Quilting:
Starting a New Quilt On The Road
Piecing, Hand Quilting and Less than Perfect
Crochet:
Life in our little cottage in the country
at by Claudia
I’ve lived in a lot of different dwellings; from tiny, and I mean tiny, studio apartments to a basement to an attic bedroom to a dorm room to larger apartments to a two bedroom home for Don and me. Never three bedroom, not that I wouldn’t love that, but it’s just never been in the cards. When bloggers write about small space living, I wonder how many of them have lived in a truly tiny studio apartment where there was room to turn around and that’s about it? I have. Two of them. When I graduated to a separate bedroom in a still-small apartment, I was thrilled.
I’ve shared spaces with roommates, I’ve lived in a tiny bungalow with 5 other women, all of them Drama majors, I’ve lived in another tiny bungalow with 5 other people – my parents and siblings. I’ve lived by myself, I’ve lived with a husband and dogs. In every space, though my tastes have changed through the years, I’ve done by best to put a personal stamp on it. For most of my life, I lived in rental apartments/houses, where I was limited as to what I could do. I quickly learned that you have to make do with what you have and turn a nondescript space with features that you don’t like into a livable oasis.
When I was renting, I often did things like change out the knobs on kitchen cabinets, mask ugly walls with hanging art, cover the ugly stained carpeting with a throw rug, mask an unattractive view with sheer curtains, repaint a wall if the landlord allowed that sort of thing, hang a quilt or two, cover a wall with bookcases full of well-loved volumes…you name it. When Don and I were renting in San Diego and out here in the East, I asked the landlord if I could add a garden. Though I knew I would have to leave it behind eventually, I also knew the pleasure and beauty it would afford me was worth it. And, when I did move on, I had left the rental better than I had found it.
If you’re interested in what I did with my temporary theater housing in San Diego, you can read about it here and here. And that apartment had one of the ugliest chairs imaginable! It gives me a headache just looking at it.
So what I do when I’m on the road isn’t foreign to me. I think about what I can ship or throw in the car that might make my temporary space more personal. I shop my cottage. I did it in San Diego, during stints that covered 10 weeks to 6 months. I did it in Wisconsin for a 10 week stay. I consider what I might need: what can be packed in a box if I have to ship my things, or what can be packed in a car. What can I take that will personalize a nondescript space and make a long period of time away from my home bearable?
This time:
Quilts, both on the bed and on the wall
A vase for flowers
Scraps of barkcloth to cover ugly table and dresser tops
Mabel – she brightens up any space
A lamp
My sewing accessories in their aqua containers
A runner for the ugly golden oak table in the dining area.
Fabric. Whether stacked on the shelf or put to use in a project, all the colors and patterns liven up this space.
Books. And more books. Nothing warms up a space like books.
Fresh flowers.
A framed photo or two.
My little friends: Wayfrum, Little Lamb & Maggie Rabbit. They live on my bed and warm up the bedroom.
All of these things can be easily transported. Nothing takes up too much room when packing. But every one of them adds to my temporary living space.
This apartment, as is the case with most theater housing, is full of donated or cast-off items. Sometimes props from past productions make their way into the apartment. The sofa is worn and is covered with a slipcover that doesn’t fit right. The oak table and seventies-era chairs are just plain ugly. (I’ve never shown you a close-up of the fabric that covers those seats. Horrendous.) The television stand and coffee table are finished in a dark stain that I personally detest. The dresser in the bedroom is also done in a dark stain, as are the bedside tables. None of it is my taste.
So what do I do? The same thing I did when I was living in a dorm room or a tiny studio apartment or a hotel room. The same thing I had to do when I moved from my larger apartment in Philadelphia to the tiniest studio apartment imaginable in Boston. Sort. Shift. Figure out what I can do to make a silk purse out a sow’s ear. Make do. Do what I can to make an unwelcoming space a haven that I can retire to at the end of a long day. Do whatever I can to make the time away from my family somewhat bearable. And for me, a highly visual person, it’s all about creating a home – whether on the road, in a rental or in my own little cottage – and that includes finding places for my eyes to land that give me visual pleasure.
