Getting back to normal

Here it is Friday and  progress has been made. The tree is down and everything is put away and my Christmas dishes are back in the cabinet and the hand painted china is back on the hutch with no mishaps. For the first time that I can remember Jack helped take the ornaments off the tree. All the Christmas quilts are back in the closet and everything is back to "normal". This all happened on Tuesday and I have been busy since with decluttering.

This is the first time I have gotten things together to actually leave the premises.  Usually when I attempt to declutter I end up reorganizing instead; that never frees up any space. There is still a lot more to do and I find it to be very tiring so it is going slow but I am making progress. I keep repeating that to myself.

This is one of the things I am having a hard time letting go of. It probably has enough for a king size  quilt or 2 twin size. I dated it Feb 2010 and that is the last time it was down off the shelf. Those are 4 1/2 inch squares, 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 rectangles and 6 1/2 by 2 1/2 rectangles. They are scraps I cut over time for 12 inch scrappy quilt blocks from a Donna Poster pattern. I really like scrap quilts and I particularly like this pattern as there are no matching seams within the block. The fact that it an easy pattern and the pieces are all cut, makes it hard to let it go. The box is 13 x 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches deep; that doesn't take up much space and there are some other boxes the same size so  they will stack nicely. I guess I want to keep it but deep down I know it will sit on the shelf till next year. We'll see how it goes.

Today was a beautiful, sunny, 53 degree day, remarkable for January in NE Ohio; I would be happy to have this weather for  the rest of the winter. Jack got out on his motorcycle so he is happy. I would also be happy to look at this every day at sundown. This was on Tuesday and the second photo was 10 or 15  minutes later. It sure is better than gray. I took this without the flash through my window. As usual the photo doesn't come close to the real  thing.

Tomorrow is the Jellyroll Race with the "sewing in the basement" group.  It has been a long time  since we last met and I  am looking forward to it. My sewing machine and supplies are all packed and ready to go. I  better go and pack my camera so I will have some pics to show tomorrow.