Clothes Hoarding

Clothes hoarding is what I call that stash of not-quite-big-enough clothing we keep in the back of the closet for when we lose that last X pounds. You know what I mean. We all probably have them.

I had some - I'll admit it. Over ten years ago I went on a lose-weight-or-die mission and dropped a bunch of weight. Little Me (or Littler Me) appeared for the first time in years in the late 1990's. I shopped and purchased a new wardrobe. I also kept some of the clothes I wore during the weight countdown that were a size or two larger than the final size I ended up after the diet. But like all dreams, it didn't last. My Waterloo was a medical issue that ended up requiring that I take prednisone daily for over half a year. If you're not familiar with the side effects of oral steroid dosage, one of them is unfortunately weight gain. Oh boy, was there ever weight gain. I went up one size in less than a month. And unfortunately, it didn't stop there.

I repurchased a wardrobe and hung the smaller clothes in the guest room closet. Finally after several years, I gave up and sorted and packed donation bags for Goodwill. Some of the things that were on the larger side of the spectrum were saved, mostly because I was unwilling to let go, but hey, you never know. They were hung back in the closet and the rest went to charity.

Flash forward to this spring and my diagnoses of diabetes, which caused my current weight loss. I have been "shopping" my guest room closet and pulling out stuff that now fits. Yay for me. But I unfortunately found that some of the things that I lovingly saved are going into the donation bag. Why? Because my tastes and my "fashion eye" have changed in ten years. Things that looked good then, even though they fit now, just aren't right. I have two words for you. Pleated pants. Get the picture?

I did another try-on session this morning and pulled out a couple more pairs of khakis that fit, and some short sleeved sweaters. But there are three pairs of dressy pants that didn't make the cut. And there's a couple of knit tops that evoked the "Ah---no" reaction too. I'm still on the fence about two dresses. I think it's the shoulder pads. If they are replaced with smaller less 90's versions and the dresses are hemmed, I think these can be salvaged.

The moral of this story? Even if you get back into your "someday" clothes, will you wear them? Take a long unbiased look at what you have in the back of the closet. If they are being saved for inspiration, great. If they are for vindication and affirmation (hey, I wore this in high school), fine. But I fear that these items won't go back into regular rotation, even if they fit. After a certain "sell-by" date, clothing, like dairy products, expires.

Just sayin'.

I want it!

Oh, I wish I hadn't dropped by Lavender Lime Quilt Shop yesterday. If I hadn't I would not have seen this: The Handiquilter 16 Sit-Down machine. And I would not have tried it out. And I would not be trying to figure out how to spend $4200 on a quilting machine.

Oh, the agony.

First, let me say that I'm a piecer more than a quilter. My free motion quilting is somewhere between pathetic and sad. I know, I know, if I practiced more I could improve. But using my Juki sitting on the kitchen table gives me such a pain in the neck and shoulders from the position you have to assume to maneuver the fabric - arms raised and elbows akimbo. Since I don't enjoy neck aches, I don't do enough quilting to keep up with my prolific piecing. And my longarmer is assured that she can vacation in Florida every year. I probably pay her enough on my quilting to gas up her motor home.

This is different from a longarm machine, more like a very nice setup using a DSM to free motion, except the machine throat is 16" and there is a lovely large table surface where the machine is flush mounted. And you can sit comfortably and whiz along. Admittedly, it doesn't have a stitch regulator, but if I could get pretty even stitches after a few minutes practice, anybody can.

I want this SO BADLY.

But there's that pesky $4200, and finding a place to put it in the house. I don't know. I just don't know.

If I had the guest room to myself (and was significantly richer than I am) I would buy this, the Olivia sewing machine cabinet by Arrow, and the dropleaf cutting table that Lavender Lime has on display. In a heartbeat. And I would be SET FOR LIFE.

Big and beautiful

I keep trying to make quilts with large blocks. The instant-gratification portion of my personality doesn't want to slave away on 6" or 8" blocks unless they are for a wall quilt (or unless I get suckered into it in a mystery quilt). But every time I make a 12" test block it looks clunky and unappealing and I end up resizing it, like "Stars Over Rouen".

But I fell in love with a pattern in "Schnibbles Times Two" called "Nice Day". The version made with a layer cake had 12" blocks. It had too many strikes against it. 12" blocks. Piano key border. Oversized subunits and setting triangles to be trimmed to size, all things I don't enjoy. I debated reducing the size of the blocks and cutting everything exactly. Still, I deliberated. Then, when I found the layer cake for Moda's "Cherish Nature" I had the fabric that would do justice to those large triangles and make the book's construction methods worthwhile.

The collection had such pretty patterns and colors it was a shame to cut it into small pieces that wouldn't display them to full advantage. Butterflies, honeybees, bird eggs! They had to be showcased.

