Finally

You know I didn't have much going first thing this morning if I could stand at the back door, look out the window watching Carlos mow the lawn. The rain finally stopped and the yard dried out. Dispite the blandness of the activity I couldn't bring myself to step away from the door and get on with breakfast. I watched Carlos ride back and forth on his John Deer,(picture to follow *) wondering when his path would take him near to or completely over the yellow flower standing so gaily in the yard amid the overgrowth.

He's not hard on the eyes, however, watching him mow was still just a tad more exciting than watching an ice cube melt.

Since the other day I've come to the conclusion that the yellow flower in our lawn is a wild flower native to this area. I have observed them growing abundantly along the first 2.5 miles of rural Scott Road which I have to travel before I get to the first cross street, first stop sign and start seeing houses again. Then there is another 2.5 before Scott Road curves 90 degrees going from a North/South road to an East/West one and becomes Broadway. There is 3/4 of a mile more onceyou are on Broadway before you get to the first stop light and back in what John my youngest grandson calls civilization.

Also, since my discovery of the plant in our yard, five or six more have sprung up. All were blooming very profusely before Carlos mowed them down. SAD Carlos, being a native of these parts probably recognizes them for what they are (weeds?). Or maybe as a man, not an artist he sees no beauty in them.

I am a lover of flowers, be they cultivated or wild. I see the beauty of flowers every where; even at the McDonalds drive thru.(picture to follow*)
Flowers do make my day.* Sorry I have to charge the batteries in the camera before I can show you the flowers and Carlos on his John Deer.

The stash and parts thereof

On more than one occassion, generally related to moving I have looked at all the fabric I have and asked myself, WHY? I know, I know fabric is our palette and when we don't have it on hand then we can not create. True, but each time I have moved I seem to weed out fabric that is no longer relevent to my current state of creativity and place it futher and futher out of sight. I've yard sold it and given it away as well. Before this move I had weeded out a large trash bag full of fabric and had no one to give it too. I really did not want to make room for it on the truck, so I left it at the Goodwill. Now I see that there are many many more yards that should have met the same fate.

How can I tell where my creative mind is? I can tell by the fabrics I fondle, fold and put away first. In this case it was my latest batch of dyed fabrics in a range of colors and values that filled 6 drawer in my wire basket system.


Then came all of my commercial yellows that read like solids, lights, medium and dark filled two drawer, but not annally heaven forbid in graduated steps.

Next were the black and white patterned commercial, because I love the high contrast of black and white. The use of them is NOT my signature because I don't use them in every piece I make.
Then I sorted the geometrics. Putting strips together with other fabrics with straight lines in the design.
Then I put all the dots fabric with circles and curved lines together.
All my greens from yellow green to blue green, greens that lean to brown etc together because they remind me of follage at different times of the year.
Not that I have much blue or want it in some cases it is good to have on hand for sky and water. All the commercial solids are stored in two bins, one larger and the other a little smaller. It is rare that I use solid fabrics. For two weeks of a classes with Nancy Crow I brought at least one yard of every color Kona made at the time and in the case of black and white 10 yards of each. Although you have on hand about 200 yards of fabric, you do not use it all up in the two weeks. IT'S YOUR PALETTE

Everyone's sorting,ordering and storage of their fabric should be done according to how you work and not by some book or another's way. I think in value yet I don't like the regementation of value steps. I love having an eclectic collection of fabric sorted in baskets as warms verses cools rather than all ten steps from light to dark.

I find that since most of my work is based on nature I would also rather have it sorted in that manner rather than by color according to value. So I have a selection pf fabrics that suggest leaves even if the color is not green.

All the browns and rust WILL be together along with anything that reminds me of soil, follage on the ground or rocks.

Oranges and reds each have their own drawers but tend to overlap when the color is red orange and I have to decide which color is dominating. And in most cases that is relative to where you place it in you composition and what is around it to influence it in one direction moreso than another. I let the work decide.

