Playing with Knives

When I was a child, I actually had a knife that I played with. When I visited Mexico, we took a tour to a jungle village and the little kids were walking around with Machetes. Some suggest that we have made our children's lives too safe and clean. But that's not really what this post is about. <smile> It's about proper use of our basic kitchen knives. If you're like me, most of your knife-work has been with basic utility knives, preferably with a serrated edge, and occasionally a bread knife. What is that big, dangerous-looking chef's knife, that comes in every knife set, actually for? And how do you use it? I've been cooking for many years (and cut my share of fingers), but I don't think I've ever actually used a chef's knife, yet it's supposedly the most important knife in my kitchen. I have actually considered buying a book on using knives because apparently I can be more efficient if I use them properly. Besides, I don't really need a knife block taking up counter space if I only ever use a couple of the knives in it. As a vegan, I won't be using my steak knives for steak (unless it's gluten steak, also known as seitan) or my boning knife for boning, but all of my knives might actually be useful if I know their proper use and function. So I was really pleased to discover that Craftsy is offering Complete Knife Skills with Brendan McDermott. What's even more exciting is that it's FREE! I'm looking forward to actually knowing how to use that array of knives in my knife block.

Work in Progress: Bluenose II Pixel Quilt - Part 1

I finally got all of my fabric for the Bluenose II quilt. Or at least I thought I did. There were a several colours that I only needed a bit of, and so I bought a Kona dark spectrum charm pack for some of these colours. Unfortunately, with all of the comparing, matching, organizing, and coordinating of colours, I mistakenly thought one of the colours that I needed was in this charm pack. And it wasn't. So I was without that particular colour. However, I chose a colour that was in the charm pack that was closest to the colour I needed and used that. I only needed two squares of that colour anyway.
I'm also short on backing fabric. Through the evolution of this quilt plan, the size of the quilt has grown and I'm going to need more backing fabric than I originally estimated. 

Backing fabric

However, I have found some on eBay that I think matches. I will have to explore further and determine if I can get a sufficient quantity or I may have to pursue another option. 
For those of you who haven't been following my blog, I'll start at the beginning of this quilt's story. My youngest sister, Cindy, will be turning 50 in March of this year. She had been hinting that she would like a quilt and so I determined to make one for her 50th birthday. I pondered over what quilt I would make for her. 
Around this time I enrolled in Craftsy's free Pictures to Pixel Quilts Class. I was not impressed with the idea of making a quilt of the course instructor's eye (which is what the sample quilt is), so I was working on a pixelated hydrangea. It was pretty tedious and I lost my enthusiasm. 
One day as I was sitting eating lunch, I was reading an article in the latest copy of Canada's History magazine about the Bluenose II and sudden inspiration struck. I would make my sister a pixel quilt of the Bluenose II. It seemed to me like the perfect idea! Cindy lives in Nova Scotia, the home of the Bluenose II. She loves Canadian history and the Bluenose II is a part of our history. Cindy also loves the ocean, and the Bluenose II is a ship (it's the schooner featured on our dime). 
Here's an actual picture of the Bluenose II:

She's a beauty, isn't she? 
I uploaded this picture to Pic 2 Pat, a website that turns pictures into cross stitch patterns, which can then be used for pixel quilts. Here's the pixelated version of the picture:

I'm not actually certain if this is the final version of the picture that I'm using. It's been through so many evolutions and design decisions. I finally settled on making the actual pixel part of the quilt large enough to cover the bedtop (actually it's going to be a little larger) with a border of two different fabrics: one of tropical fish and the other of seashells on the sand.

I will pick colours out of these two fabrics to make the four corner blocks, which will all be ocean-related. 
Back to the pixel part of the quilt, I bought a DMC floss card and a Kona colour card to compare colours and choose fabrics. One of the things I decided to do to make this process easier was take my Kona card to Michael's and compare it to actual floss. My buddy Phil was with me. He's a sign painter and used to matching colours, so was a great help. I ended up with 67 different colours for the pixel part of the quilt. That's a whopping amount of different fabrics.  It's important to keep very good track of which fabric is which (especially since they're mostly different shades of blue), so I labelled each piece with the DMC floss number from the pattern.

