. They thought only of something on the bed or a throw on the sofa. Quilts as "art" or at least decor was not an idea they could get their heads around. More education needs to be done.
I had an apartment sale on Saturday and Sunday. I spread out lots of my quilts, not all, but an overwhelming number. The truly rock bottom prices were still too much for most people who frequent such sales. However my "Cardinals in the Snow," a paper pieced log cabin variation with fused pictures of cardinals, did sell to the woman in the photo. I don't have her name, but I think the quilt will be well loved. I liked it a lot although it was a little to long fora single bed -- I had thought of using it as a wall hanging, especially round about Christmas time. But bye-bye, make someone else happy. A few others were sold but I didn't think to get a photo.

I did not expect to sell much but I wanted to get rid of books especially, as packing them up and taking them somewhere is a heavy, heavy chore in a city and book sellers are horribly picky. So I gave them away and was delighted to find many literate people in the building who were happy to take away big bags full or arm loads. While chatting about their interests and lives. The good talk was the best part of the weekend. I enjoyed it very much. Some people I've seen for years and years and never talked to before. A shame but as people say "that's New York." And it is. Which is one of the sadder things about living in great impersonal apartment buildings. Still, a very belated, brief aquaintance was very satisfying.

Sewing Withdrawal Symptoms

I packed up my sewing machine, thread, needles, thimbles, scissors, etc. Already I'm going into mental withdrawal. I do have a little packet of 2x2 squares with one needle, one thimble, one spool of thread and a tiny scissors so I can do hand work if I get shaky. No, I don't think it's going to come to that. I'm going to do the apartment building version of a garage sale, from which I expect little response but no harm in trying. I'd love to lighten the burden of quilts -- find homes for a few more. Will put up announcements in elevators and laundry room with pix of quilts and reminders about mother's day being on the way.

Meanwhile the packing is moving along at a good clip. It's just the books -- so many, many books. Long ago when I last moved I had the same problem. Complaining to a friend, "They're good books, the price couldn't be lower" -- I was willing to give them away as I am now. Said she, "You've got to realize most people already have a book." In other words, got-ta realize I'm the nut case with my endless desire for books and all that is in them. Many of the big beautiful ones went to a good thrift store this week. That not only lightens the burden but makes me feel better. And my collection of the Quilting Arts magazines also went to a good home -- a real art quilter who showed me her latest creation which was very nice. Now I must change my subscription address. Without sewing there are still plenty of things to do!

No Longer a UFO

So this very long time UFO is all together with a brown calico border that wasn't strictly necessary as the edges were finished on each of the squares, but I wanted it held together by something. Not brilliant or special but comfortingly traditional and simple. Satisfying.

No more time for sewing for a bit, a couple of weeks, I suppose. That's okay. There's another couple UFOs waiting in the wings and a whole host of ideas in my head. All in good time.

Stash Busting/Building

Is it bad luck to talk about using up your fabric stash? Or is it just plain nutty to contemplate even a status quo? Here's what happened today. I took a load of stuff to the thrift store. I always check the shop for unexpected finds -- could be anything! Today it was a basket of fabrics, quite unusual but not unheard of. Most were decorator fabrics but a few were quilt quality cottons. Here's what I got:

yellow small check gingham ...... 1-3/4 yd for $1
orange medium check gingham ..... 1-3/4 yd for $1
orange large check gingham ..... 1-3/4 yd for $1
springy green flower print ...... 1-1/4 yd for $2
large bright flower print ....... 1-1/2 yd for $3

Total: 8 yards fabric of $8 -- WAIT! It was senior citizen day. I got a discount.
Grand total: 8 yards for $6.50

How could I not buy it? I loved the prints, and I like to use ginghams for the backing of baby quilts. Stash -- it just grew by eight yards and no apologies offered.

Stash assessment

As I prepare to move I look at my fabric stash and do not even consider paring down. However I have been reading a blog of a quilter I found in the favorites list of Down The Well, which I high recommend. This quilter is part of a ring of bloggers whose aim is to use their stash and not purchase more -- or only purchase when something totally irresistible is at hand. I think I will take on that philosophy and attempt to do the same once I am settled again ... actually, I ALWAYS, think that's what I'm trying to do. But i haven't made a concerted effort to assess the stash and work proactively at using it up. However I am not a person who decides to make a quilt and then forays to the store to buy just for that quilt. I always think in terms of what I already have and of using as much as possible.

I suspect I'll feel even more strongly about stash reducing when the stuff if pulled out of the closet and then moved to a new closet. At present it's all divided by color into zip plastic bags [oh, I know some say that's bad for fabric]. Well, it works for me since plastic bags as squashable and also I can see what I have. I use the ones sheets and comforters come in. I see photos of wonderful sewing rooms with the fabric in baskets or neatly folded on open shelve, maybe something like that is in my future. We will see. My current method works for now. Being in the middle of packing, I long for days with a nice open hour or two just to sit and sew.