Valerean

I did find a few more skeins of baby boucle yarn in my stash last week, so I packed them up with some other skeins I didn't want and headed over to our local church thrift. I want to do a blog post on rehabbing hat boxes, so while I was there I picked up two that need some TLC, as well as a length of interesting green fabric. March's tote for my calendar project is going to be in green. I also thrifted some cards I needed. I'm starting to look for cards at thrift stores because they often sell brand new for pennies. In total I spent $5.60 on my little haul, which made me very happy.

Last week I had a dream about being out and thrifting with another person (maybe a woman) and finding some cool bags of yarn and embroidery thread. It was very vague but happy, and I love shopping dreams that are that way. We left the store and were driving down a road very similar to one by my early childhood home when I looked up and saw a large passenger plane about 500 feet in the air deploy a colorful parachute out of the empennage (the tail end) ala space shuttles when landing. I turned to my companion and told her that plane was going to crash, and we needed to get out of there. She seemed paralyzed, and then the plane looped around and crashed just ahead of us. The world then exploded. I woke up with my heart hammering in my chest, like it had actually happened. I've had crash dreams before now, and they're unsettling. I don't think the FAA is going to start putting parachutes on passenger aircraft, or that I'm psychic and predicting something that...

The green patchwork quilt I won from my last round of wannabuts bids just arrived. Let's take a look. It's a lovely quilt, pieced and quilted on a domestic machine. I love the gold quilting thread the maker used. The backing is a dark tonal green that matches the binding. It's a pretty quilt, and once I wash it I'll keep it to snuggle up with on the sofa in my home office.

Some years back I began ending contact with people who for whatever reason had a toxic affect on me. This included colleagues, friends, and nearly all of my family members. I did not tell anyone why because at the time I honestly didn't understand why I was doing it; I just knew I needed to. I ended my relationships as politely as I could, but regardless I hurt some feelings. I have always tried to be accessible and helpful to the people in my life. I'm a very dependable person, and they counted on me to listen to and tolerate their problems, even when they never reciprocated. I also put up with a lot of toxic behavior from them because I believed eventually they would grow up and change. They never did. Funny that after treating me so badly most of them still thought they had the right to be in my life, and got very upset with me for ending the relationships. Now I know why I let go of so many relationships. After more than sixty years on the planet it was ti...

The vibrant quilt I thrifted as a wannabut for $9.99 just arrived, and it's even prettier in person. The log cabin pattern is a favorite of mine. Someone really had an eye for tropical color combinations, and using predominantly orange and blue novelty prints in such bold shades was brilliant. I also adore the black print sashing because it acts as the perfect foil (and I usually dislike dark colors.) It's definitely not a new quilt; the center of the backing shows moderate fading. Someone might have draped it over something that sat in the sun, like a table or a pet cage. I like the quirkiness of the backing fabric, too. Really interesting, and possibly east Asian in origin. The quilt was long-arm quilted with a simple loop pattern, and expertly bound by machine. It resonates with positive energy and love of color, and it's too pretty to cut up as I originally planned. I don't mind; I'm delighted to add it to my collection.

The two baskets I thrifted last week look pretty clean (and I'm careful about checking out what I want before I buy), but I still like to give them a clean before I use them. Both are made of natural fibers (wood and rattan) so it's not a good idea to get them wet or immerse them in any manner. First I spray a towel with Lysol cleaner and wipe them down inside and out to remove any dirt. Although the baskets don't smell, I still spray them with disinfectant spray and let them sit out in the sun for a day or two. After that they should be fine to use. I might line them with fabric or just use as they are. When you're thrifting baskets condition is everything. Along with how clean the basket looks check out how sturdy it is. You may find a few broken pieces (my rectangular basket had one small broken piece inside) but if they don't make the basket rickety you can trim any jagged ends with scissors (for thicker materials, tin snips work well.) One t...