Day 184 of 2026

I tried to pick this little empty storage drawer up

 to remove it from the big room 

and it completely shattered. 

It's a good thing I had already decided

 that I didn't need it anymore.

Just for fun I'm going to leave the blast from the past pictures here. 

This one is from July 2, 2016. 

It was not picture of the day but an outtake 

from the photo shoot of this quilt that did make the blog that day.

Day 181 of 2026

Every laundry day I start out with eight of these dryer balls. 

Sometimes I end up with eight. 

Today I ended with six. 

I am curious to find where the others went. 

 

Day 179 of 2026

Today's work in the studio was all about patterns. 

I'm nowhere near done yet, but gathering, sorting 

and decisions about which ones to keep are happening.

 

Day 166 of 2026

Today I tackled the thread drawer.

Most of my quilt piecing threads will go into the drawer I have emptied 

instead of being scattered in various places on the sewing table. 

The full spools of the type of thread pictured above 

that I use for clothing, topstitching and other sewing 

that needs matching thread will be relocated. 

I will be trying to use up these almost empty spools 

for things like basting and bobbin thread. 

I'm not sure how I'll store them yet.

 

Day 162 of 2026

My studio has a set of cubbies 

along the back edge of one very deep desk. 

My original bins are two different turquoises and red. 

The red ones have started to disintegrate 

so I am replacing them with white bins

 as I continue to clean up the room. 

I should have enough white bins to replace all the bins 

if more start to disintegrate.

 

Day 150 of 2026

I've been cleaning in my studio to enable me to get in there and sew. 

I found this under a stack of fabrics. 

Do you remember when I did the repair on the front of this quilt? 

After that I was stumped as to how to repair the batting and backing

 in a manner that will allow me to hand quilt the areas

 that are missing their quilting due to the original damage. 

I have an idea how to approach it, 

but for now it will have to go in a queue 

while I continue to clean up and out the studio.

 

Day 36 of 2026

Years ago my quilting group made felted wool pincushions. 

I have many scraps from that time.

When shapes are cut from a larger piece

 it is no longer a neat piece.

 There are always these weird shapes sticking out

 that make the wool quite messy.

I recently found a bag of felted wool pieces. 

I decided to trim them up and cut as many little shapes

 as I could from the messy bits. 

These will go in a separate place for future appliqué projects.

 

Day 32 of 2026

My mother and my mother-in-law passed away 

seven and four years ago, respectively. 

It has been very hard to summon the courage

 to go through their purses. 

I'm not talking about their checkbooks and wallets 

or other time sensitive items. 

Those were dealt with right away.

I'm talking about the pens and notebooks, 

phone numbers and nail files, 

mending kits and mirrors, 

and one plastic rain bonnet. 

I finally did go through the two purses 

and kept just a few meaningful items. 

I am discovering that as time passes 

and I look through things again, 

I always find some things I can let go of 

that I previously thought I needed to keep. 

Progress is slow, but progress is progress.

 

Day 28 of 2026

 

Today's sort through was a box labeled "Old Books."

I have reduced the number of books I'm keeping

 to about one quarter of what I started with. 

It seems it was common to write one's name and the year in books. 

This one was my grandfather's. 

He saw fit to write all the pertinent information on the cover. 

What struck me most though 

was that the year of his high school graduation 

was one hundred years ago.

 
 

Day 23 of 2026

Back on Wednesday when I cleaned out the hall closet, 

I decided to move the box on the top shelf to another location

 so I could keep all our luggage together. 

I moved the box today and put it in its proposed new spot. 

Unfortunately, it won't work there but also can't go back where it was. 

I have stopped trying to figure that out today 

but will come up with a solution soon. 

What's in the box, you say? 

It's my wedding gown which my mom made for me. 

I know you cannot see it all here, 

but it is a long dress with short puffed sleeves

 and a separate lace pinafore. 

Mom did the embroidery on the neckline 

and more secret stitching on the inside portion of the hem. 

I did not unseal the box so I can't tell you exactly 

what is stitched there but I do know that 

our wedding date is part of it. 

If you've been here for a while, 

you've probably seen the dress in a post. 

Here is the link to the photo. 

Use it for general shape and design. 

The details don't show in this picture.

 

Day 21 of 2026

Do any of you remember when silk ribbon embroidery was a big deal? 

I took a class in which we learned how to embellish a jacket. 

While decluttering a closet today, I found my jacket from that lesson. 

I still love it even though I haven't worn it in a long time. 

I'm not ready to part with it yet so it will go back into the closet. 

Maybe at some point I will take lots of detailed pictures of it 

and let it go, 

but not today. 

Plenty of other items did leave.

 

Day 17 of 2026

I have done a lot of sorting

 through the holiday decor and ornaments this season. 

I am finally packing it all up to put away 

and now have at least three empty containers

 due to the reduced amount I have kept. 

I have also reduced the total number of containers

 and boxes going back into storage even more

 by putting some of the boxes into existing containers

 that now have more room.

These two boxes are no longer needed but contain lots of memories

 so a photo was in order before they go into the recycling bin.

 

Day 364 of 2025

Ornaments collected over the last 50 years

 are spread out on our dining table. 

This does not include the small amount I put on two trees this year 

and a couple of special collections. 

I'm hoping to reduce this significantly by first offering them to family. 

I'll be keeping some and then donating the rest.

 

Day 344 of 2025

This is what you find when you move the china cabinet

 that has been in the same place for a million years.

 

Day 288 of 2025

My pressing station got a good clean up 

while I was on my weekly call with Little E. 

I've cleared off things that were using this space as storage 

and rearranged my wool mats to accommodate larger blocks. 

I started to sort through the buckets but ran out of time. 

I'll start there next time.

 

Day 268 of 2025

I am finally washing and blocking my Geddy Tee. 

This rinse water was actually much darker than it appears here. 

At this point I had lost count of how many times I had rinsed it. 

I did a couple more until the water was the palest blue. 

It got rolled in a towel and stomped to get the excess water out...twice. 

It now sits blocked on a pop-up mesh drying surface.

 

Day 265 of 2025

I am inspired to do some fall cleaning. 

Part of that today included washing a small throw rug. 

The machine did not want to spin it sufficiently on the first cycle, 

so a separate second spin was in order.

 

Day 218 of 2025

Update on the glue search: 

I looked in a drawer in the kitchen desk 

to see if I could find the glue for my shoe repair. 

I did not see it so I started cleaning out the drawer instead. 

In the back I found an old cigar box. 

When I opened it, this is what I found. 

I don't need these so they are not going to stay here, 

but I had to take a picture as they reminded me

 of this puzzle I did back in 2020. 

When I cleared out the rest of the drawer, I did find my glue. 

I have now fixed my sandals. 

There is no need to shop for new sandals 

or buy more shoe repair glue.

 

Day 174 of 2025

Monday is laundry day, 

but when you need to be out of the house most of the day, 

laundry gets started late 

and subsequently folding gets done very late. 

But it's done.

 

Day 170 of 2025

Update on my purple dye splotched jean jacket:

I took the advice from the comments and did a Google search. 

While vinegar did come up so did Borax natural laundry booster. 

I happen to already own a box of Borax so I put half a cup in a large bucket 

and added the hottest water I could get from my tap. 

I submerged the jacket and let it soak. 

I can't remember how long I let it soak

 but I'm sure the water was no longer hot. 

When I poured the water out, it was purple. 

I rinsed the jacket and then put it in a regular laundry load. 

It worked fabulously. 

There is no trace of purple splotches.