and sometimes I space out

I skipped blogging yesterday because I was too busy moving furniture. Yeah, I'm still doing that. If you're surprised then you obviously have no idea how much of a jigsaw puzzle-like endeavor this whole redecorating/rearranging thing is.

Of course I blew it, big time. I forgot to take "before" pictures of the whole thing. I know I thought of it, and then I started moving things around and before I knew it (8 hours later), everything was rearranged. I think that in reality I was embarassed to show pictures of the bags and piles of junk that had been sitting in the corner of the living room before I went at it.

So, you'll have to use your imagination. I'm not sure how much impact this is all going to have to anyone who didn't see the situation/condition of the room "before", but here goes.... I spent hours (hours, I tells ya) moving this bookshelf....

....shown in its new home in my bedroom, sans piles of double-layered books, out of the living room. The quilt-savvy may notice the pink and green quilt on the left. It's in a pattern often called "rose dream" but in a larger-than-usual scale. It's an antique PA quilt that's reversible, with vertical stripes of three fabrics on the back. Turn of the century, most likely. (It's covering up a bunch of boxes next to the bookshelf, but we'll make believe its just decorative.)

I moved this bookshelf and the two tons of books on it out of the living room to improve the space/livability/feng shui in there. The living room is a good size (for NYC), with 3 windows at the west end, yet we spent all of our time wedged onto the couch at the other end of the room. Now that the whole thing has been cleared out, I've tried to integrate the space at the west end into the rest of the room, and thereby essentially increase the living space by about 30%.

This is the 'after' picture, although I'm still not done.

You can see the bookshelf from the last post (the top shelf is book-laden, which was inevitable), my wheel, a comfy chair, the three windows, and a rug that I moved in from the sewing room (which is directly to the right, if you can picture that). Unfortunately (I can see clearly in the digital image, more so than in real life) the window fan and the air conditioner aren't exactly pretty. However, they make living here bearable, so I put up with them for the two months or so of the year that they're needed.

I'm happy with the new spinning corner. My (previously) normal spot was to the left of the orange chair, on the couch. The new spot may or may not work out for all the time. It's far enough away from the TV that I'm going to have trouble seeing [obvious solution: get a bigger TV] but will be nice in the afternoon when we get westerly sunlight through the windows. Especially in the winter.

The triangle quilt on the right is circa 1876. It's a charm quilt (single shape with multiple fabrics, ideally not repeated) with very few repeats of fabrics in the triangles. I once counted and there are over 400 triangles in the quilt. The date attribution is due to the presence of centennial commemorative fabrics, as well as the other fabrics used in the quilt.

Centennial fabrics are

taupe on brown "Liberty Bell" with 1776 printed on it.

Blue on white "shirting" fabric with 1776/1876 printed on it.

And the overall view:

You can see most of the quilt here, with the "liberty bell" fabric near the center-right of the photo.

And to end on a quilting note, I've listed a bunch of quilt books for sale in a photo album on the sidebar. You can see them HERE. I mentioned all the book moving, and that I no longer felt the need to keep how-to reference books on hand, so I'm divesting (a bit). Please take a look.

Comments

[Rachel H]

I don't need to see the before pictures to know that your spinning corner looks charming. A lovely spot to get yourself lost in for a while.

[Cheryl]

I have a livingroom corner with ome bags and piles of junk in it. I think it's one of the curses of apartment living: we don't have attics or basements to shove it in. I need to get some more bookcases/shelves if I'm going to deal with it.

[vanessa]

very cosy!

[Julie]

I wonder about the books you are not selling. I've gotten rid of quite alot of my quilt books and none are duplicates of what you are selling. I still have about 50 left, most I can't part with. The charm quilt is beautiful, and looks in good shape, and it's nice to see you are displaying your old quilts.

[margene]

How nice to have a new spinning corner. Enjoy it!!

[Beth S.]

Holy cow, that's a GORGEOUS quilt! It's right out of a coffee-table book. And full of centennial fabrics! (Bicentennial stuff is a dime a dozen, but centennial? That's wonderful!)

[Dorothy B]

Your spinning corner looks so calm.

I love the quilts. If I didn't hate sewing so much, those would definitly inspire me.

[moiraeknits]

Oh! It's lovely. Those quilts are fabulous as well. Someday I'll be able to teach myself how to quilt. Someday....

[Jena (the yarnharpy)]

I can just see it now... deciding that the ugly air conditioner and fan are messing with her feng shui, Our Fearless Heroine begins to design and make knitted (or quilted) cozies that don't restrict airflow while at the same time bringing the correct color elements into that corner. ;) :)

Congrats on all the cleaning. I know I couldn't stick to it for that long! :)

[Julia]

The room looks wonderful, and your spinning corner is very inviting!

[freshisle]

It's quite reassuring to see others with books taking over living spaces. Every time I try to organize our books, I end up sitting on the floor reading instead of organizing and culling. Good job! and everything looks lovely.

[Silvia]

OMG, that quilt is gorgeous! Nice work on that.

[Carolyn]

I love the Charm quilt. Someday, I will make one of those myself. Someday. . .

[Kim]

Your spinning corner looks very inviting :-)