Little house in the (not so big) woods

The past month has been a total blur.... moving into our new house (built in 1982 making it the newest house I've ever lived in),  just over the border in New Hampshire.   It's about 40 minutes from where we lived before, not bad.

Seventeen years in Massachusetts, and now New Hampshire for the next (simpler?) chapter of our lives!

Here's David in his happy place with plans for restoring the beauty of the little brook that runs through the property:

Nestled in the woods, but still light and bright - just a dreamy setting -

I did immediately want to lighten up the kitchen.  The walls were red when we moved in and we immediately had them painted white.  And then I set out to "emergency paint" the cabinets.

However... in the end.... I just know I picked the wrong color!  I was going for a subtle gray, but this is icy cold and just wrong.  I know I need to change it again but I can't face it!  I may not bother, but.... I don't know.

On the positive side, I'm experimenting with some open cabinets and so far, I LOVE it.  Everything within reach and I do love my Japanese dishes.

Window trim will be professionally painted in another couple months...

Finally I turned my attention to the sewing room:

Turning THIS:

Into THIS (the walls are white - don't know what happened in this photo):

It was an exercise in priorities.  I really wanted to have that brown wicker chair in the room - it's been with us since 1990 and I still love it -

Another priority - guest bed space.  I taped off the space for a future daybed/trundle, and for now, air mattress.  The cutting table is two Ikea rolling carts - and can be rolled away to make way for a trundle or air mattress.  

And.... then finally got to sewing!  I will write more about this next time.  It feels so good to be back in the swing of quilting.   Hoping now to get back into the swing of blogging as well. 

Hope those of you who are in "back to school" mode are loving it, one way or another!  

xo

Cynthia 

Stepping Stones finish... and KonMari

Each year (since 2013) I make one of these Stepping Stones quilts for an upcoming 'graduate' of an orphanage in Tokyo.  This year I have "Sara" who wanted blue and pink.  A little pink goes a long way against the blues.  

Backed and bound with some wild Kaffe Fassett fabric -

All set to be packed into David's carryon the next time he travels to Tokyo!

Meanwhile.... a big clean-up and clean-out in the office/sewing room...

We are prepping the house to be sold...  We are in no rush... but it feels time to downsize and simplify.  This 1752 farmhouse is ready for its next steward!

This means a LOT of decluttering... which is just the best feeling.  KonMari!   I love a creative mess, but a good straightening up and cleaning out gives such a feeling of calm and clarity.  I need more of that, and less anxiety and depression, in my life.  Having less stuff around does help!

In the process of decluttering, I texted with my daughters a lot... do you want this?  do you want that?

My middle daughter wants this family of vintage kokeshi dolls as a memento of our time in Japan (which included her senior year of high school).  Aren't their faces so charming?  I have another grouping ready for her older sister.

And on this snowy Saturday afternoon... with chores all but done... there is time to nurse a cold... watch some Netflix... catch up on quilting blogs... list out my current projects.... and piece a few blocks!

Sewing spaces

We're just winding down our February vacation, during which time I've had some good long stretches in the sewing room.

I snapped some pics in the good lighting yesterday - without cleaning up or "staging" anything (now I wish I had!), although I had just swiffered the floor!  Most of the furniture is from good ol' Ikea.

I feel very fortunate to have such a well lit and spacious sewing room.  It used to be Tommy's bedroom and has the best natural light in the house.  He upgraded to his sister's bedroom when she left home, and so I graduated from the attic, to this room.  I haven't always had a sewing room, and I probably won't always have one, but I sure am enjoying it while I can!

On the design wall (merely a piece of batting tacked to the wall), I have arranged one quadrant of my second "stars in a time warp" quilt - I'm calling it Hartwell Stars.  Here is the plan:

Too big to lay out all at once, so I am arranging it in four sections.

The closet was once a hallway, and the wall paper in there (what's left of it) dates probably from the 1880's.

For basting quilts, I head downstairs to the dining room.  I love my dining room table - nicks and marks from countless quilts basted - So many family meals around this table, and projects of all kinds.  It has withstood hard use.  Can you tell I'm feeling wistful, approaching the last months before we become empty nesters?

Where else does quilting take place around here?  When I am hand quilting or stitching sashiko, this is usually where I am, watching TV (Netflix, Hulu) with David in the evenings. 

 I love using my Mom's old Shaker box (actually, round Colonial style, single point - not the typical oval Shaker style) to hold my handwork essentials.  Like the dining room table, it is developing a nice patina from years of use.  Wabi sabi. 

A sewing room full of stuff is nice, but, here is (almost) all one really needs!!! 

  Thanks Wendy at The Constant Quilter for the nudge to post some sewing space pics!

Life-changing magic...

I have really been struck with de-cluttering fever, starting with my sewing room, thanks to this little gem of a book:

The key is picking up each item individually and deciding whether that object "sparks joy" - tokimeki is the Japanese word for that feeling.

Once I started, this pile grew and grew and grew... leaving me with only the fabric and objects I really, really like.  What a GREAT feeling.

I "filed" my fabric, too, which is something I just had never thought to do.  Not perfectly, but well enough that I can actually see what I have.   This idea came serendipitously at our last quilt guild meeting where our speaker Judy Damon talked about how to manage our stash.  She suggested this filing idea and while her method is much neater than mine,

 ... this is such a vast improvement for me and I just love actually being able to see what I have in each bin!

Including my larger pieces...

I wish I had a before photo, but trust me, this is really tidy compared to how it was before!

I did the same sorting and "filing" with my reproduction fabrics - the raw materials for my Stars in a Time Warp.  Once the stars are finished I will reincorporate these fabrics into the bins by color.

Before I was even finished with this decluttering, I found some UFO blocks from many years ago (when my friend and I taught a Block of the Month class to some church group ladies).

These blocks absolutely still "spark joy"... so I kept them, and started piecing them into a sampler.

It is just a pleasure to work in my newly decluttered space!

*a little more about the book:

Aspects of Kando's philosophy might feel whimsical and fanciful, even silly, to Western eyes - but it is very Shinto in the way she anthropomorphizes objects.  Respectful of physical surroundings and objects.  So Japanese, and so practical, and really revolutionary.  It's about carefully curating your stuff rather than repeatedly re-organizing your same old too much stuff.  Respecting your things, even realizing the sacredness in them.

I can tell you, it felt wonderful to really pare down the stuff in my sewing room.  I mean really, really pare down.  I do feel joy in that room now, more than ever before.

As for our home in general, I think living in a small apartment in Tokyo for two years taught us that we don't need a lot of stuff, and that it's actually very freeing to have very few things.  When we returned to the U.S., we really decluttered, gave away about 80% of our books, rented a dumpster, the whole works.

But now we want to go back and use the "does this spark joy?" rule and declutter even further.  

If you have read the book I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!