Learning my limits

It was one of those restless days - too confined in a small space, too gray, too windy, too rainy, too....blah.  I had to get out and away for a while.  Left Brain was off playing golf and I had the car for my personal use, so I left.


First I revisited some of the RV dealers we had been to to re-look at some of the motorhomes now that it seems we have zeroed in on this as our choice of rig.  I've gotten good at being able to identify almost immediately whether or not which ones I could live in and which I can't, but now I wanted to see them with a different eye.  Where would my fabric stash and art supplies go?

Bag I made for the megillah at synagogue

Being forced to pare down on my clothes and things in general isn't that big a deal for me, I've been leaning that way the last couple of years already with the need to reduce clutter.  But my fabric!  Now we're on sacred ground here...this needs to be dealt with carefully.
You need a significant stash to do the crazy quilt kinds of things I really enjoy, like this project I did for the synagogue some years back.

As I'd go through each kitchen I could visualize where my pressure cooker and favorite toys would be stored, where the dishes would go, where the printer could set, finding a location for the dreaded litter box, etc.  


But there just didn't seem to be enough space for my art supplies, not to mention my show set up.  And believe me, I've worked hard to get my show set up down to a minimum as it is and have invested good money in new supplies to make it happen.

Custom tote bag using the watercolor
painting of Rosemary Guttormsen

After leaving the dealers lots with brochures of rigs I liked so I could recall the floor plans, I settled in for a little lunch while I read brochures and dreamed...my favorite activities.


Then, I don't know why, I had an intense desire (dare I say obsession?) to find a book store.  The closest Barnes & Noble was over 35 miles away and I just didn't feel like driving that far.  So I happened upon a CVS (there's one every few blocks) and went in hoping they had a small book and magazine section.

This one is small and will go with me

Hooray!  They did! Not that I was going to find any Art Doll Quarterly or Sunshine Artists magazines, or even any Photoshop ones, but they did have some.  I perused these like someone stranded on a desert island studying a water cooler.  It felt so good...so normal.  And then I started to make my choices.


The first one I picked up was a gardening magazine and as I flipped through the pages I recalled that I will no longer have my own garden and reverently put it back.  Sigh.  

I just love making tote bags!

Then I picked up some kind of Martha Stewart looking thing and oohed and aaahed over the bold color combinations and cute furniture and remembered that soon I would be living in the world of built ins and a motorhome where everything comes as it is.  You can swap some stuff out, but because it needs to be secured structurally into the slide outs and be bolted down, this isn't as easy as in a house.  This too was put Add captionback.


Cooking magazines - nah, I have a stash of those I need to get rid of soon as it is, no sense buying another.  Then the enormity of what I'm leaving really hit me and I had a moment of "what the hell have I done?"

It was the simplicity of the quilt design on the Simply Quilts magazine that pulled me in.  I haven't bought a quilt magazine forever and have several books and magazines I need to part with soon as it is.  But this one was perfect!  Each article and pattern provided (except two) were things I could see myself making someday....somewhere....somehow.  Well, I had to have something from the magazine section.  I had to have something that promised creativity again when I returned home, so I bought it.

This is a panel I bought while in Alaska and did the quilting.  It may travel with as it is nonbreakable, soft, lightweight and well, handmade.  It is a reminder of how I should be living my new life - we could all learn from cats.

This reaffirmed in my mind what I can let go of and what I cannot.  Thankfully I am married to an understanding man who gets it.  So, I told him my story and that I cannot, I will not give up my sewing stuff and creativity - it's like breathing.


He reassured me (for the 109th time) that I could have as much space as I needed in the motorhome for all my stuff so I can keep sewing and creating on the road in my new life.  When I informed him he has no idea how much stuff I have, he just smiled and said 'oh yes he did'.  He's seen my little shop of horrors and knows what kind of space it takes. 


So, I told him I wanted the full crew cab pick up truck with a locking sliding topper on it as I will probably have to store tubs of fabrics and stuff in the bed of the truck in addition to under the motorhome.  And he's okay with it.


Am I a lucky woman or what?


Long Live the Queen and Left Brain