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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Out of the Closet!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the USA! Happy Thursday to the rest of you, unless you live in Australia or some such place where it is a completely different day for you as I post this, but I’m sure you are used to the recalculating of dates by now!

I’ve spent the morning reaming out a closet in the guest room.

Last night about 9pm we got the call from Jeff that things to his room mate had come to a head and he just had to get out of there and couldn’t take it anymore. I thought it should wait til morning, but no. DH thought that we should just hook up the trailer to the pickup, drive 3 hours down there, load him up, turn right around and drive 3 hours back, get it done, stop worrying about it and get it over with.

And we did. We got home about 3am this morning…and I slept til 8 or so, but it’s a complete zombie day today, so I am so glad that I am NOT cooking!

So back to the closet.

The past 5 months since Jeff has been gone, I’ve been using his room as the trunk show storage unit. And it was working rather well. I had quilts stacked in categories ((refolded differently every time I’d restack them for those of you concerned—)) and covered with sheets to keep the dust away. And the cat off….if she happened to find the door open, which we tried our best to keep shut tight at all times.

With Jeff coming back home --- my quilts were going to have to go somewhere else! And that “BEFORE” the move “somewhere else” meant there was a stack here, a stack there, some over here, some in the other closet, anywhere I could find a space. I was not going back to this! And believe me, when you have to keep your class samples and book quilts at least until you retire ---this many quilts can take up an awful lot of SPACE!

Fast forward to the guest room closet. It’s a walk-in closet and it really has a lot of space in there, but I had WAY too many clothes taking up all that space. All those denim jumpers and school teacher jumpers from my jumper fetish years? Still in there. Just how many denim jumpers does one girl need? It’s not like they are in fashion anymore…it needed to go. I could whittle it down to being manageable and donate everything else. I’ve got HUGE piles of dresses and skirts and jumpers and jackets and sweaters all ready to be donated. Of course, I know this is going to expand to other closets too, because who wants to make more than one trip? :c/

You will never guess what I found in that closet!

firstquilts 005

My long lost Ipod!! Oh I have mourned the loss of this guy..it holds EVERYTHING --- it’s got 160 gig of memory and they don’t even MAKE these anymore.

As I was clearing out purses and bags putting them in the donation pile, I found it in the bottom of a travel bag I remember using when I went to Idaho for Mother’s Day in May of 2009! It’s been in that closet the whole time. And here I was worried I’d left it on a plane, or it had been stolen out of my car, or….worse…buried in fabric somewhere in a box of scraps in the OTHER closet. ((We are not talking about that closet, I’ll deal with it later!))

I am SO happy to have this thing back!

And I’m still cleaning up the mess from taking everything OUT of the closet, though the quilts are all in their new home in stacks by category, back to being covered by sheets, and I need to remember to close that closet door or Emmy Lou will find many new comfy spots to leave her fur.

While cleaning out the closet, I came across 3 or 4 tubs that held antique tops, block parts, vintage quilts, etc. What am I doing with all this stuff?

I’m thinking of having “Yard Sale Saturday” here on the blog for the next little while. I’ll post a pic of a vintage item I want to sell with the price…the first person to contact me gets it, as is. ((I’ll photograph and disclose everything well)) Just like ebay, this will be a “no return” kind of item. I don’t want it back, and I only want to ship stuff once! The actual shipping cost will be added to the bill. All transactions via paypal.

Sound good? If you don’t like paypal, or can’t work with it, then I’m sorry ---these items might not be for you then!

I also found some of my early, early quilts. Oh boy. Some of these are pretty embarrassing! But I think they might be good to share them with you too. What do you think? If I did a post on first quilts with a linky thing, would you join in and post yours? Not sure when I’m thinking of that, but it would be a fun way to let our first attempts ALSO out of the closet…and you can marvel in how far you’ve come, baby! And you won’t feel alone if you are ashamed that your first border waved like a ruffle, or that your binding was as lumpy as a summer string bean left on the vine way too long ----let me know your thoughts!

And with that, I’m back to cleaning the closet….be looking for the first item or items to be posted on Saturday!

We are headed out to our Thanksgiving dinner, the THREE of us --- in a few hours. On this day, I’m grateful to be THREE instead of TWO --- and wish the FOURTH one, left back in Columbia, SC were here to round out the family.

Pumpkin pie is a food group! Remember that!

26 comments:

  1. What an adventure you had on T'giving Eve! I'm glad you're back home safely and that your son is out of a bad situation. That alone must be a relief for you.

    I need to tackle closets myself... heaven help me... and you're right! Don't want to make multiple trips with the stuff to donate.

    Hope the three of you have a restful, relaxing Thanksgiving!

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  2. Bonnie you and your hubby are good parents. He called, you went!
    Your son must be very happy to be back home.

    Have fun with the closets....

    Happy Thanksgiving Day.

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  3. Happy thanks giving! I had to laugh about your closet story :-)

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  4. Glad you have your son with you today! And YAY on finding your Ipod!

    And yes!....Pumpkin Pie IS a food group....and....if there's a crack in the top, then it's ZERO calories, too! Yay! :o)

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  5. Have a happy thanksgiving, ours in Canada was last month! Don't work too hard even if it is like a treasure hunt!

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  6. Pumpkin pie is a vegetable...

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  7. I can't believe you're not cutting up those jumpers for your next book ...