This is just a small amount of the total fabric. 
As I was working on the first blocks, I realized that it would be more efficient if I could keep track of the fabrics that I'm using for the current blocks more efficiently. I resorted to a bin system:

Each bin is labelled with the DMC colour number and the symbol used on the actual pattern. Many of the blocks have only a few colours, so this system works well for them. Here are the first two blocks in the top row:

Here's block number 7 (far right) in the top row:

That one was probably the simplest block in the quilt. Here's the beginning of the centre top block:

As you can see, some of them can be quite complex, and piecing them is a job best done when I'm alert. It would be too easy to mix up the colours. And with 67 different colours, there are lots to mix up. Those two dark squares are the ones I had to use a substitute fabric for.
They don't look like much yet. It remains to be seen how well things shape up as the quilt progresses.
The pattern is divided up into 10x10 squares, so that is how I am doing the blocks. However, as the pixel section is 63x72, the top and right hand rows will be slightly larger.
I started out pressing the seams to one side, but with as many seams as there are in these blocks, I switched and started pressing them open instead. 
Yes, I am "cheating" and cutting larger pieces of fabric where there are larger sections of one colour. I am not doing it all in individual 1" squares. Even so, it's a tedious job and I don't know if I'll be able to finish it on time for my sister's birthday. But I will do my best. 
Tonight I took a break from quilting to make a bib. I hate plastic bibs. What good are they? Everything just rolls right off them and lands in my grandson's lap. And I like a longer bib with sleeves that does a better job of protecting his clothing when he's feeding himself. When Sophia was little, I made her several longer bibs with sleeves out of terrycloth. But guess what? I couldn't find any terrycloth at Fabricland to buy. All they had was white stretch terry velour. Not what I want for a bib. So today I went in WalMart and bought some cheap towels. I've finished one bib. It was a really quick job because I wanted at least one bib to start with. Now that I've done one, I have a better idea of what I need to change for the second time around. Unfortunately, my sewing room is not completely set up in the basement and some of my supplies are still in my grandson's room. And he's sleeping. So I didn't do as good a job with this bib as I could have. But it'll work. And it's just a bib. It's not a fashion statement. And it should help prevent the mountains of laundry to be done. 

Scrappy Shine Quilt

Monday of this past week was a scheduled day off for me, so I booked time on long arm quilter at Sparrow Studioz. Fortunately for me, they were offering a 2 hour freebie to their customers, so I didn't have to pay for 2 of my 4 hours on the long arm. I was able to get both my Scrappy Shine and my Bearly Hockey quilts quilted. I just finished the binding on the Scrappy Shine this morning.

And here's the back:

Hurray! I actually managed to pick a backing that's appropriate to the top. How do you like those ice cream cones? 
Here's a closeup of the quilting (and the backing):

I believe the pantograph was called "Lots of Love." Look carefully to see all of the hearts within hearts. It was a fair amount of work compared to Bumpity, the first pattern I used, and even more than "Stars and Clouds," which was the pattern I used for Sophia's quilt. It took me about 2.5 hours to quilt it. I imagine I'll get better and faster as I get more experience. This was only my third quilt on the long arm. 
Now a little background on this quilt: some time ago, I won a baby charm pack and pattern from Jackie Berdych of Sew Excited Quilts. Not having an immediate need for a baby quilt, and having several other projects on the go already, I stored them for future reference. Then I picked up a copy of Fons & Porter's Scrap Quilts (Fall 2013). As I perused its pages, I came across a pattern that really tickled my fancy. I just love the way the red stars pop out of this quilt. it uses charm squares and was a good size for a baby quilt, 43-1/2" x 50". I decided that this was a good project for my baby charm pack. It actually requires 3 charm packs, which aren't readily available in my town. Instead I bought several fat quarters of children's fabric and cut the required pieces from them. I also purchased the red fabric, and, finding out that one of my nephews had applied to adopt a second child, I started on the quilt. He and his wife now have a little girl in their home, fostering for the present, until all the legalities of adoption can proceed. This is a fairly gender-neutral quilt, so I didn't choose the pink binding fabric until I knew they were getting a little girl. I also used pink for the top thread when quilting as well.
Also this past week, I got my order from Pink Chalk Fabrics for the Bluenose II quilt.

