Big Journal Lot Part 1

When I saw a major lot of journals go up for auction I couldn't resist putting in a minimal bid. I've already burned through one journal this year and started another, so I'm going to need more. One other bidder challenged me, but dropped out right away and I won the lot.

The lot arrived and it's even bigger and better in person.

Most of the journals are typical of the thrifted variety; most are brand new and unused, and a few have a couple of the first pages torn out.

Many were beautiful. I think I've seen this Van Gogh journal a million times and considered buying it, only to stop myself because it was expensive. Not this one.

In the lot there were several advertising-type books like this silver journal embossed with Indiana Furniture; some came with pens. The peacock book in the center is an address book.

Even the ones with covers I'm not terribly fond of (these three are my least favorites) I can make over with quilted covers.

Among the surprises was a blank Little Golden book. It has a white cover with the logo, and the spine and back cover of a Little Golden Book, but the pages are blank. Trivia about me: I worked as a secretary to a minister who was also the author of a Little Golden Book.

Stop by tomorrow to see more surprises.

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Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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