While my work is not ethnic, I do have fabrics that suggest one culture or another and they are stored together. I find them very hard to use in my work so they will not be stored in a prime location.
So if these fabrics are being relegated to outer Mongolia, why am I keeping them. I don't know. "Maybe, because I just like them hummmm"

It's the same with some large cuts of calico's I've had for YEARS. I liked them then for the work I was doing then, I like them now because of the pattern and color. I keep them because maybe someday they can be used as a backing.
Two closets


and the garage space in ORDER.
Today I am recovering my ironing surface and THEN I WILL BEGIN TO CREATE. GOD IT BEEN A LOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG TIME>

They came

on Saturday afternoon bearing a plate of brownies. The "They" are our top of the circle on the right hand side neighbors. Their house faces Loredo Trail the cross street that Satinwood Circle runs off of). Their garage door is always open, opens on our street, Satinwood Circle. The man of the house thinks keeping the garage doors open helps cool the house. This is what his wife Cecilia, mother of three, two boys 20 and 14 and daughter Sonja reported, shrugging good naturedly as if to say, "I don't know if that's true or not, but who cares". Cecilia speaks with a South American accent and said she was born in Brazil. Sonja, age 9 has very heavy,straight red hair, a round face, toothy grin was typical ly pre-teenish. She had come with her mother hoping who every opened our door had a girl her age living there. She was disappointed to learn that only boys almost the same age as her brothers lives here and the only females were my daughter and me.

I learned during our brief visit as I invited them in to sit down and chat, that they have lived here, in Columbia, for only 6 months having moved from the Newport News, VA area where they had been for nearly 20 years. I learned that both Cecila and her husband work at the University of MO. I did not asked in what capacity. Maybe next time.

She told me that our only other neighbor has been in her house for about three months and she has yet to meet her. Cecilia said she has made brownies for her on four occassions with out getting a response to her knocking. I have seen our neighbor coming and going and so has Cecilia , but neither one of us are nosey enough to figure out her schedule with the intent of intercepting her.

Cecilia said she had come to welcome us ;having made herself the unofficial welcoming committee, since she felt slighted when there was no one here to greet her when she arrived. I was glad she had made the effort. I might have said before that there are seven house in what I would consider our circle. With one lot not built on yet. I did meet the owners of that lot on the second day we were here but they reported they were not scheduled to start breaking ground until next spring having just brought their lot the week before.

Bummer, they seemed like a nice young to me couple.

To our left is a competed house unsold and to our right another one. Both built by the builder who did our house. Then the house of the lady we do not know and then two unsold houses by another builder before you get to Cecilia's house on the corner.

If you are looking for peace and quiet, we got it.

Sorry I can not report how good the brownies were because of my wheat allergy, but the fudge icing which I picked at, was finger licking good.

"Bloom where you are planted."

has always been one of my favorite quotes and has much to do with what my yesterday was about. I have so much on my mind today in rememberance of yesterday that I don't know where to start. So I will start with what started my day and that was me sitting down to have a cup of coffee and picking up a book to look through while doing so before getting to the tasks I had assigned myself to complete by days end.

The author of the book I picked up is Alexandra Stoddard, her book is titled "Feeling at Home: Defining Who You Are and How You Want to Live" She begans the book by asking you to name ten symbols that define "YOU". My ten were in no particular order of importance. Circles, Flowers, Sunshine, Loved Ones, Creativity, Warm colors, especially yellow, Home, My Art, Music and Order. With that list of things before me I realized that much of who I am is about what I do and what insires me. Flowers, circles and color. I always knew that loved ones which includes both family and friends and home was important to me. But order, hummmm, (I hate being scheduled, I hate regementation and I dislike predictability) But order, When I thought of what I had planned for myself yesterday I was happy. And surprisingly yesterday all the task I had assigned myself to complete had to do with restoring ORDER to my life, my work and my storage areas, so I could without thought put my hands on what I needed to create my art without having to look in all the places my stuff has been assigned to live.
1. Like the guest closet in the hall. (All my hand dyed fabrics)
2. Half of Lyn's bedroom closet FOR ALL THE BIG BULKY STUFF like roll of batting, floor frame and completed quilts,
3. The top shelves in my Linen Closet,(FOR ALL MY PAINTS, CRAYONS, etc.
4. In the studio space itself(books and sewing supplies (thread needles sketch books and
5. In my messy space in the garage, Equipment for dyeing. Large drawing paper.

Whew... as I have said before I can not believe I had all this stuff in one room with the exception of the large pieces of the floor frame, batting by the roll and quilts in storage.