I have labelled all of the fabrics for this quilt with the corresponding DMC floss colour number. Hopefully, that will help keep me organized as I go along. I think I have sufficient colours that I can get started on the blocks while waiting for the final order to come from Fat Quarter Shop. 
Meanwhile my daughter has washed and dried her fabric for the dress and the quilt she plans to make. I'll see what Sophia wants to do, but I may pay for her to take the Long Arm class at Sparrow Studioz so that she can finish her quilt that way. 
Feel free to share a link to your project if you like.
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Show & Tell: The Week's Progress

This past week, I moved a shelf unit into my basement craft studio from the garage. There is a "sort of closet" in the craft studio that had a rod for hanging clothes. I removed the rod because the shelf unit was too tall to fit under the rod. I'm really hesitant to invest in putting any permanent shelving in there since my daughter and I are considering moving to another home. Anyway, the shelf unit is in there, but I haven't had a chance to start filling it yet. No doors on this "sort of closet," so I hung the flannel sheet I use as a design wall in front of it. There's not really any other wall space available for a design wall, but it does make it kind of challenging putting pieces on it since there's nothing solid behind it to press against.
I've also made some progress on the Scrappy Shine quilt:

This is it so far, hanging on the design wall. I have two more rows of charm squares to add and two rows of sashing. I hope to finish that today (Sunday) because I have already booked time on the Long Arm tomorrow. Sparrow Studioz is having a special freebie: a maximum 2 hour session free. I also have the Bearly Hockey quilt that hasn't been quilted yet, so I'm hoping to quilt them both, though I doubt if I can get them both done in 2 hours. If I had a lot more long arm experience, I might be able to, but this will only be my 3rd and possibly 4th quilt. As long as no one has booked the 2 hour slot after me, I can still continue to quilt, so I was told when I booked my time.
On Friday, my order from Mad About Patchwork for the Bluenose II quilt arrived. I'm impressed with their service. They allow you to order a 1/4 yard (some merchants will only sell a half yard) and will cut it as a fat quarter. They ship your order out quickly and the shipping costs are very reasonable. I expect to do business with them again. 

Bluenose II quilt fabrics from Mad About Patchwork

They even labelled all of the fabric with the Kona name. This is the first and largest order I've placed for the pixel part of the Bluenose II quilt. I still have fabric coming from Pink Chalk Fabrics and Fat Quarter Shop.  I have previously dealt satisfactorily with Pink Chalk Fabrics, but this is my first transaction with Fat Quarter Shop. I also picked up a few solids previously that I will be using in this quilt. I need to get moving with it because I'm hoping to have it finished and in my sister's hands by her birthday March 23. I had planned on starting first thing this month, but it took longer than I expected to match, choose, and order all of the fabric. And of course I had to relocate my sewing room in the meantime. Too bad I have to work for a living or I could devote full time to quilting. LOL! I may not make it in time for her birthday, but if I can make substantial progress, I'll be happy. 

A friend posted this on facebook and I just thought I'd share it here because it really made me laugh out loud. I'm not sure how differently I'd dress because my dream job is to own my own quilt shop. :-)
So what have you accomplished this past week?
Here's my button:

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Show & Tell Guidelines

1. Link up any recent post that features your current creative project. And it can be a work in progress as well.
2. Please remember to link to your actual blog post, not your main blog page, so others don't have to search.
3. Somewhere in your blog post, you must link back to my blog or put the 'Show & Tell' button in your sidebar. 
4. Please don't just add your link and go. Check out a few of the other links and comment. The best idea is to check out the 3 or 4 links just previous to yours. That way every link will get visited. And maybe you'll pick up a few new followers along the way.
5. You don't have to follow me to post your link on my blog, but that would be much appreciated.
6. Have fun. This is a party after all.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Stand Still!

