The big studio clean out

I have fairly severe arthritis. It impacts my hands, neck, and back. It occurred to me that an empty sewing table would allow the table to hold most of the weight of quilts as I sew. 

I have a room that I use as my studio. In that room is a large closet with my sewing machines. 

The first step, in this process, was to gift our elliptical to our next door neighbor. They provided the manpower. This happened spring 2023.

It can be hard to get rid of big items. It can be hard psychologically, it can be hard physically. I do well gifting things to neighbors/friends. But if no one had wanted this elliptical, I would have listed it for sale at a very low price, and had strangers come take it. 

This was a gym quality elliptical purchased in 2012. My husband used it for years, but at some point, a few years ago, it bothered my husband’s knees, he could no longer use it. I wanted to use it, but hated it. I really hated the space it took up in my crowded studio. 

Between the eliptical removal (spring 2023) and the early fall 2023 clean out, the main section of my studio was much improved. 

I sew in a very large closet, under our stairwell, in the studio. I like being tucked in this space. My sewing machine stayed in the same location. The serger moved to a second table. 

My husband did all the moving and cleaning. I sorted and reorganized, and gathered donations on the kitchen table. We did this all in one go, on a Saturday, fall 2023. 

Before -

After -

Included in the pile (below) are other/non-sewing items, from other parts of the house. I rehomed items, I listed items for sale, I donated items. In about a week and a half, all of this was gone. 

Another thing to go was the rolltop desk in the background of this photo, future post.

Boards and Spreads (on sale until 1/23/24)

I have NO magazine subscriptions and almost never buy a magazine.

My hair salon has a good selection, I read a few articles while I am there, every seven weeks.

I am rarely in a grocery these days, I use curbside. So I do not see magazine displays. 

However this week, I put in a special order at Kroger, specifically to get packages of pre cut parchment paper. 

I use parchment paper nearly every day, mostly to roast vegetables, in the same jelly roll pan, so I do not have to wash it. Tearing off a roll is really hard on my hands. 

The Kroger closest to my house, where I order, alerted me they were out of stock. 

So I stopped at a different Kroger, after yoga on Monday morning, and went inside. 

I was in luck, I stocked up with four boxes. 

I passed this in the display rack at check out -

I flipped through and it was absolutely lovely. 

Since I never buy them, $14.99 seemed like a lot for a magazine, but $14.99 does not seem like a lot for a cookbook. 

I bought it. 

At home, I skimmed it, greatly appreciating the photography. Great idea lists for various types of boards. I could add items to a curbside order easily for a holiday/weekend board.

It is now in the drawer with my recipe cards, recipe binders and cookbooks. 

I am keeping it on top my stack of binders, so I remember I have it. 

The above magazine, which I plan to use as a how-to-cookbook, has great examples with lots of ideas. 

If you are looking for free examples, I admire Tracy Benjamin’s boards very much -https://www.shutterbean.com/2023/my-everyday-life-week-47-12/

She has a detailed how-to post, here -https://www.shutterbean.com/2017/how-to-make-an-epic-cheeseboard-with-trader-joes-items/

If you like to look at Tracy’s photos, you may have noticed she looks different. The story is here - https://www.shutterbean.com/2023/shutterbean-weight-loss/

The fifth quilt, which is the fourth 9-patch

I refer to this as the donut quilt. One 9-patch block makes the donut, the alternate 9-patch block makes the donut hole. 

The donut quilt is Youngest’s Xmas present this year.

Here is the inspiration photo from the Internet -

I love using up scrap fabric. I dug through my own scraps for this quilt. A quilter friend dug through her scraps. This is our combined pile, sorted by color -

Does my sewing table (below) look very clean to you? Stay tuned for a future post. 

Note the light blue donut block fabric that I chose to be in high contrast with the donut hole fabric. The consistent dark blue fabric in the donut hole creates consistency in the quilt. I think of this as “giving the eye somewhere to go”.

Youngest figured the block placement in excel, we still layed the quilt out to double check.

In this photo, there is still one more row to add, and the quilt is in two pieces. I make one half, press it. Make the other half, press it. See the two halves together and press the last seam. This easier to handle that way. I put a safety pin in the upper left block of each half to keep track.

Jane Austen

First, here is a nice biography -

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-Austen/Austens-novels-an-overview

Fall 2023, youngest and I were discussing book clubs covering one book a year as a means of reading all the works by a given author over time.

My old classics group did this with Charles Dickens. We added one Dickens to our list, methodically, every year. An assigned Dickens we would read; on our own, it just never got done. We had other categories we targeted for our list each year also. 

Youngest’s book group was attempting to do this with Austen, but then no one remembered to put an Austen book on the list for next year. . .

If by chance you have never read Austen, she is a great idea. I think it is easier to listen to her books in audio format than read the printed page. 

I think this is true of Dickens and Twain also, audio is better.

The kids and I love Austen. And we all agree, there is something about getting one’s ear in the groove of listening to the language, one’s ears/brain adapt. 

 I would not suggest reading Dickens or Twain, one right after the other, one a year is a good pace for those authors, but Austen I might (foreshadowing). 

If you look up Austen books, this (below) is the list that usually appears. I have read all the titles on this list several times each, both for pleasure and for classes and book groups, over the decades.

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Mansfield Park (1814)

Emma (1815)

Persuasion (posthumously, 1817)

Northanger Abbey (posthumously, 1817)

Late September 2023, loading past read books into the app, I saw this collection (below) listed on Goodreads, new to me.  I found it for free on Audible.  

These are three partial Austen works. The Audible collection is these three incomplete works combined into one recording. 

