Squirrel!

Our weekend getaway put me several days behind on the declutter challenge (worth it!), plus Jac and Donovan have been here every afternoon after school. Rather than stress about being behind, I’m going to wait for the weekend to play catchup. There are several areas I still badly want to do, and we’re just getting to fabrics in the videos, so… I’m still in. 

I haven’t been much interested in quilting for awhile, but I saw this pattern… and the related quilt-along… 

and thought about the pretty fat quarter bundle in my stash… and quick as you can say “squirrel!” I was signed up. 

The quilt along is 5 weeks, with Week 1 encompassing choosing and cutting fabrics, plus making several blocks. Not sure I’ll be able to keep up with the schedule but I’m going to try. 

Jac: “Grandma, that looks just like a heart!” Looks like I’m doing it right. 🤩

Tip to remember: the lines on index cards are 1/4” apart, so when starting a new project you can check your needle placement using the lines. And it works! Gotta remember this…

Vacay

We’re heading home in the morning, after two full days of doing… not much.

We saw the Hearst Castle zebras for the first time in a few years. So cool! 

Some reading… staring at the ocean… visits to a couple of favorite shops…

Views from the Cavalier Hotel grounds

Almost ready to get back to real life. 

Practicing some artsy shots.

The requisite ’Cambria at Sunset’ pics. It’s tradition!

Break Time

We’re taking a winter break, with a quick weekend trip to Cambria and San Simeon, home to Hearst Castle. 

With in-room, wood burning fireplace. Whoo!

Planning to spend the next two days rocking on the balcony 

and staring at the surf, 

waiting for the sun to set. 

And maybe reading a book or two. 

Declutter Update

I’ve been following each day of the declutter challenge, but it’s been a bunch of little, boring not-so-exciting stuff, so here’s a multi-day update.

Bought some, inherited some.. can you ever have too many scissors??

Day 6 was paper archives (here) which I don’t keep. One less thing to sort through! Day 7 was either a Hot Spot or a day off. I cleared off a chair that was piled with paper files and washed a load of curtains. 

Storage box for rotary blades and other sharps. Safe from the Littles and I can find them when I need them. 

For Day 8 we were to go through our scissors, rotary cutters and snips, decide which to keep and where to keep them. Snips by the sewing machine, ironing board and sewing chair? Check! Useful to have in each place.

Three pair of old paper scissors went into Jac’s art supplies, but everything else went into the “sharps” box, the scissors rack by my ironing board (so handy!), or the yarn bowl repurposed to hold rotary cutters. 

Today - Day 9 - was decluttering threads. 

A couple of years ago, I joined a year-long thread club that shipped me 3 spools of very pretty Aurefil quilting thread each month. Do I have more thread than I could use in 3 lifetimes? Yup! Am I going to give some of it up? Nope! 

I got rid of all my old, off-brand threads last year and organized the rest into clear, slotted containers that live on one storage shelf.

A drawer next to my sewing machine holds the neutral colors - black, white, snow - I use most often for piecing, along with a pretty bowl for spools I need to sort back into the big containers … eventually.

Embroidery threads/supplies and Sashiko projects each have their own separate bins. Makes it so much easier to find them when I get an urge to stitch. I didn’t declutter much these last few days, but I straightened and sorted and confirmed I still like the system I’m using. 

Robots and Reading

Jaclyn is what I’d term a reluctant reader. She’s proficient* and enjoys reading aloud together (if she must do it) but it’s not in her top fav things to do. 

Until December that is, when her third grade teacher (the same awesome teacher Leia and Leo had) started reading “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown to the class. Jac was hooked. The teacher wasn’t going to read them volumes 2 and 3, so Jac checked them out from the library to read on her own…

while we waited for a doctor’s appointment (she had her phone but chose to read 😳) ⬆️ … and curled up in my craft room instead of hanging out with the big girls. ⬇️

She received two sets of the books for Christmas and, asked if she wanted to return one and pick a different gift, chose to keep both - one for her mom’s house and one for here. 

This week she decided that I needed to know about Roz The Robot too, so we are reading the books aloud each night. Sometimes she does the reading, sometimes we take turns (I get the first paragraph, she insists on reading the rest of the chapter 😂)

and sometimes, like tonight, she turns it into a dramatic performance art “Reading”.

Standing on the bed, reading with gestures and emphasis

I love this kid. 

* Jac struggled with reading at first - thank you, 2020 pandemic for closing all the pre-schools - so we’ve paid for her to go to a local tutoring center for the last 3-ish years. I’ve never seen a business get, and deserve, all 5 star reviews before but Tutorific does. And their methods work. Jac, and now Donovan, love going there. 

Almost Normal

Things are getting back to normal - the grandkids were here for the first time since Christmas break began. 

Last chance with Christmas quilts, they’re  getting put away tomorrow.

Donovan started a new school today, Jac and Leo go back tomorrow and Leia is officially a high school graduate (ceremony is in June but she’s done with classes.)

 Donation pile

Day 6 of the declutter challenge was cleaning up archives. Since I don’t keep paper records of ‘quilts past’ - just what’s here on the blog - Jac and I decided to clear out all the old outgrown toys and princess dresses/costumes. It didn’t take long - Jac is very decisive on what she likes and what can go. 

Donovan helped with decision making for awhile but once he saw how cozy Sissy was, he climbed up and made himself comfortable too. 

I’m a little sad to see the end of the Disney princess era and Donovan’s cars and trucks phase. But Jac is much more of a “keep the snakes!!” non-fiction kinda girl, and Donovan flips between Minecraft and Legos. And I love that too. 

Progress!

Day 5 was dedicated to clearing out patterns, both paper and digital.

I reorganized patterns earlier this year and I’m pretty happy with my current stash, both size and location, so decided instead to work on my #2 big reason for joining the challenge… this mess.

It took a bit over one full episode of Great British Baking Show-Holidays to get it cleared off, fabric folded and looking like this*…

42 multi-yard mini bolts, folded and ready to go

I’m not going to put it on shelves just yet since I want to see what ideas the challenge organizer has for storing fabric. If nothing else, at least I have a couple of newly emptied bookshelves to spread it out to.

So pretty, so organized, so surprising how much I’m enjoying this. Bring on day 6!

* Very little of this is new fabric, rather it’s things I’ve had in storage finally getting folded and put where I can see it and use it up.