I'm a bit of a Type A personality, the kind of person who likes to get things done, solve problems, fix things (having said all that, I also readily admit that I can also be very lazy at times, but that's a topic for another time...). When a problem presents itself, I think, ponder, mull, research, until I can figure out how to resolve it. Often I come up with several ideas, some better than others. But sometimes, I'm frustrated because I can't seem to come up with a workable solution. And so I will continue to explore different ideas, trying some, tossing others. But I also want issues to be resolved ASAP.
Right now, there's an issue that needs to be resolved for my daughter and I. And the sooner the better. As I was thinking and praying about it, I was scrolling through some favourite Bible texts that I have stored on my Android tablet, and one that the Lord really impressed me with was 2 Chronicles 20:17: "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord."  On this particular occasion, a massive army, composed of three different nations, was coming to fight against God's people. God's people turned to Him in prayer, and this was His answer. And they did not need to fight in the battle because the different nations composing the enemy army ended up fighting one another and destroying each other. There's another occasion when God's people are told to stand still. Exodus 14:13, 14: "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." This was at the Red Sea. God's people had recently escaped slavery in Egypt. They were travelling with women, children and livestock and were in no way prepared for a battle. Suddenly, the Egyptians showed up prepared to fight to recapture their slaves and the Israelites cried out in terror. The Red Sea in front of them, the Egyptians behind them: what were they going to do? Nothing! Again, they didn't need to fight this battle. God opened the Red Sea, they went through. The Egyptians tried to follow them, and were drowned in the Red Sea. 
While God certainly expects me to do my part, - the Israelites wouldn't have been saved if they hadn't gone forward through the opening in the Red Sea - too often I take upon myself too much responsibility for the outcome. And get impatient when things don't get resolved according to my timeline. Based on these Bible stories, I need to quit trying to fix things myself, get out of the way and let God work. The solution is not dependent on my intellectual brilliance (or lack thereof). Sometimes the answer is to just stand still and watch God work.

Show & Tell: Making Some Progress on My Basement Craft Studio

Hopefully I can actually get my linky party to work properly this week...
Last week I shared my daughter's quilt, which I was able to complete by squeezing in and around the piles in my "new" basement craft studio. But the studio was still too cluttered and congested to do that on an ongoing basis.
Last evening I was able to clear enough floor space to set up my cutting table.

I've moved that bookshelf in the background into the craft area to make room for my office stuff, which also had to be moved to the basement. It is now holding my hobby-related books: quilting, crocheting, gardening, even woodworking, and some bins holding fabric and sewing patterns. To the left in this picture is my "vintage" central vac. It came with the house and I'm sure it was installed when the house was built in the 1970s, but it still works! On the right is my stack of extra chairs for when I have more company than my dining chairs accommodate (most recently Wasn't That a Party!). Where else do I stack them? That's my new blue cutting mat that I bought at the New Year's Day Sale at Fabricland sitting on the cutting table. You're probably wondering why I have a textbook and a bread machine stacked on top of it. :-). You know how you're supposed to keep them flat? Well, I drive a pickup truck and we are an hour's drive from the Fabricland. Where to store it for the trip home? I don't have a cover on the box of my pickup truck, so it would have been exposed to the elements and it was quite cold that day. The cutting mat could have gotten stiff and broken if it was sliding around in the box. And technically, the bottom of the box is not flat; it's corrugated. So, I stuck the cutting mat in the back seat (I have an extended cab). What harm could it do for just an hour's trip? Well, the cutting mat now has a ripple along one edge, which I am trying to remedy by applying weight to that edge. Hence, the textbook and bread machine. 
Earlier in the week, I was able to hang my pegboard, so all of my rulers, cutters, etc. are organized and locatable once again.

There's a small bulkhead (I think that's what you call it - an enclosure for plumbing, wiring and ductwork to run) above where I hung it. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and the shelf on the pegboard is a little too close to the bulkhead. I can not fit my pencil can, containing my fabric markers, etc., on the shelf. But the pencil can is small enough that I can easily find another spot for it. 
Though my studio is far from finished, I now have enough space and order that Sophia and I can resume our projects.
One fly in the ointment: I have been considering moving into administration in my career and I feel it would be wise to pursue my Master's degree in order to facilitate this. While I'm definitely not opposed to higher education (I was awarded my Bachelor's in 2012), working full time and studying part time pretty much excludes hobbies. If I choose to pursue my Master's degree, it would seriously curtail my ability to pursue quilting, crocheting, etc., not only time-wise, but financially as well. Higher education is not cheap. Much to think and pray about.
Now it's your turn. Share what's up in your world. Here's my button:

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Show & Tell: Dreamweaver Quilt

I just finished putting the binding on the Dreamweaver quilt:

 

This is the quilt I've been making for my daughter. So, it's finished and in her possession. She wrapped up in it immediately after these shots. Here's the back.

