Gaming with Quilts

I had the most vivid and unusual dream back on 2/17, and when I woke up I tried to go back to sleep so I could return to that world. It wasn't happy or sad, just another place where things were very much like this world, with a few notable exceptions.

In this place I was the same person, except I seemed to be traveling quite a bit. I pretty much lived in my car (our Subaru, just like here) and was learning a new virtual reality video game that is played on your phone. It was so fun and hyper realistic that everyone was playing it. I wasn't having a lot of luck with the game myself, but I kept trying. Then packages started to arrive with beautiful blankets and quilts hand made from plush fabrics and edged with tiny beads. Someone had to explain to me that these were things gamers sent to each other after meeting and playing in the game, and I should do the same.

There was something about car crashes and car thefts, and I had to make a plan of what I'd do if someone stole my car. I kept going from town to town like a drifter, always welcomed but never really noticed. The hotels I stayed in were unremarkable, like Holiday Inn Express. The game was my only genuine contact and connection with others, which sounds sad but is a reality for a lot of kids in our world. I understand why video games are so important to youngsters now.

I never got a chance to start making my own quilts to send to other gamers (I woke up) but I was completely charmed by a world where everyone gave their friends handmade gifts so casually. I felt deeply disappointed when I woke up and realized it was only a dream. I'd happily live in that strange world.

Comments

Maria Zannini said…

That's really quite a nice dream, but I'm a little alarmed the packages could always find you while traveling. LOL.

But that's how dreams work. One minute I'm home, then I walk out the door and I'm outside my apartment building in Chicago of 50 years ago.

April 7, 2025 at 6:41 AM

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.

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...

Valerean

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