When my coffee cup was empty, I stood to look out the back window wondering why the goddess of rain has decided to conspire against us. Everytime we have scheduled the lawn man to come, it rains. Yesterday was no exception. I woke at six in the morning to the sound of thunder, flashes of lightening and the sound of rain once again. For the last two weeks the back forty has been in desperate need of mowing and now the front yard was in need of the same except not as desperately.

As I looked out the window at the backyard, pondering just how long we would have to put up with the weeds and overgrowth. Just how long will it be before we could arrange for hydroseeding of the back forty, I noticed this little spot of yellow in the distance.


Hummmmmm. Now what is that. A weed? I could see the same color at the far left on what I think is our property line but I can not be sure about that because we haven't been able to see the property line stakes since we have been here, because the grass or what is passing as grass needs cutting.

Seeing yellow made me smile and peeked my interest. Mind you I knew the ground was possible wet, but I had on a pair of Crocs, (very washable) so out the door I went camera in hand to see what the spot was.

Four feet off the patio I began to sink into the mud. I tried to step for grass patch to grass patch, using them like stepping stones to get to the spot of yellow. The further out I ventured I began to feel like a frog looking for the next lily pad as I began to sink deeper and deeper in the mud.
The grass patches were not helping. They were getting further apart and I could see areas of standing water and inch deep in places. At one point I was in more than an inch. But I was determined and I pressed on. This is what I found.
Now I will be concerned for its survival when the lawn man comes and indescrimnately mows it down.

The rain left the humidity as high as before the rain, but the temperature did drop enough for me to work in the garage and get my messy space organized. I also assembled one of those fold down craft tables out there to use in my studio area.

In my previous space I was able to have a 30 x 60 inch table for cutting where I could put a removable ironing surface of the same size. My present space does not allow me to have a table this size that can stay in place all the time, least I invade the living room space. So the solution was to make this fold down craft table that can collapsed and rolled against a wall when not in use.

The lawn man did come. He cut the front yard without any trouble. Got stuck in the mud in the back yard and had to put down some straw to free himself. Also he got a flat tire caused by a roofing nail in the grass. Tire repaired, mower freed he did not dare try to mow as far back in the yard as the flower was located, thus the goddess of blooms is smiling and so am I. The plant will live to bloom more while awaiting the ground to dry out. Which from the weather reports won't be anyway soon because rain is predicted again today.

LIKE THIS DETERMINED PLANT, I wish for all of you that you too "Bloom where you are planted."

THIS TIME TOMORROW,

I have promised myself that all this will be a thing of the past. That order will reign on my side of Lyn's closet which serves as my quilt closet. I have always had a space where my quilts live along with the other large pieces of equipment I have acquired. As in a Norwood floor frame. (those of you who were hand quilters know that this is an extremely good piece of equipment) complete with three sizes of poles and modified with four poles.


It was great to quilt on and still will be if there is a time when I feel I can sit and quilt just for the pleasure of it.


This is my side of the garage at this moment. I plan to have it all orderly put away by tomorrow too. This area in front of my Jeep measures about 8 feet to the wall so it is a good amount of space.
With better lighting, I will make it my messy space. Perfect, because the laundry room is a few steps away with no step up. I'm going to look into those feet friendly floor mats that allow water to drain through. Nancy Crow has some great ones in her wet studio at the Barn. In this rural type community I should be able to locate them at a farm supply store without too much trouble.
A side note:
See that small box and the large white PVC pipe coming from the outside wall. That small box is our water heater. It is one of those on demand systems and I have to say I was skeptical at frist but it works Fantastically. Three people can shower at the same time ( more if we had more bathrooms) plus run the dishwasher and washing machine and never run out of hot water. How cool I mean (HOT) is that.

Blame it on the water

I believe my love affair with Starbucks coffee began as a result of visiting my daughter Lyn here in Columbia. Being a confirmed coffee drinker and she not I always came with my own coffee pot and my favorite brand of the brew. But my coffee never tasted quite the same here. So I thought it was just me. Why do we women think when something goes wrong it is our faught. Well it wasn't. It was the water.
I would drink a glass of Columbia's water when I had to take medicine and I would comment to Lyn about the odd taste. Here reply was, she didn't like the water, never drank it and uses bottled water at her offices because she could not develope a taste for Columbia's water.