Yes, I picked another backing that's not necessarily consistent with the quilt top. Stars in the night sky for the quilt top and sunflowers for the backing, but it's pretty, it's orange (Sophia's favourite colour) and Sophia likes it. 
Mystery, of course, didn't think I could manage it without him.

Applying the binding with Mystery's help

Indeed, all of that lovely indigo blue background is covered with long white cat hair.
This is a close up of the quilting. 

I did it at Sparrow Studioz, of course, and used a pantograph in the pattern "Stars & Clouds." I figured that was the most consistent with the quilt top.
The quit pattern is from the Quick Strip Paper Piecing course available on the Craftsy website.
My basement sewing/craft studio has yet to be set up, but I managed to squeeze in enough space to trim that quilt and apply the binding. Now, I need to focus on getting the studio organized...
So what have you accomplished this week? It's your turn to share. 
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A Sound Mind

On April 1st of this year, it will be 15 years since I moved to Alberta. Add to that the year I lived in BC ('94-'95) and the two years I lived in Saskatchewan ('95-'97) and I will have lived 18 years of my adult life away from my home province. Assuming one becomes an adult at age 18 (which is debatable), subtracted from my current age of 54, I have been an adult for 36 years, which means I have spent half of my adult life living outside of Ontario. During those years, my desire to return to my home province has waxed and waned. BC was the only province, other than Ontario, where I felt content to stay for the long term. However, I only lived there for one year, so that could have changed if I'd stayed there longer. During the past 6-12 months, I have felt Ontario's tug on my heart strings grow stronger and stronger. My parents are gone. My brother is gone. Who knows how much longer I have with my remaining siblings? Life has no guarantees. I miss them, being able to see them regularly, getting together on the holidays. I also miss my home province. I miss fall colours. I miss being able to buy fruit direct from the orchard. I miss milder winters. I just plain miss Ontario. The last time I was there, I had a really hard time returning to Alberta. So, I have actually started exploring the possibility of moving back. I have already started the process of reactivating my Ontario nursing registration. But I'm still not sure. The economy continues to lag in Ontario. I have a good job here. I own my house. There's a lot to consider. For interest's sake, go to Google Maps and see how far it is from Edmonton to Toronto: 3473 km or 2158 miles. That's an astounding distance to move. And I know from personal experience that it's neither cheap nor easy. I've moved from Ontario to BC, BC to Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan to Ontario and Ontario to Alberta. I'm really not in a hurry to do it again. And I own more stuff, I think, than I ever did. But Ontario is calling me...
Meanwhile my daughter has moved back home with her son. She wants to be a health care aide to be able to support herself and her son, but shift work and single motherhood are not a good combination. She has custody issues and child support issues to settle. And how do she and Damian fit in with my plans to move to Ontario? I wish I could fix her life for her, come up with the right solutions to get her back on her feet again and her life going in the right direction. But I can't and it frustrates me. And I'm confused. And I haven't been sleeping well at night, which only adds to my stress. 
Then suddenly I realized that these aren't my problems to solve. I don't have to fix all of these things myself. As a matter of fact, my trying to fix things on my own might just make them more complicated. I just need to get out of God's way so that He can resolve things in His own way and time. Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30. The Bible also tells us to "Cast... all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7. Finally, when all of these problems and issues are driving me crazy, I need to remember that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7. I can trust Him. He knows the end from the beginning and He has a solution. I can keep a "sound mind," a peaceful mind, knowing that He is in charge and has all of the answers, so I don't have to.

