almost there

This is has been a very different summer for me. There was the usual garden stuff, yard work, a few trips, but there was some unexpected events too.

I helped downsize/empty two different households. Those types of events usually make me come home and clean and sort and purge items. But in the midst of those two events, there was an estate sale for Bobby's great-aunt Grace, who was an avid quilter. They divided her fabric into five LOTS.  Yes, lots. Not boxes. I bought two of them. And yesterday, I finally had my living room and sewing room reclaimed. :)

 The above is my sewing room. My mom would call this extremely cluttered. I call it "organized".  There are several piles that should be eliminated once I finish those projects. Speaking of which, I might have to renege from my joke with Bobby that for every one project I finish I can start three. I think I counted 22 projects that are in various stages (meaning started, not just ideas bundled with the pattern). My husband is right, in that it's time to start finishing some things. Although I truly hope to prove him wrong in that even if I live to be 102 I'll never finish everything I have planned.

And my Mom, upon hearing about the merger of some of Aunt Grace's fabric with my stash, asked if I were going to open a quilt store. Silly Mom. Don't you know to do that you need BOLTS of fabric instead of bins of small folds stuffed into a closet?

 Even I am flabbergasted at how full my closet is compared to two months ago. It's breath-taking, and not necessarily in the excitement kind of way. In my defense, all those quilt tops on hangers?  Four of those weren't my creations. I inherited those from Mary. One of them I may offer to another one of her quilting friends who will visit this fall. As those get quilted, the stash of batting (bottom left of the closet) will also disappear, clearing up quite a bit of space. and I still have two bins in the room that didn't make it into the closet.   I threw away about 6 kitchen size trash bags of fabric. Some of it was rotting; some of it had been exposed to critters. I gave away quite a bit of fabric that was good but was not quilting fabric.

While washing the fabric, I came across quite a few remnants that only quilters would save. Nowhere near enough to make a garment, but the perfect size for making quilt pieces. I'm down to one pile left. Once I finish this mound, my dining room will be reclaimed, too! :)

 And here's what one of those mounds now looks like:

I think this winter is going to (hopefully) hold a LOT of sewing days. Meanwhile, I'm just looking forward to having my house back to normal. This one mound of fabric and two buckets of apples, and then this summer season should officially be over...except for yardwork. That never ends.