Louisville as water goes has some of the best tasting water that I have come across, probably second only to the water in Canada, which just taste WET.

Having been here several times in the past four years for various lengths of time I gave up on trying to make coffee myself. The Starbuck at the corner was an easy solution to the problem of getting a decent cup of coffee. Now we live six miles from the closest STARBUCKS whereas before it was an easy walk to the next corner from Lyn's old place.

Knowing that getting coffee wasn't going to be as easily as I had done as in the past, I resorted to making tea. I always measured the taste of my tea against the tea that I get at my friend Marti's house. My tea never quite measured up in Louisvile and it certainly wasn't measuring up here in Columbia. However,while not great, brewed tea with a little honey was tolerable.

But in my quest for caffine in any form that tasted good, I resorted to a drinking Pepsi or a Coke, which ever the grandson happened to talk his mother into bringing home. But a cold glass of Coke with either yogart and blue berries or oatmeal with dried cranberries, just didn't seem to be the right thing to drink first thing in the morning.

Eureka!!!! Bottled water. Today as I sit here I am having the best cup of coffee I have had in I don't know when, even better then Starbucks because it did not cost $2.65 and I didn't have to get out of PJ to go get it.

By days end there will be no more boxes to unpack, no more window treatments to make for now. There will be quilts on the walls in all the right places. After this my part of the home decorating is done for NOW. Lyn's and the boys are still undecided what they want at their windows. They all have temperary treatments for privacy.

And although John, the grandkid promised to help me put away my fabric in some orderedly state. Which he did, I will need to refine it so I can put my hands on what I want when I need it and that is tomorrows job.
So I can now see a day in the not so distant future, (like day after tomorrow) when I will be back to working creatively with fabric, and dyes and paints and threads PURE JOY AWAITS.

Almost there, almost there

There are several lines from the original Star Wars that have stuck in my mind all these years. Quotes like " I have a bad feeling about this." "Stay on Target." and the most applicable one for today. "Almost there, almost there" which I believed followed the line "Stay on Target." I have stayed on target and have accomplished my first long distance move and have survived to talk about it. I have even with an even temper accepted the quirks about the house and have been here when service people have come to repair them. ie, the garage doors that played see-saw and opened and closed at will.

There are two doors to the garage, one for my side and one for Lyn's. It was her side that was the problem. My door would open with the remote for my side and close with my remote. But when I tried to close mine her's would open. If I tried to close her's mine would open. Thus producing this see-saw action. That happened for two or three days, then her side as if it had a mind of its own would open and close at will. It could have been doing this all night long on all three nights we in the house so when we did discover this, we unplugged her side. Which meant the outside code controll box did not work and since we were in the habit of going and coming through the garage, none of us had a key to the house on our key chains. Lyn came home one afternoon to find me out shopping and she could not get into the house. The garage man finally came yesterday and said there was a short in the system and that has now been repaired.

The electrician in coming tomorrow to fix the remote controlled fan in the great room. The ceiling in that room is at least 10 feet if not more so getting to the fan is not an EASY TASK. A new battery installed in the hand held remote did not make it run. The builder's assistant came by, climbed atop a eight foot ladder to see what the proplem was and he could not solve it. He did put light bulbs in the fixture that were not installed when the fixture was put in. Needless to say they did not come on either when the switch was flipped or the romote was tested.

Quirk number three a continously running garbage disposal. On the first day we realized that the switch that should operate the disposal produced no action. I whose back does not take kindly to bending looked under the sink to see if there was one and there was. I also noted that there was a plug just laying on the cabinet floor. I call a my daughter, she on hands and knees found the wall plug and plugged it in. The garbage disposal started working. Chewed up the stuff in the sink, but would not shut off when the wall switch was flipped. NOT GOOD. Lyn came back and unplugged it. Now for the rest of the story. They build house around here we were told with a live plug under the sink to run something cntinuously. (NOT SURE WHAT) while the outlet is controlled by the wall switch. Getting a grand child who is much more agile, he was able to see the second outlet and thus solve the problem of the every running garbage disposal. Switch on, Switch off.

