Tidy is good.

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I went to a lovely open house event recently. The house was was perfectly decorated and almost zen-like in its overall lack of clutter. There was art on the walls but very few objects on surfaces. What was on display was more interesting because there was not much competing eye candy.

Then I found this article by Penelope Green from the NY Times about Marie Kondo, a 33-year-old professional ‘tidier’. Her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, sounds like a good read.

To quote from the article:

Ms. Kondo’s decluttering theories are unique, and can be reduced to two basic tenets: Discard everything that does not “spark joy,” after thanking the objects that are getting the heave-ho for their service; and do not buy organizing equipment — your home already has all the storage you need.

I was in the mood to de-clutter anyway but all of this sent me over the edge. For the last many days I have given away, boxed up, and thrown out extraneous objects that no longer make me happy. Elanor and Jack claimed some things, which was nice. The house feels happier—for sure, I feel happier :-).

Steve is slightly mystified by all of this tidying activity because he was around for the years when I enjoyed acquiring stuff. Thankfully, he’s happy with less clutter. And, in the spirit of being tidy, we are not leaving stuff out on the kitchen counters. The kitchen is his space so this is a team effort. Dishes are washed (not left in the sink) and put up rather than being left to dry on a towel on the counter. The kitchen wasn’t a big mess before, but it’s so very nice now!

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In addition to all of the this, I watched the video that was linked to in the NY Times article.

I have vowed to be a better folder. The sock drawers came first:

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The closet shelves were next:

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Everyday, I’m refolding a little bit more, and it feels so very good! We can’t control much in our lives, but being tidy gives me a sense of control, and orderliness, that calms my spirit.

Where could it be?

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I found this image on tumblr. Cool, isn’t it? I would never have thought to turn books backwards on the shelves but the design is so wonderfully graphic… although you would have a really hard time finding the book you want :-).

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This would also be a fun, and easy, idea for a pieced quilt!

Be careful with your brain…

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I recently wrote about why I quit watching football. I can no longer take pleasure in watching a sport where 1/3 of the players will end up with brain damage. I have been surprised since then at just how little I miss watching the games, and at how much more time I have on the weekend. Who knew!

Anyway, I found this TED Talk by Nancy Kanwisher. She uses fMRI scans to find and map activity in brain regions, and she shares what she and her colleagues have learned. It is a short talk and very interesting. As I watched it, I could not help thinking about how lucky most of us are not to hit our heads hard enough to damage our very-precious brains.

Our son, Jeff, is a biostatistician (at Columbia!) who has dealings with fMRIs. I’m his mother, so what those ‘dealings’ are is a mystery to me. So I asked him to try to explain to me what an fMRI really is:

Basically, an fMRI works by taking hundreds of full brain images in rapid succession — a couple of seconds apart for several minutes or longer. As the video says, these images should be slightly different from each other depending on what the subject’s brain is doing. Areas where neurons are firing need more oxygen, and this difference in oxygenation shows up in individual images. In the experiment, the subjects are shown pictures of faces or other objects; by the end of observation, there are many images under each condition and the researchers ask if, on average, on particular location in the brain has a different oxygenation level for faces than for other objects.

And then I asked what he, the biostatistician did with the data. He wrote:

The stats comes in when you try to decide which image locations are different under the two experiment conditions, after the fMRI data has been collected. Changes in blood oxygenation are typically small and there’s a lot of noise in the image, so it takes some effort to pick out areas that “light up”.

Hah! I almost understand a little bit of what my younger son does!

Last but not least, here’s a comic poking fun at TED, just for grins,…

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I think I could come up with one or more NED talks :-). Really, aren’t the possibilities endless? Maybe we should start a trend, youtubing NED talks :-).

How to fold and pack a quilt…

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I posted a new video showing how to fold a quilt. (If you get my newsletter, you may have see the video already.) The key is to always fold quilts on the bias.

When fabric is folded on the straight of grain, the fibers are more prone to be damaged which leads to permanent creases forming in your quilt. TIP: This is why bias binding wears better on the edges of your quilts!

I fold quilts to fit inside my Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders which go inside my suitcase when I travel. I buy them at the Container Store but you can probably find them elsewhere. They come in a variety of sizes so be sure to pick the one that fits your bag.

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I like to use these for quilts and for clothes. They are breathable but water-repellent. They disguise the quilts in my bag which, I hope, make them less likely to be stolen. I put the full Pack-It folders inside huge Ziplock bags which serve 2 purposes: if my bags are rained on the bags keep things dry and the Ziplocks are another theft deterrent.

Eagle Creek has other packing products. My newest fav is this packing cube. It has an extra zipper that compresses what’s been packed inside. Great for clothes—or fabric!

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Another quilt auction!

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I’ll be sending a newsletter too, but just in case you don’t get it, Linda has 7 more quilts up for auction. They range in both style and price so click here to see them all. The auction ends Monday, October 27, at 12:00 noon, Mountain Time. Email Linda (linda.jenkins1943@gmail.com) for more information on any quilt or to place a bid.