On of the fun by-products of clearing out clutter is finding things you forgot about. Things that you like or are intrigued by.
This color collage (top, center — above) was on a bulletin board in my studio, so wasn’t actually unearthed, but in the many, many hours spent bagging up unwanted and seriously-in-the-way-fabric this past weekend, I spied it and was inspired to make a small thread drawing.
The proportions were off (he looked like he was holding a pogo stick or jackhammer, instead of wearing a pair of pants), so I had to add pen marks and additional cloth on the sides to change the edges.
I like it (in part) because — it’s small; it was made in two sittings; it was fairly spontaneous.
GAVE AWAY three more HUGE bags of fabric on Saturday. And guess what? Even though that makes about 10 (TEN — HUGE bags!!) for the year, I still feel overwhelmed and crowded in the basement. So! My new resolve is to keep bagging up fabric and giving it away until I can breathe better down there. I don’t care how many it takes — I’ll know the relief when I get there.
Have you ever noticed that you can’t fake relief? You can’t talk yourself into it or out of it?
And, while I am on this demonic roll, I also cleaned out an upstairs closet (even painting the baseboards to make it look cleaner!). I don’t know what’s inspiring this unbidden drive to clear clutter, but I don’t plan to stand in its way.
TAG sale on for Saturday! Wahoo. Nothing like a deadline to sort by.
Yikes ! Typos galore above please delete?!
It would be a very different life to stay put in one spot for a good long time how long have you lived there Dee?
I may have flagged you by accident on my phone, Mo. Please persevere next time you comment, if so. How long have YOU been where you currently reside?
One of my flatmates about 20 years (and 6 houses ago) said if we brought anything into the house something else would have to leave and I have tried to hold to that ever since… it keeps the amount of stuff down so when we have to move we can actually do it ourselves! (did make the mistake of filling my whole studio space with 40 crates of leftover tiles from a tile shop one year & couldn’t get in there to do anything with them!)
we’ll be here 5 years this xmas, it’s one of the last affordable rentals in this increasingly gentrified inner city area (we are hanging in until the landlady decides to sell) Would love to hang in for at least another 5 years (despite the leaks she is a very old house) but what will be will be… and I always find the next place within a week learned that from my Mom landing in foreign cities with a family of 7 and needing to find houses fast!
oh & I love your B&W stitching!!!
Hi Dee…your thread drawing is so great. If it came together easily, it was ready to burst into being. I go through that process in my mind, too — seeing something and envisioning how I could recreate it in cloth, but I don’t seem to ever get anywhere, probably over-think it. I love your outcome. xx
I love that observation, Dee, that you can’t fake relief. So true and I had never thought about it that way before.
find self nodding in agreement with Julie’s comment and of course your observation, it is indeed impossible to fake……good for you for making more room for yourself (I have the exact same urge to purge the studio of clutter, although at the moment I dread even entering, perhaps tomorrow) plus what a fantastic sketch (and only after you mentioned pogo stick did I notice that;-))
Peggy — It is weird, this relationship between time invested and satisfaction with outcome. Some things that I work to death on I love (some, I don’t) and same for the quick pieces. But! There is probably a higher satisfaction with spontaneously made ‘sketch quilts’ – where it is all about – just getting it out and made.
Hi Julia and Saskia (I had a dream about you, Saskia, last night – can’t remember now what it was) — watching reactions of relief has become a little bit of a measure for me… was a decision a good one, or not? Looking at relief in that kind of inquiry can be so helpful!
catching up here, feels like the middle of an excavation of treasures.