Quirk #4. An unpredictable inground lawn watering system. At random, Lyn said she is wakened at 4:30 AM to the sound of the sprinkler hitting the side of the house.
I have been so bone tired the last two-three weeks from the packing and unpacking that once my head hits my pillow I hear nothing. I guess as an indication of me not being so bone tired at the end of the day anymore, this morning I heard the sprinkler, thump pause, thump, pause, thump, pause and on and on and on for twenty minutes. Then silence. Then sleep returned. So that's what she hears. The spinkler Guy Will be coming soon!!!!!

A real problem, not a quirk; a shower with NO COLD WATER. On the first evening in the house, Lyn wanted to take advantage of the one think about the house she especially loved when she frst say the house. A walk through shower with multiple shower heads.
One the first evening, she turned on the water setting the controlls about what should be a pleasant temperature once the water arrived on her side of the house from the water heater in the garage. To her surprise, thank God before she stepped in, she tested the temperture. HOT HOT HOT. She added what she thought was more cold water. HOT, HOT, HOTTER. She turned down the hot water and added more Cold, she tought, HOT HOT HOT. She tested all the other facets in her bathroom, the one to the jetted tub and the ones at each vanity, pleasant,
controllable. The plumber was called. Malfunction cold water inlet valve. This was learned after they had broken throught the wall to the back of the shower from the closet side thinking there was dirt or a rock in the cold water line. New valve installed, wall repaired with a access door incase of future problems and the sweater-t-shirt closet organizer unit was replaced. Lyn now LOVES her shower.

All and all it is a nice house and we are almost there as far as having everything in place. With a little more organization on Lyn's side of the garage she should be able to park her car inside as of tonight. Mine has been inside for several days, but there is still a lot of stuff that has to do with my studio that needs to find a home with easy assess for future use. I really cannot believe I had all of this stuff in my studio.

Tomorrow shots of the inside of the house as done as it is going to be for now.

Weathering the storm and lifes other adventures

As I promised here are some pictures of the house and the disorder I am still dealing with. I have told myself several times today that this mess really isn't THAT BAD considering we have been in the house just 7 days.
This is a view of the great room from the kitchen sink. Still a way to go as I said before it will be open house ready.


This is a view of one wall in what will be my studio space in this house.
This the view from the front door. The cars are still in the drive because the garage is still full of boxes some unpacked and waiting to be broken down for the trash collector, but far more in need of unpacking. See the lamp post that the storm and wind pushed into its present leaning position.

This is the view of the back yard as seen from the kitchen door that leads to a covered porch. The grass really need mowing and deweeding and fertilizing and reseeded. I forgot just how much work a yard can be. THE ONLY SAVING GRACE IS THE HOUSE CAME WITH AN INGROUND LAWN SPRINKLING SYSTEM. Now if there was a gardner too.
The bed rooms are livable although not totally decorated. The kitchen is functional. We found a place for everything even though we were combining two fully supplied kitchens. I learned how the Jen-aire range operates. Hurray!!! Last night I grilled pork chops on it cooked steamed broccoli and stewed corn for dinner.

Yesterday before the storm hit and the power failed I sat down at my sewing machine and did some sewing. It has been sssssssssssooooooooooooooo long since I have done that I almost felt like I SHOULD HAVE INTRODUCED MYSELF TO THE MACHINE. Good thing it remembered my touch. It worked beautifully. I made a bed skirt that will match the shower curtains in my bath and the window treatment in my bedroom. While I do not enjoy keeping house. The dusting etc. I do love to decorate and make window treatments.

Keeping in touch

I haven't told you just how much I hate to figure out how a computer works. Believe me it is not how I like spending my time. Generally when there is something to do on this thing I try to multi-task while doing it, mostly, eating a meal. That what I am doing now as I am trying to figure out how to retrieve all the email address that are in my old e-mail system and get them into this new one. I am not having much luck.
I hope that the last email that I sent from the old address got to everyone telling them of my new address. IF not I know there are some of you who I correspond with who read my blog and if you would send me your email address I can put it in my address book again.

Tomorrow I will take some shots of the progress Lyn and I have made with the house so far. You who have not moved long distance will think, is that all that's been done, while others who have had the experience of getting out of one place and leaving it in a state of habitability for the next person while trying to pack everything in a manner that will make unpacking easier for yourself on the other end will send up a few prayer on our behalf.

