Emotional Baggage Gone

Out of chaos, find simplicity
- Einstein





According to Stacy and Clinton (TLC’s What Not to Wear), keeping closets full of out-of-date clothes that do not fit, items you will never use, clutter that over whelms and a disorganized working space is to have heavy, entrapping emotional baggage surrounding you. To overcome the weighty pressure of having too much work waiting for your attention, the feelings of guilt about unfinished projects get rid of the baggage and clear out everything you do not need.

Is this the mantra of an organized life? Not mine. One could barely walk through my studio without stepping, tripping over or knocking into some stack of some ‘precious’ fabric that I will never use. As of January 21, the clutter is gone.

The floor of my nearly-clean studio is visible for the first time in months. Wonder why my scrappy jacket is not finished? I could not find most of it. Wonder why I can never find what I need? Go figure. The quilt guild’s annual Silent Auction was this evening and I sorted bags of color-sorted and color-chip coded fabrics to take. About a ton of emotional baggage walked out the door and off to the auction.

Yes, there were a few ‘undecided,’ One in particular I had spotted in a thrift shop sale and grabbed in a second. A printed cotton in green and gold, a damask pattern evoking Fortuny’s prints of the early twentieth-century. Fortuny, a Venetian fabric and couture designer, was famous for reviving Renaissance textiles and pleating silks for luxurious fabrics. Part of me still has pangs of guilt from cutting up real Fortuny drapery fabric to make Renaissance costumes during my younger days in amateur theater work. But that's another story.

This particular green print is slated to become either a jacket lining, or a quilted, evening jacket with gold metallic trim. How’s that for ambition? Will I get the jacket made this year; or should I add the fabric to the auction pile?
Just could not part with it - maybe next year.