Damian's First Visit to a Fabric Store

Yesterday my daughter, my grandson and I went to the New Year's Day sale at Fabricland. It was Damian's first visit to a fabric store. He's 16 months old. Initially he stood just inside the door, dumbfounded, I assume by all the different colours and patterns of fabric. And how much of it there was. Then I got a shopping basket. You know those shopping baskets you can get at the grocery store when you're only getting a few items? Well, these were similar, only bigger and they had wheels and a pull handle. Damian took to that basket immediately and began pushing it around the store at high speed. I monitored and guided his course while his mother was looking at fabric. I hadn't really come to buy fabric for me. All I wanted was a new cutting mat, preferably the big rollable one. However, once I grabbed one, I kept looking at it and considering whether or not it would fit on my cutting table. I thought it looked wider, but Sophia thought not. However, I eventually decided it was too wide and instead opted for a Unique 24"x36" cutting mat, which is still bigger than my 18"x24" one. I was glad I had made this choice when I got home and measured my cutting table. 32" wide, whereas the rollable cutting mat is 36" wide. I also had a quick look for railway/train fabric, without success. Sophia never noticed any either. My buddy Phil is a big railroad fan and I'd like to make him a quilt to coordinate with his interests. In my internet surfing, I became aware of the Rail King quilt using Quilting Treasures Rail King fabric and I saved the pattern to my computer for "future consideration." Recently, I was able to purchase some fabric from the Locomotion line from Benartex. When I saw this fabric, I wondered if there was a pattern using it and sure enough, I found Benartex had this All Aboard quilt pattern, and I saved that one to my computer as well.
Here's the panel:

 

And here's the other fabric I bought from the same line:

You can see both of these are used in the All Aboard pattern.
I'm finding the Locomotion fabric is not all that easy to find. One US vendor I wanted to purchase from wanted to charge me over $25 for shipping 1 yard of fabric. When I had 3 or 4 yards in my shopping cart, the shipping jumped to over $30. That's much too dear and not what shipping needs to be. I know that a USPS Global Priority envelope to Canada, which can fit up to 11 yards of fabric, costs only $19.95, so I'm not sure why the exorbitant shipping costs with this vendor. However, the Rail King fabric seems to be more readily available, and from vendors whose shipping is more reasonable. And the Rail King quilt is bigger. I will probably end up combing fabric from both lines and alter the Rail King quilt pattern slightly to use the Locomotion fabric as well.
Meanwhile, my daughter was choosing fabric. I took her to some quilting classes when she was about 10 or 12, but she hasn't done any quilting since. I don't think she's ever finished a quilt. She hasn't sewn any clothing for quite a few years either. And she wants to get back into it, both quilting and sewing. She is going to use the Bric and Stones pattern from Annie's Learn to Make a Quilt from Start to Finish online class. You can see a picture of a finished quilt in this pattern here. Here's the fabric Sophia chose for the quilt top:

I don't think I've ever made a quilt using only 2 fabrics, but I do like the pattern and the fabrics she's chosen. My daughter's favourite colour is orange, by the way.
We also spied this fabric in the bargain section:

 

We both liked it, so I asked her if she wanted some. She then selected four dress patterns (at $1.50 each) and we got enough yardage of this fabric, plus the requisite notions for her to make one of the dresses. By then, Damian was starting to get a little fussy, so Grandma was carrying him around when he spied some of this fleece fabric:

Like his mother, he really likes orange, so I bought a remnant I found. It should be enough to make him some blanket sleepers. Now we have to find a pattern, one with feet in them. Little feet can get awfully cold at night when the covers get kicked off.

Today, I moved my office stuff out of Sophia's bedroom, down to the basement. So she's got more space in her room and my office is more or less set up again. Still haven't gotten the sewing/quilting stuff organized. I realize that I own TOO MUCH STUFF. I had originally planned on putting in a second kitchen in the basement, so I have accumulated lots of kitchen stuff down here. I owned my own fridge and stove when I bought this place, but ended up with a second set with this house. Extra mixing bowls, small microwave, etc. are all down here in the basement. I didn't buy them especially for this second kitchen. They're just extra stuff I have accumulated. Well, now that the sewing room and office are down here, it's not likely there is ever going to be a kitchen, so I need to offload most of this stuff. I'll keep the fridge because it's always nice to have an extra, especially since the one in the kitchen is a side-by-side and doesn't hold much. In addition to the kitchen stuff, there's a lot of odds and sods that I'm now questioning why I've kept these things around. I plan on having a major yard sale in the spring. But I've got to put it all somewhere in the meantime. Just how high can I stack things in the garage? Because it's got to go out so that I can set up my sewing room. Especially now that there's another sewist in the house.