When I finished William Kent Kruger, I rolled right into The Firm and The Exchange. And then I listed to the incomplete Austin collection (above), and it was a shock to my ears. 

It has been years since I listened to something classic where my ears/brain have to adjust. When I started, the incomplete collection, early November 2023, I was not sure I still had the ability to adjust, but I did. 

I finished the trio of incomplete Austin works (above) over two days, finishing a quilt top (last week’s post).

I had nothing pressing on my reading list. 

I decided while my ears were adjusted, relistening to the whole Austen list, in publication order, was a great idea. 

I think this is first for me. 

I think this is the first time I have read the whole collection, one right after the other, in chronological order. But since my ears/brain were in early 1800’s mode, it made sense. 

I listed to the first three, in very rapid order, one right after the other working on the donut blocks for youngest’s quilt (future post), before Thanksgiving. I didn’t just listen while I sewed. I listened every available second. As in - go away, don’t talk to me, I am listening to my book(s).

So I had to take a forced pause over Thanksgiving to be social, all our kids were home for over a week. I could not listen to any Austen while everyone was home.

I will go back to working my way through finishing the last three novels, in chronological order, soon. I am in the midst of something else right now (future post).

The versions I used, so far, are below. I will add the last three as I finish them. 

They are really lovely. 

Note - I skipped the first section which was a one hour + summary. That is why it reads “Jane Austen & 1 more.” There is a scholarly section in the beginning.  I started with the actual novel.

This (below) would be another great winter project, there are excellent TV and movie options -

Sanditon was finished by screen writers and made into a recent series on PBS. All three seasons have aired. I watched the first part of this series, without realizing it was Austen. I am starting at the beginning and rewatching, soon.

https://www.audible.com/blog/article-best-jane-austen-adaptations#

Note, the movie version of Mansfield Park (below), is adapted from the book. It adds personalities/focuses that are not in the book, for dramatic effect.

The fourth quilt, half square triangles

I refer to this as the neutral quilt. 

It was made by me (October and November 2023) and gifted to oldest/DIL for Christmas 2023. 

It is for their king size guest bed. 

The previous one, for their double guest bed, is here -

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2023/09/sewing-this-summer.html

Yes, two very different style quilts. 

The blocks are called half square triangles. 

The fabric is all neutral, which was hard to find. Many neutral fabrics have a green or purple undertone.

It is king size. The backing is flannel. The batting is high loft polyester (a first for me, I usually use cotton). The quilting is straight lines, 1.75” apart. The binding is next, it is gray.

Back to the library

Note - 

When I hear people talk about their stacks of books, I CRINGE. These seem to be “to read” stacks and “have read” stacks. Either way, these are mostly purchased books. I CRINGE over their money spent, but mostly over their clutter/piles accumulated. 

Today’s post -

I have been an Audible person for many many years. Here is a photo of the file on my phone, prior to fall 2023. My habit was to just use Audible. Habits can be hard to break (note at the bottom of this post). 

I have had to really adjust my thinking/habits as my reading has increased - dramatically - in 2023. 

Youngest is a big proponent of libraries. 

When I caught up on my Audible archive, and was still  reading 3-4 books per week, youngest convinced me that something had to give. 

So now the file on my phone looks like this -

All this was not an easy change. While I almost never buy a hardback book, and used the library for years, I had a hard time switching (off Audible on to the library systems/apps) for audio books. I had to just make myself do it. 

Now that I have gotten use to them, no problem. 

I think my original difficulty, weaning off Audible, was partially habit/change. I used Audible for a long time. 

It also traces back to having a list. 

When I used to read hardcopy, I borrowed almost everything I read from the library. I was sad that the library does not keep records. A library list of past check outs would have yielded a huge chunk of titles.

Audible provided a saved list of books for years. Now I keep/have/maintain my GoodReads list. 

So I am back to using the library, now thru their apps, regularly.

The third quilt, which is the third 9-patch

When I made the blocks for my BIL’s 9-patch, earlier post, I made a second set of blocks. 

I set them with light fabric and dark corner stones. The blocks chain nicely. 

I love this comparison shot (below), showing the same blocks in the same order, without (left) and with (right) the sashing and corner stones.

Here we are with the quilting and binding -

This quilt was shipped to my nephew Thanksgiving week. He loves it. 

A book list project and Sue Grafton

I wish I had kept a list of every book I have ever read. 

It is impossible to re-create that full list. But I am capturing data on GoodReads now.

When the GoodReads list is mostly complete, the whole list will roll/upload to another app. That app, Story Graph, is the actual goal. It will look at what I have read, and liked, and make author suggestions for me. 

I try to record accurate “read dates” on GoodReads, but that is not always possible. If I am not sure “when”, then I simply enter books as “read” when I think of them. 

Rating the books on GoodReads is easy, there are few books I have read that I do not like. Most of the books on my read list are rated a 4 or a 5. (I wish the app used a scale of 1-10. So I could better designate what I loved and what I really loved.)

Normally, if I do not like a book, I do not finish it. 

Those books I read, but did not like, are most likely book club assignments, detailed in a past blog post. Those are rated a 1. The only two I can remember off hand are The Confederacy of Dunces and Winesburg Ohio, both definite 1’s.

An advantage I have is I tend to read by author. So if a book or author occurs to me, the GoodReads app makes it very easy to check off multiple books by that one author. When I have the author pulled up, all the books listed, I remember which ones I have read. (And I find ones I have missed.)

I thought of Sue Grafton recently. Looking at the nice long list of William Kent Krueger’s books, last Friday’s post, made me think “that is as good a find as Sue Grafton!”.

PS -

If you like mystery style books and she is new to you, her Kinsey Millhone series is a nice long list.