I used to decorate my Barbie case with wallpaper and hanging lamps made out of Dixie Cups and a pipe cleaner. What can I say? I have to have things I love around me. I have to be able to have my eyes light on something colorful and loved, rather than on the dark ugly television stand. My eyes immediately move to the hanging quilt. It’s a welcome distraction. When I walk into the bedroom I don’t see the ugly dresser, I see my colorful handmade bed quilt. When I look at the oak table, I see my runner and lamp and some fabric and Mabel.
I’ve had to do this a lot in my life. Once I moved on to graduate school, I often moved from year to year, always trying to find a better and more affordable space. When I think back on some of those spaces, I am amazed that I found a way to make them work. But I did. My first apartment in Boston was the tiniest. I can’t even begin to describe how tiny it was. Some students helped me move in by unloading all my boxes and futon. When it had all been unloaded, there was no room to move. Literally. I remember one of them asking me if I needed him to stay and help because surely I wasn’t going to be able to fit everything in? He looked as if he was abandoning me on some small desert island.
I made it work.
From someone who has a lot of experience with this sort of thing: you can, too.
Happy Thursday.
at by Claudia
Hello from Hartford. Same apartment, though some things I left behind (nothing big) are missing. This used to happen to me at the Old Globe apartments in San Diego; things seem to migrate elsewhere. I’ve fluffed the apartment as best I can. Here’s what it looked like pre-Claudia.
These apartments are in an old office building and they have incredibly high ceilings, which help to make a smallish apartment seem more spacious.
After:
I brought a quilt from home. I made this pansy quilt several years ago and it remains my favorite. I decided that if I had to be away from home for 2 months, I was going to secure that darned quilt to the wall with pushpins. Purple pushpins, I might add.
I also added that piece of barkcloth. It covers an incredibly ugly table.
I’m fortunate to have a television with a larger screen. Some of the TVs in these apartments are really tiny.
I’ll try to get a crisper photo of the quilt another time. It’s a wee bit dark in this apartment at the moment.
The desk – where I tap away at the computer and create compelling blog posts. I moved that covered canvas off the wall and decided to use it as a bulletin board.
My director is a really nice guy. He left me this note with a bottle of wine. I’m crazy about him.
We stopped at Trader Joe’s along the way, of course. Had to stock up on food…and flowers.
Hello, pretty purple flowers!
My own little sewing studio. There’s Mabel. She’s wearing her little cover-up at the moment.
I brought my pink vase from home and filled it with pretty flowers from Trader Joe’s. That’s the wine that Darko left for me. I don’t really drink, so it will probably be in its intact state at the end of my two months here. Unless I have a particularly difficult time. Ahem.
Bags of reference books ready to be transported to the rehearsal space. Quilt tops ready to be hand quilted. I haven’t a clue what kind of project I want to do, so I grabbed a lot of fat quarters and brought them with me. Hopefully, I will be inspired.
I snatched this quilt off of our bed at home. Don will be fine without it. But I wouldn’t be. There, ensconced among my pillows (also brought from home) are Wayfrum Holmes, Maggie Rabbit and Little Lamb.
They like adventure.
So, there you have it, my friends. My little home-away-from-home.
By the way, some of you complimented me on my new watermark. See it up there? A red circle with dots, along with the name of my blog and my trademark lamb-with-the-party-hat?
My good friend Dawn Cain of Creative Cain Cabin designed it for me. I have a full on crush on this watermark. Dawn lives in Michigan (my home state.) She’s preparing to move to WordPress and I’ve been helping her in my own small way as she navigates this transition. Oh, you’re going to love her new blog design!
I’ve never regretted for one minute moving to WordPress, by the way. I love everything about it. I did the whole thing myself and the transition was relatively seamless. It’s been nothing but a positive experience for me.
Anyway, Dawn made two versions of this watermark, one with black lettering and one with white. Once she moves her blog, she will be available to design one just for you. I’ll keep you posted as to when she’s up and running.
Rehearsals start today. I had dinner with my friend Mary, who is the stage manager, last night. Here’s to old friends and the new friends I will make during this process.
Oh by the way, one of the perils of staying in temporary housing? Not realizing the alarm clock has been set and being jarred awake by a continuous ringing at 12 am and 1 am.
Happy Tuesday.
Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.
Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’
Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!