I opened my closet and

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what did I see,
the biggest mess in the world, it seemed to me.
So I got busy and dived into the piles
and discovered yards of fabric that went on for miles.
I found a lot that I dyed and a lot that was new
However most were years old, but very few blues.

Okay, enough of this. I am not writing this whole blog entry in prose.

I had no plans to clean the closets when I opened the doors on Tuesday morning. I was just looking for my Muse. With no firm idea in mind, I was hoping my Muse could be tempted by color when it hadn't been by what I saw in my sketch books.
What smacked me in the face was lots of greyed purples that did not help lift my mood or inspiring me and what I thought was, "no self respecting Muse would be caught dead admitting that she was inspired by the blahs that presented there."

Surely, I thought, I must have some happier colors in here somewhere, some clearer colors, some more oranges and reds and happy blues. On looking harder, I found them hiding in a bin on the top shelf. I guess they were up there because I had no room for them on the selves.
I am still trying to work in the space I have now and in the year or so that I have been here it still isn't fitting like a well loved pair of kid gloves yet. There's more tweeking to be done. I think it is because my creative area is so fragmented.
One of the things I loved about my old space was the ability to see what I had by glancing about my studio. Everything but my large rolls of batting was contained within my studio room. The fabric was organized by colors, prints were with prints, hand dyes and commerical solids had their places too and there bins labels according to what the fabric reminded me of; leaves, water, sky, rocks, etc and this worked well for me. Imagine, all of my fabric folded neatly in wire drawers that were under my work table or standing as a base for a work surface. And for a time I could pay my youngest grandson a Dollar a drawer to resort and refold. Ahhhh those were the days.
Here I don't have the space and or the ability to shut out the light that would fade the fabric over time if I could fit them under the two work tables. So I settled for two closets to hold my stash. One with stacked wire shelves and the other has 6 wire shelves attached to the wall. But since the fabric was in two separate places it made coordinating the hand dyes with the commercial prints and with the solids harder. What it has been is a pain.

So far the last three nights I have been sleeping with piles of fabric on the unoccupied side of my king size bed as I sorted and refolded and decided what to keep and what to get rid of.

To have... just to have... has never been part of my being. And I have always said too, if I don't love it, it must go.
And it was beginning to seem that having to have was exactly what I was doing by keeping all those yards and yards of fabric. And why was it still here when I could honestly say, I had fallen out of love with most of it a long time ago. I know there are some of you who are saying, but your fabric is your palette. Well yes, that is true if you are still using that palette, but when you have moved on, what is it then.

So I offered to sell my Kona solids; that I had acquired 3 years ago for 2 weeks of classes with Nancy Crow, to anyone who wanted them and got a taker. Today, I packed it all into three boxes that are now in the hands of UPS and on the way to that person.
I offered my commercial prints to anyone who could make use of them and got a taker for all of it too. The new owners will be a quilt guild that does charitiable project. For them I think I will have about four boxes to send off on Monday.
I did keep a few of my newer pieces and some longer lengths that were purchased for quilt backs.
Now when I look in my closet I can see what I have and what I really need, which is some blues and some greens and some true reds. I'm itching to get out the dyes and plunge in if only it would warm up enough to spend some time in the garage.

And as I was fondling and folding and sorting several idea played through my head, so after the box packing tomorrow it will be back to the studio and to work.