The plan to move in an orderly fashion looked good on paper and sounds
wonderful and it all went well until the night before when panic set in and the next morning when the movers were at the door and there was still lots left to do.
Then the mantra became just pack it and lets get on with it.

On the other end, the boxes got off loaded and stacked in no specific order dispite there lables and the unpacking of them was hodge-podge.

I didn't find any of my bed linen for three days. No other bed in the house is a king size but mine so there was no borrowing to make the bed look good, just sleepable.

No matter, I have been so tired from packing, moving and unpacking if need be I can sleep on a concrete side walk without a pillow if it came to that. Luckily it didn't.

I am beginning to learn my way around Columbia without a map, since I have had to go in search of window treatments. cleaning supplies, retrieve the grandson from school and shopping groceries. Found a wonderful little cafe with the most delicious granny smith apple salad. (Walnuts, turkey, brie and a lite raspberry poppy seed dressing ) yummmmmm!!!

My new e-mail address is jyquilts@mchsi.com.

I'm back

I'm back on line and I will begin to blog on a regular basic fairly soon. I am still living with boxes in the garage, boxes in the living room and echos because there is no quilts on the walls as yet. There are so many boxes to be unpacked, (Mostly studio stuff) in fact that the cars live in the driveway.
The one thing that makes me the happiest about this house is that there are no dark rooms. The sun comes in at the most perfect angles.

The one thing I am unhappy about, is that the studio. The space is a mess and I am frustrated that I can not wave a wand and majically make all the stuff go to where it belongs without me carrying it there.

I will be back in Louisville the first week in September for a couple of days and I am trying to have all the unpacking done before I go so that when I come home I can work.

I will post some images of the house as soon as I can and tell you about the adventures of moving in and discovering the quirks of the house. No house is perfect, I've known that fact for a very long time. But it becomes moreso in ones mind the more you feel as though the house is HOME and I am getting there very quickly.

The clean up

Lyn called this morning to say the truck was there and unloaded. YEAH!!!, I have my nephews and the brother in law of one of them to thank for all the help; loading and driving the truck to Columbia. Lyn arranged for three other men to unload on her end.

For the rest of today and possibly tomorrow I will be cleaning. goodbye for now. I will post once I get to Columbia in a few days.

This time yesterday

there were boxes and boxes everywhere. As of 1:30 PM today, not a box insight. THEY AND ALL THE FURNITURE IS all packed on the truck. YEAH!!! Elation was seeping from every sweaty pore todays as I supervised the loading of the truck, deciding what had to be on it and what COULD go if room permitted. I had no idea that I could fill a 26 foot truck with no room to spare mainly because of what was in my studio. Just think what today would have been like if I had not left a packed to the brim jeep load full of studio stuff at Lyn's on the last two TRIPS I made to her house.

No matterhow well organized you are or how closely you supervise, something always goes array. In this case I had left out and set aside for myself a plastic bin with clean undies and nighties to be used until I was ready to go and a small suitcase with outer wear. Well the outer ware I have, but the only undies I have are the ones I am wearing and the only nighties I have are the ones I woke in this morning. I will have to go shop or handwash and hang dry each day for a couple of days. Stinky is NOT an option.

All that is left now is the clean up. I have decided that with the new move, no matter how unattractive it might look I am putting my bedroom chest and secretary desk on those furniture disc so I can move the furniture every once in a while to vacuum under them. I will do the bed too since my vacuum will not go under the bed rails. It is a sin what is under stuff you have not becaue you could not moved in years.

Now to patch the nail holes paint where necessary clean the window, kitchen and bathrooms or rather have Brenda, my house helper do the cleaning part the grandboys the patch and paint part so I can leave and lock the door on this part of my life. Gven practice to my favorite Emerson quote, "Finish the day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well."

Boxes boxes everywhere

and still a dozen or so more to go. It seems I see the more I pack the more that needs to be packed.

At least today I don't have to make another trip to the box factory. I went two days in a row because I had underestimated the number I needed.

So no more putting off til tomorrow.

I must press forward today and get it all done. The truck is coming on Friday and leaving on Saturday.