Sashiko Quilting; Decluttering My Life

Lone Star quilt with Sashiko pattern ideas

Sashiko Quilting

 I made this quilt last winter and it's been sitting mostly finished on my wall downstairs since then. I never felt quite done on it. After about a year of thinking about it, I decided that the quilt needed Sashiko quilting--a type of Japanese quilting that uses geometric shapes.

So I drew this up with three different patterns. I asked my kids which one they liked the best (steps, stars or strips) and they all said stars. My mom also voted for stars, so stars it is.

I stared working on it and I am intending to be finished it this weekend. I think I have bad sewing posture because it is really hurting my thumb... But I must continue. I have entered it into the Regina Quilt show here at the Conexus Arts Centre, so I really do need to have it finished.

Lone Star quilt, Winter 2011 before Sashiko quilting
The colours in this photo do not do justice to the quilt.

Decluttering My Life

 On a non-quilting note, but in an effort to reduce my clutter and increase my sanity, I have started to think a lot about the things that come into my home. My current peeve is the detritus that comes home from every single appointment you go to. And with four kids, I go to a lot of appointments.

I consider myself to be a new category of hippie Catholic (not an oxymoron), and the amount of paper and garbage that comes into our home is astounding. (I can't begin to imagine how much waste I would be getting if I sent my kids to school.)

Yesterday, we took the kids to the dental hygienist to get fluoride painted on their teeth. (Yes, I am a hippie, but science says fluoride keeps teeth looking good.) In addition to being one of the most plodding appointments, she practically gave us a shopping bag full of stuff. Colouring books, stickers, little sheets to put the stickers on every time the kids brush their teeth, a storybook about dental health, large stickers, information sheets about fluoride. I spoke very firmly to her to convince her that we had enough toothbrushes at home (anyone need kid toothbrushes?) so she eventually stopped pushing those. But come on! Enough already!

Every specialist has their own little do-dads that clutter up our lives. And many of these things are "responsibility-making." Stickers to monitor their teeth brushing? What a pain for me! I feel confident that the kids will survive P. and I brushing 80% of the teeth, 80% of the time.

But let's think of the steps required. My children are not at an age where they are really able to take care of sticker sheets like this one yet. So for me, I have to
1. Segregate the stickers from my general revenue of stickers
2. Hang up this piece of paper somewhere not too tacky
3. Brush teeth (okay, I am doing this anyway)
4. Remind child to put on sticker
5. Find new place for stickers and paper so that younger siblings don't go to town on the stickers and use them on something else (heaven forbid!)
6. Deal with fall-out when younger sibs do find the stickers and put them somewhere inappropriate ("He ruined it, Mom!")
7. Spend 7 minutes trying to pick off stickers and re-affix them to the paper (this I have done so many time)
8. Start process again.

I will be the first to admit that one sticker sheet is not the end of the world. But every specialist that you meet must imagine that you are only seeing them. If I only saw the dental hygienist once a year, then this would be okay. But I see dozens of people, all of whom are giving paper and junky toys and clutter to my children.

At the moment she handed these sheets to me, I literally thought about throwing them into the garbage. But that would be much too rude. So instead, I take them home and throw them out there. Is it necessary for us to go through this whole pantomime?

I wish I could just be honest with people like this. No, we don't want your little junky car.* Nor the diamond ring.** Nor the colouring book.*** Nor the fact sheet about why it's good that our kids won't get polio.**** The stickers I will take, but we really have thousands at home. Cancer society does a good job at mailing them to my grandma and her friends who save them all for us.

Can we end all this clutter nonsense--if not just for my sanity then for the environment as well?

*At the optometrist, we got a really cheap-o dinky car that one of the kids was driving on P.'s face and it cut him. A big cut down the side of his temple. Safe, hun?
**Also an optomistrist toy that G sucked on so much that the diamond popped of. Thankfully, she didn't swallow it.
***What type of kid enjoy a colouring book about dental health more than one with Disney Princesses? Any?
****Of course I don't want my kids to get polio. That's why I let you stick them with a needle. I don't need the sheet anymore; you've already explained to me the side effects. Email me if you must so at least I won't have to make more frequent trips to the garbage.