Friday, January 22, 2010

A Little Bit of Organizing


I decided it was time to do a little bit of organizing in my sewing room. Honestly I need to spend a day or two in there but at this time I don't want to give up that much sewing time. Yesterday I attended a class on color at my Guild. It was very interesting but for some reason my mind turned to organizing - or was it this green dresser that has been in my garage for about a year and a half? On my way home from Guild I decided to devote an hour to cleaning and organizing, an hour to watch Dr. Phil and an hour to sew before it was time to start dinner. It worked out perfectly. About a year and a half ago I received a phone call about a woman in our area who had died (I did not know her) and the family was trying to clean house and get rid of her craft supplies. I called the house and made arrangements to go out and see what they had. When I arrived at the house I was met by the woman's daughter who was here from California and the woman's son who was here from Ohio. They were in the process of cleaning house, painting, getting carpets cleaned, etc. They asked me if I was there for the early garage sale. I didn't realize they were having a garage sale but that sounded like fun to me. The daughter took me to a large pole barn where they had boxes and boxes of crafting supplies. The deceased woman was into all kinds of crafts, doll making, knitting and crocheting, quilting and wood working. I had a great time digging through boxes and finding all kinds of treasures. The daughter came out a few times to add more boxes to the pole barn and to see how I was doing. She also took me to the attached garage to show me more boxes. She told me that they were busy in the house and when I was finished just walk into the house (I love living in a small community). I had a great time going through this woman's stash. Her quilts were mainly utility quilts made with polyester double knits so I did not pull any of those pieces out but I did manage to find a few pieces of cotton. I also found boxes and boxes of rick rack, bias tape and thread. I filled a rather large box up of thread, including 18 spools of hand quilting thread. I was very curious about this green dresser and another one that was there. The husband came home from the dentist and came out to the pole barn to introduce himself and to see how I was doing. I asked him about all of the wood working supplies, tools and projects. He told me all of that had belonged to his wife - she was the wood worker in the family. I immediatly went through all of the boxes again. I decided that both of the dressers needed to go home with me. Our grand daughter Allie is using one of them. The green one is very small, only 30 inches wide and although I didn't measure it I am sure it is shorter than that. It probably could use a new paint job but I just feel that it has lots of character and I like the way it looks in my sewing room. Yesterday when I hauled it into the house from the garage and cleaned it up I noticed that I could see some printing on the boards on the sides of the dresser. It reminded me of my grandfather who was also a wood worker. I am sure both wood workers were from the generation where you re-use and recycle. The dresser is very crude but I love it. I spent over two hours looking through all of the craft items and filled my car with all kinds of treasures. I wonder if someone will have that experience with my "stuff" some day.

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