So, without further ado, I give you my latest quilt top, called "A Nice Day For A Walk In The Park": Not to mention it's my favorite color combination in the whole world.

Even the backing is cool. Bird eggs!

This one is going to the longarm quilter next week. It's going to be my new favorite nap quilt.

Rushing it, just a little

Talk about your over-achieving garden plants! I picked these last night. There was another but a bunny got to it first. Admittedly, the variety is called "Early Girl" and I bought large plants, not those little slips in peat pots, but really! May 23rd? That must be a new record.

They are a bit small, but they are a lovely color and fully ripe. Don't know yet if they're good tomatoes or taste like tennis balls, like those in the grocery. We'll test them out in a salad tonight.

Schnibbles

I am currently entranced by this book: It contains some of the cutest simple quilts, in large and small versions using layer cakes and charm packs, respectively. I'm not normally a "quilt book" kind of a person but for Schnibbles I'm making an exception. To the right are two 4.5" blocks I made this morning for the smaller version of the quilt named "Short Story". I'm still scratching my head about the name. Looks more like an hourglass to me. Regardless, it will be part of a small quilt comprised of scrappy Christmas fabric. It could be a nice decoration for the coffee table during the holidays, or I might give it away.

I read the instructions for this block yesterday, including use of the Companion Angle ruler, and they must have stuck in my head because last night I had nightmares about trying to make this quilt. In my dream it kept messing up and coming out wrong. What an awful night I had! I had to get up this morning and make the two blocks to prove I could do it. In the process I realized that the directions for using the Companion Angle ruler on the small block were not correct. That must have subconsciously stayed in my memory and produced the dreams.

Who ARE you?

I've noticed something recently in my blog reading that is both puzzling and depressing. You know how it is when you have read someone's blog for a while. You may not actually know them, not in a flesh and blood way, but you think you have a pretty good idea about their personality, how they think and what they value. Then, they post something that has you going "Wha?" closely followed by "Who are you and what have you done with my blog-friend?"

Sometimes it's politics that rears its ugly head. Sometimes it's something else in the real world, like a squabble between members of a quilt guild or family, or current events. But when it happens, stuff comes out of their keyboard that has you scratching your head and wondering if you really knew them at all. There's something about the anonymity of blogs and other electronic text communication media that lowers the barriers in your brain if you're not careful. Witness the current news about cyber-bullying and its destructive results. It's likely that even the most hardened hearts would have a difficult time saying things to your face that they so blithely type. And without the context of facial expression and tone of voice, many statements that might be merely cross can become truly damaging.

When a blogger lets fly out of the blue with what you consider to be a cruel, intolerant or destructive remark, you can't help but wonder if all that you read in the past was a carefully constructed "front" and this is the real person. One that you don't like so much. Blogging can be like dating - at first, you dress up nice and use your "party manners". After a while, you get comfortable in the situation and maybe start to slip a little, and expose some of the warts and flaws you have been carefully concealing. Over the past three years, I have run into some bloggers who appeared to be like that. If I had read their blog now for the first time, maybe I wouldn't go back. But since you feel like you have a "history" with them, you keep visiting in hopes to prove yourself wrong. And mostly it happens. The posts that confused you so were an aberration, a bad day, a slip of the temper.

But sometimes they're not. And you have to sadly bid that blogger's writings goodbye because life is too short to wallow in bitterness and strife. I try to tread the line between expressing my opinion and disparaging others who feel differently. Dear Readers, if you feel that I have slipped into negativity in my writing - call me out on it.

P.S. - I bet a lot of you regular readers are worried that I'm writing about you. It's OK, calm down - I'm not! In the main, through blogging I have found some of the most thoughtful, generous and charming people I could ever hope to meet, and I value our communication.

Who wins? Who cares?

Is anyone besides me completely sick of competition TV shows? The whole genre started, I guess, with Survivor (which I have never watched). Then there's The Great Race, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Design Star, The Next Food Network Star, Chopped, Project Runway, The Fashion Show, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They never end.

The ones on HGTV aggravate me the most. I turn on HGTV to get design inspiration and to do the house-voyeur thing - you know, you want to see what everyone else's taste is and what houses are out there for sale. I switched on the TV for distraction while I was working on "Stars over Martinique" today and Battle on the Block was on. That sent me scurrying to the other channels looking for "Law & Order" or "Cold Case", my admitted addictions. Anything but that silly HGTV show. First, I don't think doing something like renovating or decorating at breakneck speed against the clock is entertaining, or anything but ridiculous. Second, I'm enough of a perfectionist to wince when I see jobs done sloppily because of lack of time. And third, the fake 'drama' is stupid.

Thank goodness nobody has come up with "Quilt Against the Clock". Ready, set, sew!