Life happened…

This time after the holidays is all about starting new stuff for a new year.  I can certainly build up some excitement for that.  But, before you can more forward, sometimes, you have to finish things up.  That was the case with Easy Street.  I’ve got it to a good spot where I can walk away and think about it. 

The blocks are all pieced, but they aren’t joined.  It’s a pretty big quilt and what I hoped would show up is not what really showed.  My black on whites are too dark and my greens are not bright enough.  It’s not big enough for our bed or small enough for a lap robe.  But, if I break it down into pieces, I can get at least 3 lap robe and baby sized quilts out of it.  That is a huge head start on my commitment to Linus for the year (10 quilts).  I can certainly get behind that. 

After I laid this out and looked at it, I put it away because finishing this quilt was not part of the plan for the weekend.  And, I need to think about it.  Wait for inspiration. 

We were doing other new year tasks.  Sydney and I both went through our clothes.  Sydney donated no less than 50 shirts that she’d grown out of in the last year.  And, some that went to dust rags.  I went through my closet and I had less to get rid of.  I had to look at my shirts and decide if I was really ever going to wear that shirt again.  Some are older than Sydney.  Some went to quilt fabric and some went to the goodwill box. 

Then, I went through my pants.  I decided that I needed three categories.  Those I could comfortably wear today; those I could uncomfortably wear today; those that I cannot wear, otherwise known as the goodwill pile.  I have to accept that I am not going to get into those clothes again, short of a serious illness, which is not worth it.  Rob lovingly said “you might” and I said, if I do, I’m celebrating with new clothes.

Together, we put together four large boxes of stuff.  And, we’re not even finished.  Life happened in our closets.

I completed the day by cleaning out the fridge.  Whoo-hee!  Ain’t my life exciting!  Time to get rid of all that stuff that builds up, open jars that will never be finished, stuff gone out of date, the older bottle when we’ve opened a new one.  Life happened in my fridge.

The one other thing I accomplished was a serious look at my quilt UFO’s, PHD’s, collected fabrics, and WFI’s (waiting for inspiration).  Twenty-four.  Sounds like an appalling number, but I just can’t manage to feel ashamed of it like other people do.  I’m not going to list them here because I don’t need to do that.  But, they’re all in the closet, and inventoried and now I know what to work on before starting something new.  So, I pulled out the oldest UFO, from at least 10 years ago, maybe more, and I am completing it.  Except I ended up with enough squares to make multiple quilts, so I’m going to make us a pair for the living room.  They won’t be identical, but they will be close.  And, they’re going to be fun and have a long story.  Life happened in my UFO pile.

Soon, I will be inventorying the quilt collection and doing some write-ups.  One more in the list of things to do.  Life happened in my quilt collection. 

Life happens all around.  And, then we clean up after it.

Be well.  Have a wonderful Monday.  It was Sydney’s first day back to school.  Too many days of sitting around.  I got my first Microsoft parental report on her new laptop.  We sat and had a short and very quiet talk (if you want to scare a kid, whisper when you’re visibly angry).  She tried to argue, but the report told the story.  She tried to explain, but the report told the story.  And, when I told her that we would be going back to the previous laptop restrictions, she didn’t bother to argue.  We did good.  Life happened and we cleaned up after it and we’re going forward. 

Lane