How to Pass Winter in the Blink of an Eye

Yeah, I know there’s plenty of winter left here in the Northern Hemisphere. But it did feel like spring for several days here this week, which is like an unplanned vacation in my book. I actually was able to get out in the yard for a couple hours on two days to spray weeds and do some garden spring cleanup.

And the winter really is flying by, helped by the relentlessly-approaching mid-February deadline (self-imposed, but now set in stone by a date with a photographer) to get the house photographed for the MLS listing. So let me gab for a few paragraphs about that before we turn to the meager sewing I got done this week! 

Last Saturday my son Ryan and DDIL Kim came over and helped us take stuff out to the backyard junk heap. We had lovely, sunny weather. Then we shuffled desks, bookcases, beds, etc. to make the three upstairs bedrooms more presentable (staging the house for showings). Kim and I hung or re-hung photos, put out fresh greenery and bedding, etc. Then we relaxed and went out to dinner and just had fun. 

On Monday I went to get my annual cortisone shots in my shoulder, so I didn’t do any wall painting this week per doctors orders. Oh, and we got the credit pre-approval process done with the title company we’ll be dealing with. I arranged for the windows and screens to be cleaned on Tuesday, inside and out. We also scheduled the junk dealer to come on Tuesday. They hauled away so much stuff, and the beauty of it is that they will donate/recycle anything useable (bookshelves, some electronic equipment, wood, etc. So on Tuesday all of that - windows and junk removal - happened according to plan. Big sigh of relief. I still have some furniture to give away and will be posting those photos to the community website later this weekend. 

Later in the week, we looked at a condo, made an offer, then spent a restless night of dread, realizing the work that needed to be done on the new place was not what we wanted. We don’t need a renovation project, just a future home. So we rescinded our offer before the sellers had a chance to respond. In so doing, I came to realize that I’m overly anxious about this process of timing the selling of this home with the buying of a condo. Basically, I’ve never done it before! When I was married to my first husband, we built the two homes we lived in. When Bruce and I got together 22 years ago, we rented this house for the first six months. We fell in love with it and bought it. Easiest “move” we ever had; went to the title company as renters and returned home as owners. 

So, all that to say that my sewing time was precious little this week. My first priority, however, was adding the second border to my SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin) piece.  

Also, I’d like to apologize to everyone who left comments last week. I read and appreciated every single one, but never got around to answering any. Shame on me. I’m thinking maybe sleep time is overrated, 

This week was Anja’s turn to call out the next round, and she chose “two colors” as the challenge. I wanted to pull out some orange from the center area, so chose orange and white as the two colors for my next round. 

That bottom edge looks a little wavy, which happens with borders if you’re not careful. But it might be my pinning. Either way, it will be corrected before the next round.  I’m linking to the SAHRR link-up for Round Two  at Anja’s blog. 

I didn’t forget my beloved Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week, no matter how busy I was. But truth be told, it took next to no time to whip out these Color Stix blocks by Cynthia Brunz in February’s RSC color of the month, red. 

The Color Stix quilt, when completed, will be sent to Cynthia Brunz for her Compassion Quilt drive. 

And in case you were wondering (or even remembered) about my personal Quilt Kit Challenge, I did not finish the third January quilt yet. It, along with the “green strings and blobs” quilt top I made still need to be basted and quilted. But they have backings and are ready for their turns under the needle. 

But that didn’t stop me (and Ruby and Cousin Kim) from picking the numbers for my three quilt challenge packets for February. The numbers we picked were 15, 21 and 22.  Here are the corresponding bags of scraps and yardages: 

On Kit #15, which is another bag of 2.5” strips I coordinated at some point, I am so tempted to do another quilt where I merely sew the strips together along the long edges, like the one I did last month. It would show a total lack of creativity on my part, but desperate times call for desperate measures. On the other hand, if there are too many (I haven’t even counted yet), I could do a simple rail fence quilt which would be easy and fun. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

So tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to an Open House for a move-in ready townhouse in nearby Holladay here in the Salt Lake Valley. And then a stop at Target for another comforter and Home Depot. I will also be spackling holes in two walls of our downstairs office/bedroom in preparation for painting next week. 

There is a light at the end of this house-prep tunnel - I can see it! Or is that an oncoming train?