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  8. Oh the wonders you can find when excavating a closet!! Glad you found your lost iPod.

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  9. Bonnie just think of all the found fabric in those jumpers. I would be cutting them into squares and strips. Recycled denim is fun fun to play with. I've made jackets, quilts, and purses with it.
    I am ready for Saturday. May have to get up extra early to get a chance to grab a vintage piece because of the time difference.
    When you are done cleaning your closets you csn come tackle mine. :)
    Happy Thanksgiving.

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  10. Anonymous4:18 PM EST

    Pumpkin Pie is definately a food group. Unfortunately the one my grandson made for dinner is all gone. Maybe that's a good thing. As far as closet cleaning goes today must be the day. I was checking out to see what I had for fleece for a christmas project and I was sure I had a couple of pieces. Now i'm looking at a love seat covered with 14 one yard pieces of fleece. Of course I don't have the two colors that I do need. I'm thinking some charity quilts might be a good idea if fleece will work.
    Sue

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  11. Ooooh.... I would love to see some of your early quilts!

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  12. Anonymous5:47 PM EST

    I like the idea of your Saturday blogsale. It must be something in the air that is making us want to clear spaces out in our homes. I started a couple of days ago, and a friend said that she was doing the same thing. Enjoy your thankskgiving. Thanks for sharing.
    cindy

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  13. Hey Bonnie - you could also post quilts that you would part with. I am sure there are peopel who would love to own a "Bonnie Original"... Just an idea!! Trying to give you more room for your creations!!

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  14. Happy Thanksgiving to you Bonnie - what an adventure you've had this day!
    *hugs*
    Tazzie
    :-)

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  15. I would love to have a Bonnie Thingy.. Hopefully at my daughters house early Sat. Morning I will be able yo connect to see and bid on one of your thingys!! Yep I worked very hard yesterday cleaning out stuff and rearranging..still much to do! Bu better than it was...

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  16. I am so glad you found your IPOD. I remember your angst when it was lost. 2009...my how time flies.
    I am a avid E-Bay-er...be it selling or buying. I would be so honored to have something that you had made/touched with your magic fingers.
    DH has been home all week and then I took a small nap. Waking up it now feels like a weekend day somewhere in time.
    XOXOXO Subee

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  17. Glad your son is home. Safe and sound. I did the closet thing too. Actually every room had something moved in it except the living room and kitchen. We really did spread out after the kids left home. Had to condense, donate, and toss so much stuff. It is 7 months later and we still have 2 more closets to go through. One with Xmas stuff and one with "Where did this stuff come from"? Happy Thanksgiving!

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  18. The dining room in our house has become my sewing room. But since it is Thanksgiving (and I refuse to eat Thanksgiving dinner on TV trays) I decided that I needed to tackle the chaos. I moved my sewing machine off the table and packed up all the projects into boxes, bags, bins, etc. It seems that every time I do this, I find something that I had forgotten about! Of course, I also lose a couple of things in the process. I guess it all works out in the end ^.^

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  19. Love Neil Diamond and the Jazz Singer. Also Crackling Roses. Do you have Diamond's Jonathan Livingston Seagull on your ipod? Brought back memories when I saw it on our ipod! Good music.

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  20. That is so funny about your iPod. I have that exact same model in white. It was my first iPod and like you, I lost it. It had all my audible books on it and I could never remember where it was. One day Vince was cleaning out some bags we had taken on spring break several years earlier and he found it.

    I'm glad Jeff is home safely and you have that behind you. Good luck cleaning out the rest of the closets.

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  21. What an adventure you've had!
    I would love to see your early quilts and after seeing them I would decide if I could post mine or just hide them. : )

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  22. Great idea to have a closet sale on you're blog!

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  23. Hey girl, you're lucky!
    So many Skirts and Shirts to demolish for your Stash! A real SOS: Stack On Stash =^} maybe even Save On Sales!
    We are waiting for those pretty prints to perish into your patchtops hehe.
    You should give thanks to this opportunity to focus on what you are the best with: repurpose, re-use, recycle. You already knew that you are the Queen of Quilting Green!
    OK, that's enough. Be happy with your family today, have a great time and don't bother with what has to happen next. Eat out and live dangerously, but drive safely.
    Best wishes from a still dawning Amsterdam 8^)
    Love, Irene

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  24. I can sympathise on having a 'boomerang' child, and having just neatly organised a bedroom into a quilty space, only to have to go back to the drawing board (so to speak). DS is working as a theatre director and moving from short contract to short contract with resting in between, and has come back to his old room as a base. We love to have him, but my fabric stash is now in drawers, cupboards and boxes all over the house! Happy Thanksgiving!

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  25. Bonnie, all those people telling you to cut up those jumpers, are just wrong! Get rid of them, quick, before you listen to those crazy people....you have a sickness and they are feeding it!!! (just kidding, everyone...lol) It sounds like you had a very, very productive Thanksgiving. I hope you got some good sleep last night. I'm ready to start making string blocks. 72? That's not very many...hehehe!

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  26. I was lamenting the fact that I no longer had some of my jumpers. There was a lot of beautiful fabric there. Oh, well. Darn.
    If you show us your first quilts, I'll show mine! I'm still using it, it's an applique heart quilt, and boy those stitches are big! But we have it on our bed, and love it!

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